Written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Satansbraten (Satan’s Brew) is the story of a revolutionary poet whose life is in a freefall due to debt and lack of inspiration as he borrows money from a nymphomaniac prostitute to find new ideas through the gay underground in West Germany. The film is a study of a man who is trying to re-start his career as a poet as he would explore new cultures as well as base his life on the German poet Stefan George. Starring Kurt Raab, Margit Carstensen, Helen Vita, Volker Spengler, Ingrid Caven, Ulli Lommel, Brigitte Mira, and Marquad Bohm. Satansbraten is an offbeat and whimsical film from Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
The film follows a poet who was once a revered revolutionary as his life is falling apart due to financial ruin and a disintegrating marriage while his relationship with his mistresses and prostitutes haven’t fulfilled him until a source of inspiration has him channel the works of the German poet Stefan George. It is a film that explores a man trying to re-start his career and life as a writer/poet as his life is in a whirlwind as he also wants to create anarchy where a moment of inspiration has him writing a poem yet in the style of Stefan George. Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s screenplay doesn’t have a lot of plot as it’s more of a study of the actions of its protagonist Walter Kranz (Kurt Raab) who lives in an apartment with his wife Luise (Helen Vita) and his mentally-challenged brother Ernst (Volker Spengler) as the latter likes to play with flies and expose his genitals to guests. Kranz has a few mistresses and dalliances with prostitutes in an attempt to find fulfillment yet he is eager to go into the world of crime as an act of defiance due to his writer’s block. His refusal to play into the conventions of society does give him ideas unaware that he’s borrowing heavily from Stefan George whom he would study and be inspired by his own actions.
Fassbinder’s direction does have elements of style in some of the tracking dolly shots he creates for some parts of the film as it is shot largely on location in Munich. The usage of wide and medium shots have Fassbinder capture the world of the bourgeoisie that Kranz wants to be a part of yet is considered too much of a radical to be accepted as he is also a narcissist. Fassbinder also maintains an intimacy of having much of his action take place in rooms with a lot of close-ups and medium shots to play into the drama and humor. Notably when one of Kranz’s devotees in Andree (Margit Carstensen) who is a virginal mistress from the country as she is mistreated by people in Kranz’s circle. Due to the lack of a strong plot and Kranz’s anarchist actions, the film does meander in its pacing at times as it also includes a murder mystery involving Kranz and a prostitute where the gun is missing. Fassbinder also play into some of the fallacies of Kranz’s persona as well as revelations about George as it relates to his exploration of the gay underworld in an attempt to gain more followers in the film’s third act with Andree becoming troubled by Kranz’s fanatical ideas and some revelations about him. Overall, Fassbinder crafts a messy yet wild film about a revolutionary poet trying to restart his career through the works of Stefan George.
Cinematographers Jurgen Jurges and Michael Ballhaus do excellent work with the film’s cinematography as it is largely straightforward to capture the natural look of the interior locations along with the stylish usage of candles for a couple of Kranz’s reading sessions dressed as George. Editor Thea Eymesz does terrific work with the editing as there isn’t a lot of style other than a few rhythmic cuts to play into the humor. Art directors Kurt Raab and Ulrike Bode do amazing work with the look of Kranz’s apartment home and the places he go to with Bode creating some lavish costumes for some of the clothes the women wear as well as a costume that Kranz wears as George. The sound work of Rolf-Peter Notz and Paul Scholer is superb for the way music is presented on location as well as the emphasis on natural sounds for the scenes set in a room or in a certain place. The film’s music by Peer Raben is wonderful for its orchestral score as it has some upbeat themes as well as some somber pieces to play into some of the drama.
The film’s brilliant cast feature some notable small roles from Armin Meier as a gay hustler, Brigitte Mira as an old lady Kranz turns to for money, Ulli Lommel as the private detective Lauf, Katherina Buchhamer as a nymphomaniac lover of Kranz, Y Sa Lo as an Asian lover of Kranz, Marquad Bohm as a friend/husband of one of Kranz’s mistresses who takes a liking towards Andree, Ingrid Caven as a posh lover of Kranz who would also take a liking towards Andree, and Volker Spengler as Kranz’s mentally-challenged brother Ernst who likes to expose himself and play with dead flies. Helen Vita is excellent as Kranz’ wife Luise as a woman who feels unloved and always tending to him as she feels neglected and mistreated to the point that she becomes ill where only Ernst and later Andree takes notice.
Margit Carstensen is amazing as Andree as a woman from the country who is a devotee to Kranz as she does whatever she can to help him despite putting herself in awful situations to the point of abuse as she later have revelations about the man she is devoted to. Finally, there’s Kurt Raab in an incredible performance as Walter Kranz as a revolutionary writer seeking to restart his writing career after some setbacks where Raab brings a lot of energy despite the fact that his character is a fucking asshole who only cares about himself with little regard for those who care about him.
Satansbraten is a stellar though flawed film from Rainer Werner Fassbinder that does feature amazing performances from Kurt Raab and Margit Carstensen. Along with its ensemble cast and offbeat tone, it’s a film that explores a man trying to mirror the ideals of a great German poet unaware of his personal life. While it is messy due to its lack of a strong plot, it is still a fascinating character study that explore a man and his narcissism as he is eager to become great again despite his many faults. In the end, Satansbraten is a superb film from Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder Films: Love is Colder Than Death - (Katzelmacher) - (Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?) - (Rio das Mortes) - (The American Soldier) - (Whity) - (Beware of a Holy Whore) - The Merchant of Four Seasons - The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant - Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day - (Jailbait) - World on a Wire - Ali: Fear Eats the Soul - (Martha (1974 film)) - (Effi Briest) - (Fox and His Friends) - (Mother Kuster’s Trip to Heaven) – (I Only Want You to Love Me) - (Chinese Roulette) - (Germany in Autumn) - (Despair) - (In a Year of 13 Moons) - The Marriage of Maria Braun - (Third Generation) - Berlin Alexanderplatz - (Lili Marleen) - Lola (1981 film) - Veronika Voss – Querelle
© thevoid99 2020
Written and directed by Wim Wenders, Im Lauf der Zeit (Kings of the Road) is the story of a film projector repairman who saves the life of a psychologist from an accident as the two travel through Germany from one rural movie theater to another. The film is the third and final film of a thematic trilogy set on the road as it play into two men bonding in the course of their journey while finding solace in cinema. Starring Rudiger Volger, Hanns Zischler, Lisa Kreuzer, Rudolf Schundler, Marquad Bohm, Dieter Traier, and Franziska Stommer. Im Lauf der Zeit is a ravishing and exhilarating film from Wim Wenders.
Traveling through small villages and towns in West Germany, a film projector repairman meets a depressed psychologist who crashed his car into a river as they both travel and deal with their lives. It’s a film that does take a simple premise of two men traveling as they stop at cinemas to repair movie projectors as well as ponder about the world around them. Wim Wenders’ screenplay largely focuses on the journey of these two men where the film projector repairman Bruno Winter (Rudiger Volger) is traveling village to village to fix projectors at small cinemas in these villages where he watches psychologist Robert Lander (Hanns Zischler) crash his car into a river in a half-hearted suicide attempt as he’s reeling from his break-up with his wife. Lander joins Winter on the trip through West Germany from village to village as they go to cinemas to fix film projectors as the cinemas are a place of importance for these small towns still dealing with the guilt of war. Along the way, the two would meet individuals while also going on a separate path where Lander visits his father (Rudolf Schundler) while Winter meets a cinema cashier in Pauline (Lisa Kreuzer).
Wenders’ direction is definitely astonishing in terms of the locations he sets the film at where it’s in these small villages in West Germany where its destination is towards the East Germany border as the country was divided during the Cold War. Shot around the summer to the early fall, Wenders would emphasize this air of simplicity in these small towns that are definitely disconnected from the modernist big cities that have moved away from the past. The locations would add to this world that hasn’t progressed much yet have films as an escape from modern-day society where Winter would talk to a cinema owner early in the film about films while Winter is fixing a projector. Once Lander joins him, the two would look into their surroundings while meeting people on the journey as it play into not just loneliness but also loss which would force Winter and Lander to go on a separate path where they would rejoin each other during the film’s second act.
Wenders’ direction also has this looseness in the compositions he creates in the usage of the wide and medium shots to get a scope of the locations while creating this amazingly rich sequence of Winter and Lander riding on a motorcycle. There are some close-ups in the film but Wenders is more about creating these striking images of these two men being one with their surroundings as well as play into their own melancholia about their lives. Even in the third act where they’re in a shack just near the East-West German border as it adds to the sense of the unknown but also the realization that these two men are both dealing with a loneliness in their lives as their trip is about to end. Overall, Wenders crafts a riveting and evocative film about two different men who travel through West Germany to see a world that is changing and unable to keep up with the modern world.
Cinematographers Robby Muller and Martin Schafer do amazing work with the film’s black-and-white cinematography to play into the gorgeous look of the daytime scenes with its approach to natural lighting along with low-key lights for some of the interior/exterior scenes at night. Editor Peter Przygodda does excellent work with the editing with its usage of dissolves, transition wipes, and jump-cuts as it help play into journey on the road as well as the low-key moments during a few stops in the journey. Production designers Heidi Ludi and Bernd Hirskorn do fantastic work with the interior of Winter’s van as well as the interiors in some of the cinemas that Winter and Lander go to.
The sound work of Martin Muller and Bruno Bollhalder is superb for its sound as it play into the natural elements as well as how a film project has to sound like. The film’s music by Axel Linstadt is incredible for its blues-based score with elements of folk and country as it adds to this energy and wonderment of the road while the soundtrack features music by Chris Montez, Heinz, and Roger Miller as it is one of the film’s highlights.
The film’s wonderful cast include some notable small roles from Wim Wenders as a film viewer, Patrick Kreuzer as a young boy Lander meets late in the film, Franziska Stommer as a cinema owner that Winter converses with in the film’s beginning, Dieter Traier as a garage owner, Michael Weidermann as a schoolteacher, Peter Kaiser as a film projector who is more concerned masturbating to the film than showing the film properly, Marquad Bohm as a man who lost his wife as Lander helps him, Rudolf Schundler as Lander’s father who works at a printing press as he laments over the loss of his wife, and Lisa Kreuzer as a cashier Winter meets in town whom he spends the night with as they deal with the declining world of cinemas in small villages in Germany. The duo of Rudiger Volger and Hanns Zischler are phenomenal in their respective roles as Bruno Winter and Robert Lander as two men who go on the road as they deal with loneliness and lack of companionship as well as their surroundings with Volger as someone who loves cinema as well as his work despite the decline of cinemas in small villages while Lander is more low-key as a man dealing with depression as well as his own issues as both Volger and Zischler are major highlights of the film.
Im Lauf der Zeit is a tremendous film from Wim Wenders that features incredible performances from Rudiger Volger and Hanns Zischler. Featuring a brilliant ensemble cast, beautiful photography, a minimalist story, a killer music score and soundtrack, and gorgeous locations through rural West Germany. It is a film that play into the idea of traveling on the road to see a world that is having a hard time adjusting to change while being an adventure that is more about personal than physical. In the end, Im Lauf der Zeit is a magnificent film from Wim Wenders.
Wim Wenders Films: (Summer in the City) - (The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty) - (The Scarlet Letter (1973 film)) – Alice in the Cities - Wrong Move - The American Friend - (Lightning Over Water) - (Room 666) - (Hammett) - (The State of Things) – Paris, Texas - (Tokyo-Ga) – Wings of Desire - (Notebook on Cities and Clothes) – Until the End of the World - (Faraway, So Close!) - (Lisbon Story) - (Beyond the Clouds) - (A Trick of Light) - (The End of Violence) - (Buena Vista Social Club) - (The Million Dollar Hotel) - (The Soul of a Man) - (Land of Plenty) - (Don’t Come Knocking) - (The Palermo Shooting) - (Pina) - Salt of the Earth - (Every Thing Will Be Fine) – (The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez) – (Submergence) - (Pope Francis: A Man of His Word)
© thevoid99 2018
