World on a wire
Streaming|Goethe on Demand – Genre Cinema from Germany
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Online Online
- Language German with English subtitles
- Price Free of charge, registration in Goethe on Demand portal is required
- Part of series: GENRE CINEMA FROM GERMANY
Science-Fiction // Rainer Werner Fassbinder // 1973
The mission of the project “Simulacron” at the IKZ (Institute for Cybernetics and Future Science) is to explore the future of mankind; for this purpose human beings have been programmed into a computer as simulation models. The skeptical head of the project, Vollmer, dies unexpectedly. Was it murder or suicide? Günther Lause, security adviser to the company, disappears suddenly without trace, as if he never existed at all. Vollmer‘s successor Fred Stiller has a worrying suspicion: the world which he inhabits could also be merely a digital simulation. But connections must exist between the levels. He begins to appreciate just how dangerous his suspicion is; if he himself is merely a computer simulation, the knowledge he possesses could lead to him being switched off at any time.
The computer-simulated humans feel alive and are capable of experiencing emotion. Yet their inventors still call them “programmed identity units”, despite them having evolved to the point of consciousness. Fassbinder‘s work always circles around the theme of lack of freedom. This is what makes the film so topical and exciting. However, Fassbinder was far too aware of the potential of his medium to burden the subject with excess verbalization. He places his trust in images; which in this case reveal a hint of subliminal claustrophobia. Time and again, Fassbinder brings visual barriers into the picture, furthering the scene’s visual limitations. Or he imprisons the people as if in mirrors – or, indeed, in computers. In no other film has Fassbinder more obviously demonstrated his pleasure in directing, cinema and action.
The mission of the project “Simulacron” at the IKZ (Institute for Cybernetics and Future Science) is to explore the future of mankind; for this purpose human beings have been programmed into a computer as simulation models. The skeptical head of the project, Vollmer, dies unexpectedly. Was it murder or suicide? Günther Lause, security adviser to the company, disappears suddenly without trace, as if he never existed at all. Vollmer‘s successor Fred Stiller has a worrying suspicion: the world which he inhabits could also be merely a digital simulation. But connections must exist between the levels. He begins to appreciate just how dangerous his suspicion is; if he himself is merely a computer simulation, the knowledge he possesses could lead to him being switched off at any time.
The computer-simulated humans feel alive and are capable of experiencing emotion. Yet their inventors still call them “programmed identity units”, despite them having evolved to the point of consciousness. Fassbinder‘s work always circles around the theme of lack of freedom. This is what makes the film so topical and exciting. However, Fassbinder was far too aware of the potential of his medium to burden the subject with excess verbalization. He places his trust in images; which in this case reveal a hint of subliminal claustrophobia. Time and again, Fassbinder brings visual barriers into the picture, furthering the scene’s visual limitations. Or he imprisons the people as if in mirrors – or, indeed, in computers. In no other film has Fassbinder more obviously demonstrated his pleasure in directing, cinema and action.