Welt am Draht (1973) (TV)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writers:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder (writer)
Daniel F. Galouye (novel)

Release Date:

14 October 1973 (West Germany)

Genre:

Crime | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Somewhere in the future there is a computer project called Simulacron one of which is able to simulate a full featured reality...

Plot Keywords:

Computer | Cyberpunk | Virtual Reality | Based On Novel

Cast

Klaus Löwitsch	...	Fred Stiller
Barbara Valentin	...	Gloria Fromm
Mascha Rabben	...	Eva Vollmer, daughter of Henry Vollmer
Karl Heinz Vosgerau	...	Herbert Siskins
Wolfgang Schenck	...	Franz Hahn
Günter Lamprecht	...	Fritz Walfang
Ulli Lommel	...	Rupp, Journalist
Adrian Hoven	...	Professor Henry Vollmer
Ivan Desny	...	Guenther Lause, uncle of Eva Vollmer
Joachim Hansen	...	Hans Edelkern
Kurt Raab	...	Mark Holm
Margit Carstensen	...	Maya Schmidt-Gentner
Gottfried John	...	Einstein
Rudolf Lenz	...	Hartmann
Lilo Pempeit	...	Data typist (as Lieselotte Eder)

Also Known As:

World on Wires
World on a Wire

Runtime:

205 min (2 parts)

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Cologne, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company:

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the second part of the film, the scene at Fred's cabin: When the camera moves surrounds the cabin, at one point the shadow of the camera is clearly projected on the wooden wall.

Movie Connections:

References The Third Man (1949)

Artificial reality movie with a different focus

The SF premise isn't unique (although it pretty much was back then), but the focus is a completely different one than in other artificial reality films. Especially during the first part it is an elaborate crime picture, that uses the SF premise to tell an unusual crime story in which the forced detective tries to solve a mystery with the obstacle of vanishing characters and unhelpful witnesses who don't have to lie to be unhelpful. Instead of an unreliable narrator we have an unreliable world.

In part two we follow the main character's struggle for sanity and it turns more into a psychological examination of a character in an extreme situation. He knows his very existence is nothing more than electrical impulses, how does he deal with this knowledge? He knows that there is a world that is more real than his, but he is trapped in an artificial world, a world where nobody can understand him. The problem of thinking of knowing something essential about the world that nobody else knows or wants to believe is a very real one that many of us can identify with. For me the film transports this hopelessness very well, with its dreary, artificial atmosphere which also supports the factual artificiality of the film's world.

Other than 'The Matrix' or 'The Thirteenth Floor' it's little concerned with evoking a sense of awe for its artificial reality plot, instead it very much focuses on the psychological aspects. Philosophy is only in so far interesting in that certain philosophical concepts are essential in how they shape and alter the character's perception of the world.

Arguably it is longer than it has to be (which isn't a problem if you are as captivated by it as I was) and part 2 runs pretty low on steam.