movie world

Science fiction loves to predict the future of technology...and occasionally, it hits a bullseye. Daniel F. Galouye's 1964 novel Simulacron-3 presented the the possibility of a virtual world where the inhabitants had no idea they were part of a simulation. The lead scientist behind this virtual world dies under questionable circumstances and another employee vanishes, leading one eyewitness through a spiraling mystery that makes him question the "reality" of the world around him. Less than 10 years later, prolific German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder adapted Galouye's novel into World on a Wire (Welt am Draht, 1973), originally a two-part television feature that added plenty of its own touches. Our man of action is Fred Stiller (Klaus Lowitsch), who witnesses the aforementioned disappearance of a co-worker and quickly becomes lost in a complex, layered hall of mirrors (literally and figuratively). As he inches ever closer to the truth, however, large chunks of World on a Wire begin to show their seams.

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Klaus Lowitsch, Barbara Valentin, Mascha Rabben, Karl Heinz Vosgerau
Country: West Germany
Genre: Crime, Sci-Fi

DVD5 + DVD9 | PAL 4:3 | 01:41:11 + 01:42:59 | 4.13 Gb + 7.43 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Deutsch
Subtitles: English

Extras:
• Fassbinder’s "World on a Wire": Looking Ahead to Today, a fifty-minute documentary about the making of the film by Juliane Lorenz

2xBD50 | 1080i AVC | 01:41:05 + 01:42:53 | 78.6 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Deutsch
Subtitles: English

Extras:

DISC ONE:
* The Film - Part One (101:05)
• "Fassbinder’s World on a Wire: Looking Ahead to Today" documentary (48:31)
• "Observing Fassbinder" a Tribute to photographer Peter Gauhe (7:45)
• On-set Featurette (4:18)

DISC TWO:
* The Film - Part Two (102:53)
• "No Strings Attached" interview with assistant director Renate Leiffer (29:15)
• "The Simulation Argument" interview with professor Nick Bostrom (22:31)
• Original Broadcast Recap (4:23)