After years in a floating-head wilderness, the art of movie poster design has had a bit of a shot in the arm in recent years, thanks to Criterion covers, self-commissioned work by cult designers like Olly Moss, and artisan one-sheets for one-off screenings at theaters like the Alamo Drafthouse and the New Beverly. So much so in fact, that certain movie blogs seem to have become more or less devoted to minimalist posters. One new example just debuted, to promote the imminent re-emergence of a neglected picture by a legendary filmmaker, and it’s pretty nifty.
In 1973, Rainer Werner Fassbinder made the epic two-parter “Weld Am Draht” (or “World on a Wire“) for German television, an ahead-of-its-time sci-fi flick about the creation of an computer-simulated world, and the subsequent sentience of the artificial intelligence within it. But the film has mostly been missing ever since, passing into legend, and surviving only through copy-swapping by Fassbinder, and through the weak-as-piss Roland Emmerich-produced remake “The Thirteenth Floor.”
But last year, a new restoration of the project bowed at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival, before getting a DVD release in Germany, and screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and at MoMA in New York, and you’ll soon have chance to see it for yourself, as Janus Films are taking a couple of prints of the picture across North America for limited showings during the summer and fall. MUBI have premiered a new poster for the project, from designer Sam Smith (who was behind an excellent poster for “Carlos” last year), and it’s certainly one we’d be happy to have on our wall.
Undoubtedly reminiscent of one of the better one-sheets of recent years, for Duncan Jones‘ “Moon” (a film which itself owes something of a debt to Fassbinder’s picture), the venn diagram design neatly encapsulates the parallel worlds that “World on A Wire” depicts, and at the very least, it’s reminded us that a lost classic from one of our favorite filmmakers will be doing the rounds in a few short weeks. Check out the dates below, courtesy of the film’s official site, but bear in mind that if it doesn’t seem to be heading your way immediately, more dates will be added in the near future. And get a taste of what’s in store with the trailer below.
June 17 & 19 – Cinematheque Ontario, Toronto
June 24-26 – Pacific Cinematheque, Vancouver
July 22 – August 4th – IFC Center, New York
July 29 – August 4 – Roxie Theater, San Francisco
August 19 & 20 – LACMA, Los Angeles
September 10 & 11 – Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge
September 16 – 22 – Northwest Film Forum, Seattle
October 7 & 9 – The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
