Synopsis

World on a Wire is a gloriously paranoid, boundlessly inventive take on the future from German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder. With dashes of Stanley Kubrick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Philip K. Dick, Fassbinder tells the noir-spiked tale of reluctant hero Fred Stiller (Klaus Löwitsch), 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 Originally made for German television, this recently rediscovered, three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satiric and surreal look at the world of tomorrow from one of cinema’s kinkiest geniuses.

This screening is part of SCREEN TO SCREEN, shown in conjunction with the exhibition Digital Capture: Southern California and the Pixel-Based Image World

“Screen” can be defined as a flat surface, a verb, a barrier, a pseudonym, a cover, or a tool. The films in this series are, in general, unified by their inventive and prescient explorations of technology, and by the screen in particular. These films examine and imagine what changes in human relationships are a result of technology’s position within them. The screen is now where life often takes place—films that explore this condition constitute their own genre. Each screening will be introduced by organizer and PhD candidate Sarah Grace Faulk, and a discussion will be moderated afterward for select screenings.

Trailer

Film Details

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Studio: Janus Films
Running Time: 212 minutes
Country: Germany
Release Year: 1973
Rated: Unrated

Reviews

“The film is […] unmistakably the work of its director, one of the most ferociously prolific and restlessly original artists German cinema has ever produced.” – A. O. Scott, The New York Times