Le rôti de Satan

...a bonafide screwball comedy. I love this movie mainly because it is nothing like Ali:Fear Eats Soul, Fear of Fear, or Martha. Those movies are excellent but most directors stick with what they know they are good at. This movie is like getting hit in the back of the head with scrambled eggs.

The plot is about a deadbeat yet famous poet played by Kurt Raab who is plagued by writer's block. He gets into trouble fuelled by his idleness. During a brief moment of creativity, he discovers he inadvertently copied word for word Stefan George. That makes him believe he is morphing into George but there is a problem when it comes to sexual preferences. The scene where he learns he is not George is hilarious. So are the scenes with Margit Christansen who is totally unrecognizable from the other roles she played in Fassbinder's movies. She plays a groupie to the poet who gets mercilessly abused psychologically by him and physically by his idiot younger brother played by Volker Spengler.

The humor can get extremely crass and its not for everyone but I enjoy it.

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.

In the case you've seen a lot of Fassbinder's films, this is worth a shot. You will definitely not be bored, so there's that. The film can be abrasive and there really aren't any likable characters. If you don't like that kind of stuff then avoid this. I can't blame you. I hated the first hour, then I reluctantly started respecting it, realizing that it was a satire and black comedy not a straight drama, pi**ing on the myth of the artistic genius and the wide berth we grant them (or did before the Me Too movement).

This protagonist actually reminded me a lot Pablo Picasso, a notorious wife-beater and all around jerk. Of course no would pay to see their sacred cows brought down a peg, so we have stand-ins like this guy. But the critique still works.

It's a biographical film, but not of the typical hacky kind that every director seems to make. Fassbinder had undoubtedly seen a lot of sycophants and brainless hangers-on in his life, self-aware enough to sense how full of **** people were when they were in the presence of a celebrity, knowing that he really could only trust a few people, compelled to "develop" and chronically produce or become irrelevant. Fassbinder would know. He died after making forty films in a decade, his heart exploding from too much coke.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was one of the leaders of New German Cinema in the '70s. His movies often dealt with post-war Germany and how it sought to atone for its sins. Otherwise, he simply depicted shocking things. An example is 1976's "Satansbraten" ("Satan's Brew" in English).

This movie focuses on a writer who hasn't written anything in a while, his acquaintances, and some zany occurrences. If you think of German cinema as no-nonsense and grim, Fassbinder's comedy will show you that this is not always the case. Mind you, it's not silly comedy. More like shocking stuff with a humorous element. It certainly manages to keep the audience engaged.

Basically, Fassbinder gave us some of the best that German cinema has ever had to offer. This mix of anarchic comedy and serious drama is an experience like no other. Definitely see it.

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.