BIS ANS ENDE DER WELT

BIS ANS ENDE DER WELT (IMDb also lists in French, Jusqu'au Bout Du Monde, and English, Until the End of the World [we viewed and listened to the (mostly) English version]). Wim Wenders, dir., co-script, with Peter Carey. Australia / Germany / France: Road Movies Filmproduktion, Village Roadshow Productions, Argos Films, (prod.), Warner Bros. (prod. and US dist.), 1991. Solveig Dommartin, William Hurt, Ernie Dingo, Sam Neill, Max von Sydow, Ruediger Vogler, Jeanne Moreau, featured players. Runtime is significant: USA and Sweden: 158, Germany and Spain: 179; director's cut: 280. English with some French and other languages; available with subtitles in English translations of the French.

Described by Video Hound as a "Convoluted road movie set in 1999," i.e., the near-future at time of release. In a sense "art-film SF," except the "art-film" part doesn't fit well with the big-name cast, settings in "15 cities in 8 countries on 4 continents" (by the Hound's count), and the use of state-of-the-art High Definition TV for important effects-footage. See for "near-in" SF of a computerized headset that allows recordings which can in turn allow the blind to see. The process is complex, mediated by the initial recorder of the scene—and plausible. Initial recorder and a blind person are shown literally interfaced with the computer through their sight and vision-handling sections of the brain. More far-out, Max von Sydow's good but arrogant scientist records and plays back dreams; watching their dreams proves addictive to him and his son's lover (Dommartin). Search in Clockwork's for key words "dream" and "dreamer," and note implicit or explicit theme of technological addiction in Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Hollow Pursuits" episode, and in H. Ellison's "Catman" and B. Malzberg's "Wonderful, All-Purpose Transmogrifier."

(RDE, 15/06/99, 27Dec14, 18Nov15) RDE, Title, 19Aug19