World On A Wire

Shown in a brand new Michael Ballhaus approved print at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, World On A Wire is one of Fassbinder’s less seen but most ambitious and enjoyable works. Based on Daniel F. Galouye’s Simulacron 3, it predated the cyberpunk musings of William Gibson and The Matrix, and is one of the earliest film (more specifically, television film) examples of philosophical, phildickian science fiction. After the mysterious death of a scientist who brainchilded a virtual world consisting of artificial but living “identity units”, his replacement, Dr Stiller, begins to suspect a conspiracy. Well, it wouldn’t be a great SF tale without it, and with all its visual eccentricities, mondo edits and skewed camera angles (think of Godard’s futures), this is an engrossing and thrilling mystery. It may be sartorially dated (very dated, in fact), but its metaphysical questions and elegant pacing make it as relevant as any Baudrillard-bothering kung fu opus out there, Fassbinder’s fabled seriousness helping considerably.