Based on the scifi novel Simulacron-3, Fassbinder’s World on a Wire, originally shot as a miniseries for television in 1973, was reissued to a feature length in 2010.

This is a brilliant piece of science fiction with simulation, virtual reality, and existentialism all bundled in together. What I loved about this film is how Fassbinder considered technology and simulation as neither utopian nor distopia (a common pitfall of many contemporary scifi flicks) – but envisioned simulations as a dreamland where human consciousness traverses past, present and future.

The cinematography is brillant and provoked me to watch for “gif’able” scenes – so I start my 3-part World On A Wire GIF series with 2 scenes.

Günther Lause, the security adviser of the institute overseeing the Simulacron, suddenly disappears. Fred Stiller, the Director of Technology, is the only person who remembers he existed – none of his colleagues appear to remember who Günther Lause is at all.  Fred Stiller even asks the Simulacron …

 

Fred Stiller enters the Simulacron to take a look around. While driving around in the Simulacron he encounters the 1973 version of a spinning pinwheel.

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