Satan's Brew
Chazen Museum of Art 750 University Ave., Madison, Wisconsin 53706
press release: West Germany | 1976 | 35mm | 112 min. | German with English subtitles
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Kurt Raab, Margit Carstensen, Brigitte Mira
Out of money and out of ideas, an anarchist poet (Raab) juggles several mistresses while trying to raise money from a wealthy eccentric who will pay to be threatened by a gun. He also must contend with his wife and a mentally disabled, insect-obsessed brother. An often bordering-on-obscene dark comedy, Satan’s Brew contains “something to offend pretty much everyone...Ironically, it’s also one of the few [Fassbinder] films to have a happy ending” (Ben Sachs, Cine-File Chicago).
Our Sunday afternoon series at the Chazen Museum of Art this fall will provide an opportunity to view 15 features by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a founder of New German Cinema and one of the most controversial filmmakers of his generation. Fassbinder’s prolific oeuvre includes examples of virtually every genre, and while he drew inspiration from the melodramas of Douglas Sirk and the French Nouvelle Vague, Fassbinder’s own movies have influenced a whole generation of filmmakers including Todd Haynes, Quentin Tarantino and Todd Solondz. All screened on 35mm prints, the selections in this series conclude with Fassbinder’s trilogy of post-War German life (The Marriage of Maria Braun, Lola and Veronika Voss). The series will provide ample evidence of Fassbinder’s genius, reminding us of the miracle of his short career as well as the tragedy of his early demise, in 1982, at the age of 37.
All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.