World on a Wire

Starring: Klaus Lowitsch, Barbara Valentin, Mascha Rabben

WORLD ON A WIRE is a gloriously paranoid, boundlessly inventive take on the future from German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder (The Marriage of Maria Braun). With dashes of Stanley Kubrick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Philip K. Dick, as well as a flavor entirely his own, Fassbinder tells the noir-spiked tale of a reluctant action hero, Fred Stiller (The Odessa File's Klaus Lowitsch), a cybernetics engineer who uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy. At risk? (Virtual) reality as we know it. Originally made for German television, this recently rediscovered, three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satiric and surreal look at the weird world of tomorrow from one of cinema's kinkiest geniuses.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Language: English
• UPC: 715515092012
• Release Date: February 2012
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Publisher: Criterion Collection
• Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• Starring: Klaus Lowitsch, Barbara Valentin, Mascha Rabben
• Runtime: 3 hours, 32 minutes
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: Blu-ray
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.4" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Hang in there; it gets better, better still.

I came to this film backwards. It started with a movie called “The Thirteenth Floor” (1999). Then, from there, I read the book “Simulacron-3” (1964) by Daniel F. Galouye. Then, finally, this film. It was a little unnerving having to read English subtitles. Worse than that is that this is a transliteration. The wording is juxtaposed, and their inference is displayed, not a literal translation. It drove me crazy at first, as with the purposefully slow speech and very fundamental German, you can pretty much keep up without the need for subtitles, except for a word or two now and then, such as Käsekuchen (cheesecake). They speak southern German, which makes it much easier to follow. Soon, you get used to occasionally looking at the subtitles and can enjoy the movie as presented. It was made in 1973, but the people, cars, and environment look 10 years older. I was surprised to see the main character, Fred Stiller, played by Klaus Löwitsch, whom I recognized as Gustav Mackensen in “The ODESSA File” 1974 and Vlad (as Klaus Loewitsch) in “Gotcha!” 1985. There is something strange in the neighborhood. Günther Lauser (Chief of Security at Cybernetics and Futurology) spoke of a “shattering discovery”, and then disappeared in the middle of a conversation. But he never existed in the minds of most people. This movie is closer to the book than “The Thirteenth Floor” or forbid “The Matrix”. Watch the film and find out what is happening.