Satan’s Brew

Satan’s Brew

1976 · 113 min · DE · 6.3 (24 votes)
Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder · Starring Kurt Raab, Margit Carstensen, Helen Vita, Volker Spengler, Ingrid Caven, Y Sa Lo · Music Peer Raben
ComedyDrama

This fast-paced black comedy by wunderkind director Rainer Werner Fassbinder follows the frantic efforts of a starving and confused writer, Walter Kranz to beg, borrow or steal enough money to survive on, and at the same time make some sense of his confusing life. Unable to write enough to keep his publisher's royalty advances coming, he seeks out a woman he imagines is a prostitute and interviews her for material. He is also inspired to utter some poetry, which his brassy, outspoken wife identifies as coming from the famous homosexuality-advocating mystical German poet, Stefan George. This inspires Walter to take a closer look at the gay scene, and he quickly becomes a sort of celebrity there.

VIBE

A dizzying, darkly funny plunge into artistic desperation and existential confusion. Fassbinder's frenetic style captures a chaotic search for meaning amidst societal absurdity and personal turmoil. It's a wild, often uncomfortable, but undeniably vibrant ride.

absurdistchaoticcynicalnihilisticfreneticnew german cinemadark comedyarthousecharacter studyartistic struggleidentityexistentialismnihilism
▶ Stream on Criterion Channel
dark comedy
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