Kraftwerk’s forgotten ‘Autobahn’ video

This is an amazing and trippy 11 minute music video short film (in two parts) made by Roger Mainwood for Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ in 1979.

An interview with the maker here.

I remember wanting to specifically not have conventional cars in the film. I wanted a sense of a repetitive journey, and alienation, which I took to be what the music was about,…………hence the solitary futuristic figure, protected by large goggles, moving through and trying to connect with the journey he is taking. The automobile “monsters” are deliberately threatening ( I have never been a big fan of cars or motorways ! ) and when our “hero” tries to make human contact (with different coloured clones of himself) he can never do it. In the end he realises he is making the repetitive and circular journey alone but strides forward purposefully at the end as he did in the beginning .

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