Fassbinder’s only comedy. Satan’s Brew (1976, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) could perhaps very loosely be thought of as a roman à clef that derives its humor from poking fun at Fassbinder’s creative persona. Although in the spirit of laughs it plays against type. Which of course could be said for the genre itself; Fassbinder doesn’t make comedies.
One thing I’ve never mentioned here (because others have already mentioned it so often) is that a big thematic aspect to Fassbinder’s films throughout is the idea of there being two kinds of people: strong and weak. WALTER KRANZ (Raab) makes it a point to outline his artistic ethos and right off explains that he fundamentally sees being one of the strong as justification to exploit ANDRÉE (Carstensen). He also has fans who are devout followers of his artistic style embodying how he puts it “Death is the finest thing in life.” This bit about the death trajectory has got to be an exaggerated riff on how some view Fassbinder’s work.
There’s also this wealthy woman VON WITZLEBEN who’s Walter’s patron/mistress whom he goes over to have sex with but opens a drawer full of dildoes in her bedroom and finds a gun in then shoots her. Why? There’s no explanation. My guess is that Fassbinder is making fun of gratuitous inciting incidents. Because her murder at least sets up a police investigation. At the very end we find out the gun he shot her with had blanks in it so she’s not really dead. After all the heavy bleak Fassbinder I’ve watched thus far this whole silly light playful way of ending the movie is the kind of break I needed.
But Walter’s wife LOISE dies. And he mourns her. And his fanboys turn against him because he always preached that death and decay are the goal of life. This not long after Walter stalks his daily prostitute to demand money only to later have the shit beat out of him by her pimp, which caused Andrée to similarly disavow her loyalty to him. Because he really is weak. Faking the whole time. All this points to don’t take the man behind the artist too seriously. At this point I feel like I may have been headed toward being guilty of this myself.
Another reach but I think all the stuff about Stefan George is loosely an allusion to Fassbinder channeling Douglas Sirk. Then there’s the rest of the aspects of Walter that are very much the opposite of Fassbinder.
Like his publisher’s desperate to see something from Walter, frustrated cutting him off because they’ve already floated him so many advances already. Fassbinder made four movies a year. So definitely not like anything about him in real life. Then there’s the gay plotline. When that random casting agent tells Walter (in his Stefan George phase) he’s obviously gay even though he never knew it and he goes cruising a public toilet the punchline we’ll find so hilariously let's just say is against type once again.
For all the women Walter is constantly every chance he gets everyday having sex with (everyone except his wife who is angry because it’s been sixteen days since they last did) they all openly admit to him not being that great. This voracious appetite however I do think has something to do with Fassbinder’s public persona. Oh and that line Walter says: “In every act of coitus is there not an element of rape?” surely plays into the little tyrant rep thrown at Fassbinder.
Even though Satan’s Brew is a comedy unfortunately I don’t feel like I’d wanna rewatch it anytime soon. It can be tedious. There’s pratfalls and a lot of bizarre weirdos. The unhinged performances and that Fassbinder was able to get this out of his system were pretty enjoyable though.
There’s also this wealthy woman VON WITZLEBEN who’s Walter’s patron/mistress whom he goes over to have sex with but opens a drawer full of dildoes in her bedroom and finds a gun in then shoots her. Why? There’s no explanation. My guess is that Fassbinder is making fun of gratuitous inciting incidents. Because her murder at least sets up a police investigation. At the very end we find out the gun he shot her with had blanks in it so she’s not really dead. After all the heavy bleak Fassbinder I’ve watched thus far this whole silly light playful way of ending the movie is the kind of break I needed.
But Walter’s wife LOISE dies. And he mourns her. And his fanboys turn against him because he always preached that death and decay are the goal of life. This not long after Walter stalks his daily prostitute to demand money only to later have the shit beat out of him by her pimp, which caused Andrée to similarly disavow her loyalty to him. Because he really is weak. Faking the whole time. All this points to don’t take the man behind the artist too seriously. At this point I feel like I may have been headed toward being guilty of this myself.
Another reach but I think all the stuff about Stefan George is loosely an allusion to Fassbinder channeling Douglas Sirk. Then there’s the rest of the aspects of Walter that are very much the opposite of Fassbinder.
Like his publisher’s desperate to see something from Walter, frustrated cutting him off because they’ve already floated him so many advances already. Fassbinder made four movies a year. So definitely not like anything about him in real life. Then there’s the gay plotline. When that random casting agent tells Walter (in his Stefan George phase) he’s obviously gay even though he never knew it and he goes cruising a public toilet the punchline we’ll find so hilariously let's just say is against type once again.
For all the women Walter is constantly every chance he gets everyday having sex with (everyone except his wife who is angry because it’s been sixteen days since they last did) they all openly admit to him not being that great. This voracious appetite however I do think has something to do with Fassbinder’s public persona. Oh and that line Walter says: “In every act of coitus is there not an element of rape?” surely plays into the little tyrant rep thrown at Fassbinder.
Even though Satan’s Brew is a comedy unfortunately I don’t feel like I’d wanna rewatch it anytime soon. It can be tedious. There’s pratfalls and a lot of bizarre weirdos. The unhinged performances and that Fassbinder was able to get this out of his system were pretty enjoyable though.
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