Roger Mainwood's 1979 animated film of Kraftwerk's 'Autobahn', plus other assorted forward-thinking clips featuring the same music and/or theme

March 2, 2008 11:06 PM

Autobahn, a 12 minute animated film by Roger Mainwood, was commissioned by Kraftwerk's record label in 1979 to be released on one of the first ever laser discs.

Here's a quick 'making of' featurette, a short interview with the filmmaker, and several live versions of the epic and innovative track.

Bonuses:

Die Mensch-Maschine - 1982 Austrian television documentary on the group: one, zwei

Undated piece featuring interviews with former members Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür: eins, two

posted by item (5 comments total)

"Their music is a sort of--ugh--techno-pop."
posted by thanatogenous at 11:26 PM on March 2, 2008 [5 favorites]

love the music, and the early animation in the film reminds me of Canada's National Film Board's Norman McLaren. Not too crazy about the spaceman later in Kraftwerk short though.
posted by seawallrunner at 11:36 PM on March 2, 2008

Cool! They used to use this as filler on the national TV station when I was a kid, and I saw it numerous times and was very puzzled by it. It's nice to see it as an adult.
posted by tiny crocodile at 2:05 AM on March 3, 2008

I remember clearly my response to this song when I first heard it on the radio in the seventies. This synthesized music seemed so cold--an intriguing novelty, but nothing you could ever really cozy up to. Now, thirty years later, it seems ever so normal, leading me to realize how pioneering and influential Kraftwerk seems to have been.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 2:53 AM on March 3, 2008

Wow, fantastic. Thanks for this.
posted by piratebowling at 10:27 AM on March 3, 2008