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Information
- A.k.a.
- World on a Wire
- Year
- 1973
- Runtime
- 212 min.
- Director
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- Genres
- Crime, Sci-Fi, Mystery
- Rating *
- 7.8
- Votes *
- 3,312
- Checks
- 1,035
- Favs
- 157
- Dislikes
- 6
- Favs/checks
- 15.2% (1:7)
- Favs/dislikes
- 26:1
Top comments
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Siskoid
So Rainer Fassbinder made The Matrix in 1973? Wow. Made for German television as a two-parter, World on a Wire is long (and necessarily repeats information) and has little in the way of effects, but it's not boring. It goes the only route someone could go back then, head on into existentialism. Are we experiencing the real world, or a simulation for the amusement of others. In the film, a lab has built a computer that can run that simulation for a few thousand digital characters, but evidence mounts of a conspiracy to hide the truth - that they themselves may be living in a simulation. And yet, all these levels of reality are essentially the same, and the question we're meant to ask is whether irreality is actually a part of the real world. When we see people acting strangely, or having incomplete lives, or misremembering, how much of that is partial perception and how much might be a "computer glitch"? And even if our world is an echo of another, how far does it go? The ending/revelation isn't ambiguous, except it is. And Fassbinder's direction is as brilliant as it is off-putting, with a roaming, question camera, intriguing shots that evoke levels through mirrors and odd angles, and bright, oversaturated colors. It's a gorgeous piece that is worth looking at just for that reason even if one would find the intellectual puzzle a little too dry for one's tastes. 5 years 5 months ago -
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In 2 official lists
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This movie ranks #26 in Doubling the Canon
Doubling the Canon
26 -
This movie ranks #699 in The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
699