Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- sardonic
- grotesque
- confrontational
- arthouse film night
- fassbinder retrospective
What critics said
Critics were sharply divided, with some valuing its provocative grotesque satire while others found its dark comedy unsuccessful.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Walter solicits money from devoted women, manipulates his household, and lives off the emotional and financial labor of others.
The plot fuses debauchery, eccentric behavior, violence, and a murder investigation with deliberately abrasive humor.
Walter is identified as an anarchist poet whose artistic persona and plagiarism are bound to his financial and personal desperation.
The story targets German poetry, publishers, mistresses, artistic self-importance, and the economics of literary recognition.
Films like Satan’s Brew, and why
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
provocative european dark comedy centered on an abusive, self-mythologizing artist and corrosive personal relationships
The Third Generation
transgressive german drama-comedy combining sexual manipulation, social cruelty, and an unstable central personality
The Player
bleakly comic portrait of decadent artists, plagiarism, and destructive self-invention
Movie Details
- Director
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- Release Date
- 1976-10-07
- Runtime
- 113 min
- Rating
- 6.3 / 10 (37)
Cast
- Kurt Raab
- Margit Carstensen
- Helen Vita
- Volker Spengler
- Ingrid Caven
- Y Sa Lo
- Ulli Lommel
- Brigitte Mira
- Marquard Bohm
- Christiane Maybach
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Criterion Channel
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Satan’s Brew about?
- A broke German poet weaponizes artistic pretension, sexual manipulation, and grotesque self-invention to survive a world that increasingly resembles his own moral wreckage.
- What is Satan’s Brew like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Satan’s Brew as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Satan’s Brew violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in Satan’s Brew as moderate.
- What did critics think of Satan’s Brew?
- Critics were sharply divided, with some valuing its provocative grotesque satire while others found its dark comedy unsuccessful.
- Which films are like Satan’s Brew?
- Films with a similar feel include The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Third Generation, and The Player.
- How long is Satan’s Brew?
- Satan’s Brew runs 113 minutes.
- Where can I watch Satan’s Brew?
- In United States, Satan’s Brew streams on Criterion Channel.
