Satansbraten

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1976 dark comedy that for all intents & purposes is not for everyone. A sardonic writer is strapped for cash & looks for any way to refill his coffers. He lives w/his dying, neglected wife & his brother, who is virtually non-communicative, loves to play w/dead flies & occasionally pinch the breasts of any strange woman who visits their apartment. Our anti-hero may not share his bed w/his hausfrau but he does invite a hooker over to the house for love-play (his wife has to foot the bill) & he tortures a number of sycophants (female of course) who fall sway to his supposed powers of verse while bilking them of any funds they have on hand. Not to mention the fact he killed a woman in the first reel & an annoying police detective keeps coming around sniffing for clues. More of an attack on creative pursuits (in this case the artistic scribe) than an out & out laugh-fest, this is an excoriation of all things literary (at one point our blocked writer declares he has broken through & begun writing again only to be found out he's merely a plagiarist) w/all the attendant lunacy & fake hosannas mere mortals thrust onto writers when in reality there may be no there, there. Not a particularly likeable fable to be sure, this film still should be screened for those Fassbinder's completists (for a man who made so much in so little time before his untimely demise) hoping to gain some insight into the man's work & his outlook on the vaulted elite.

This is Fassbinder going for slapstick comedy, sort of. Everybody seems to have taken too much coffee or something in this movie. As I had seen some of his heavier stuff, this came as a very welcome surprise, with a quicker pace and some belly laughs. One of his best!

If this film were made in English, I have no doubt it would be a cult classic. Fassbinder ups the comedic ante more-so than I've ever seen him do before. Granted it's still black humour, but its his own blend of slapstick and dark comedy. Picture a. theater of the absurd, almost put forth as a farce, but with Fassbinder's usual biting sarcasm and cynicism, and ultimately leading to an eruption of statements about the psychological limitations of admiration and desire. A familiar theme in Fassbinder's work. In fact, the whole movie plays like a joy ride through professional and relative oblivion, only the characters and the actors seem to be enjoying themselves throughout countless identity crisis, dead flies posing as relatives, simulated sexual murder and what-not. Heh.

I had seen quite a few Fassbinders when I came across this one and was blown out the door. It is not only one of his funniest film, but a kind of humor that is really unique. Of course, being Fassbinder, it is dark, but there's also a sense of the darkness becoming comical in its haphazard unfolding. Smaller characters emerge and add depth. This isn't the usual RWF setup where one or two characters disintegrate under a microscope. This work's phenomenal density is all the more astonishing given Fassbinder's tremendous output (and ironic given the plot is about a blocked/dysfunctional writer). Don't miss this.

I definitely understand, that this film is not for everyone, but I also have to say it is one of my all time favorites and there are not many movies i have seen that often. In fact every time somebody new steps into my live, I have to watch this movie with him, and i saw every possible reaction meanwhile.

But still, this is my favorite Fassbinder movie and this for several reasons. The most important of these is, that the movie has a rhythmical quality from the beginning to the end. Also there are literally hundreds of remarkable quotes inside. It is black humorous, funny and the overacting is terrific. It is amazing how Fassbinder manages to change the mood radically from scene to scene, how he is playing with emotion, speed and dynamic.

Of course people who are interested in Fassbinders historic post war movies and expect something like that will be disappointed, but if anybody is interested in the absurd elements, that appear in most of Fassbinders movies, Satansbraten gives you the possibility to enjoy them to the fullest. So get some friends, watch this movie and have a good time seeing lots of grown up people jumping around and repeating words for at least three times. Geld Geld Geld.