WoW

I ordered up World on a Wire (1973) on a whim, without looking it it too deeply. I had heard about it on some podcast or other, and understood it to be "The Matrix before it was a thing." It's possible I was thinking of The Thirteenth Floor, a remake. Anyway, this one turns out to be a TV miniseries by Rainier Werner Fassbinder. It came on two disks - the first disc had what seemed to be a full movie, around two hours long. I don't know what's on the second disc, we didn't look. Also, running times for this are quoted as 3 hours, 200 minutes, and various others. Maybe the movie we watched was a cut down of the series? Maybe we only watched Part 1? If you know, don't tell us. We liked our experience well enough.

It takes place in a mod corporate 70s, in the offices and labs of a virtual reality company. Some investors have shown up to meet the chief engineer. We find out that the company has a virtual world simulation, with 9,000 simulated people in it. But the engineer is acting weird - talking about identity and reality. He is later found dead. 

His replacement, Klaus Lowitsch, discusses this with the head of security, and finds there are some disquieting things going on. But when he tries to follow up, he finds that the security head doesn't exist, never had. Everyone remembers the "new" head of security as having been around for years.

Along with the promotion to chief engineer. Lowitsch gets a hot new secretary, Barbara Valentin. His old secretary, who he was close to, is sick, and doesn't think she will ever get well. He starts going into the simulation to get to the bottom of this. The only simulated person who knows that he is a simulation is called Einstein. He wants out to the real world - but he isn't real, just a simulation.

The reveals in this movie come slowly, and somewhat vaguely. In our modern times, we pick it up pretty quick. But for us, the joys of the movie were in the style - the corporate offices, the slightly mod suits, the glamorous secretaries, the glass surfaces and deep focus shots. We started this movie late, watched in a trance until we fell asleep - in our own virtual reality - then finished the next night. 

I think this is the only Fassbinder we've seen. We enjoyed it but it may be enough.