“To Become a Devil”: Special Effects, Magic Tricks, and the Technological Image in Faust

This essay argues that F.W. Murnau’s Faust (1926) advances a philosophy of film as a medium for “technological images”—images that are technologically constructed special effects such as double exposure and substitution splice. By portraying Mephistopheles as a conjurer, the film explores cinema’s place in the history of visual and technological magic.