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Description of the Project
Fassbinder’s WORLD ON A WIRE A New Master
The significance of World on a Wire for the history of German film and within Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s oeuvre is multilayered and can hardly be overestimated. The two-part TV-movie World on a Wire is one of the early works produced by Fassbinder for the German national TV station WDR. Beside Berlin Alexanderplatz and Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day, this is undoubtedly one of his most important contributions to TV. In addition, the film’s focus was and still is highly topical. Daniel F. Galouye’s 1964 novel Simulacron 3 forms the literary basis for Fassbinder’s free adaptation. Long before notions of “virtual reality” came into existence, Daniel F. Galouye not only wrote the key novel on the theme, but Fassbinder also made his film about the subject.
“There is a very beautiful story named World on a Wire. It talks about a world where you can create projections of people with a computer. And this brings about the question to what degree we are all merely projections, because according to this thought model, the projections are equal to reality. Maybe another, larger body has created us as a thought model? We are looking at an old philosophical model that produces a certain horror. With this movie I have attempted to work as perfectly and orderly as possible, using all available technical means.” *'
World on a Wire is one of only a few German science-fiction movies of the period. As early as 1973, the Süddeutsche Zeitung critic held the film in high esteem. In his October 18, 1973 review of the TV premiere he wrote: “(...) will definitely hold its own beside Godard’s Alphaville and Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451. And this is already quite something.” In light of an increasingly digitized reality—and this includes the fears vis-à-vis a reality that is beginning to dissolve itself into virtuality and surveillance—World on a Wire’s investigation into “second life” issues is as highly relevant now as it was in 1973. The movie adds one more twist to the query when it asks which reality is real? Which simulated world governs which to obtain reliable prognostic results regarding its “own” world? To what extent is someone capable—as part of a possible simulation—of recognizing it as such? At the beginning of World on a Wire part two, Stiller (Klaus Löwitsch), the lead, asks “Who knows; maybe we are ultimately also a computer? You, me, all of us here. Maybe we are but electronic circuits.”
Fassbinder takes a pragmatic and an entertaining approach to these abstract questions. About World on a Wire he stated that “(...) what is most important is the movie’s entertainment value. For a long time indeed, the recent German films have neglected to entertain their audiences. More than anything else, we, the directors, try to show problems without taking the entertainment values into account. I think one should combine the two. If we manage to do that, we might even be able to make an internationally successful film some day.” *''
World on a Wire started a new phase in Fassbinder’s oeuvre. This was uniquely expressed in his cooperation with director of photography Michael Ballhaus. In his review of the premiere broadcast, Die Zeit critic Wolf Donner wrote on October 19, 1973: “(...) visually compelling and full of imagination, this is a professional, perfect composition the likes of which no one but Fassbinder is capable of pulling off in German film these days (...).” One more point underscores the film’s particular significance: Beside Bolwieser—another two-part TV film that came about four years later—World on a Wire is the most extensive collaboration between Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Michael Ballhaus. It reveals all elements of their artistic cooperation that characterize their 1970s projects. First came Whity (1970), Fassbinder’s eighth feature film; this is where the team Fassbinder-Ballhaus explores all cinematic possibilities of a classic modern Western. In doing so, they made use of all features the cinemascope screen format offers. Thanks to their shared experiences from Beware of a Holy Whore (1970) and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) they reached a stylistic climax with World on a Wire. Now the unique handwriting—a result of their close collaboration and later globally hailed as the “Fassbinder style”—with its complex sequences of images and camera angles can be seen. Inspired by the novel, the concept of virtual spaces looks both realistic and futuristic. Yet the real surroundings from the locations where the movie was shot, Cologne and Paris, can be seen. Thanks to the use of mirrors as well as camera views and perspectives the impression of a world is created that attempts to reassure itself of its own reality while simultaneously doubting it.
In 2010 Michael Ballhaus will turn 75, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder would be 65. RWFF marks this date by making the two-part-masterwork available for an interested audience. In fact, until now the public was unable to experience all the existential issues the film raises and their suspenseful and entertaining, artistic rendition. After its first broadcast in 1973, it was only rarely aired on ARD. The last time it was publicly shown was as part of the comprehensive Fassbinder retrospectives in New York (1997) and Paris (2005). On these occasions, a 35mm copy that RWFF had produced in 1996 was used. Dozens of requests since then demonstrate the special interest people take in the film and its subject matter today.
RWFF is deeply grateful that Michael Ballhaus has agreed to be the artistic director of this project. His knowledge of the original light levels will be invaluable to this venture.
The restoration’s main task is to produce a digital master directly from the 16mm original reversed positive. Apart from the distribution on DVD, the new digital paths of trade and presentation will be pursued. In addition to restoring the visual and the sound materials, new rights for commercial releases beyond television broadcasts needed to be obtained. Thanks to many years of experience in the realm of film restoration—the last project was Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered 2006/2007—we now take the upcoming double-jubilee as our opportunity to re-release one of the central and most comprehensive collaborations between Fassbinder and Ballhaus. The resulting materials will ensure the safekeeping of one of Germany’s most significant science fiction movies for the future. In addition, the public will be able to view this almost unknown work again.
The commercial release of World on a Wire relies on the worldwide net of licensees for Fassbinder’s oeuvre. We have already signed contracts for DVD sales in Germany (Kinowelt/Arthaus), France (Carlotta Films), Benelux (Lumière) and Spain (Avalon). We are presently negotiating with our partner Criterion in the USA as well as with other potential international clients.
The world premiere of the restored digital version will take place in Berlin. The next stop will then be New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The latter supports the project. Further financial aid includes the fundamental support granted by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Berlin in February, 2009
*' RWF, 1973 – quoted and translated after Fischer, Robert (ed.): Fassbinder über Fassbinder, Frankfurt am Main, 2004, p. 262
*'' RWF, 1973 – quoted after Fischer, Robert: ibid., p. 263
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