Bookended by quotes from Theatre of Cruelty architect Antonin Artaud, Satan’s Brew reflects the influence of that assaultive model on Fassbinder’s mid-career work. Kurt Raab (best known to Fassbinder fans as Herr R.) plays Walter Kranz, an avant-garde poet afflicted with writer’s block and a nagging wife (Helen Vita), and badly strapped for cash. When his editor refuses him any further advances, he’s forced to borrow from his mistress (who begs him to shoot her) and pretend to be the late poet Stefan George. Featuring broad physical comedy and a searing attack on the 1970s German art scene, Satan’s Brew co-stars Volker Spengler (In a Year of 13 Moons) as Raab’s mentally handicapped brother with peculiar ideas about flies.