Signals: A Space Adventure + In The Dust Of The Stars

SIGNALS: A SPACE ADVENTURE (SIGNALE - EIN WELTRAUMABENTEUER) - The first and most ambitious of two epic space operas that East German genre director Gottfried Kolditz (1922-1982) made for the state-run DEFA film studios, SIGNALS was DEFA's cheeky attempt to outdo Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY behind the Iron Curtain. The film used many of the same tricks: expansive, visually stunning shots of the cosmos ... gorgeous Futurist space-design with ergonomic chairs, IBM lookalike computers, Mod mini-dresses and "STAR TREK" space uniforms ... even a copycat free-floating in tunnel sequence with a wild electronic Perry-Kingsley type score. The real star here is the breathtaking 70mm cinematography, recently restored in 6K by the Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst / DEFA Film Library for its first-ever world Blu-ray release by Deaf Crocodile.  

IN THE DUST OF THE STARS (IM STAUB DER STERNE) - Who could possibly resist an insanely groovy mid-1970s East German space opera with an Ennio Morricone-like theme song, a nonstop underground disco where partygoers spritz hallucinogenic mouth-spray, scantily clad super-models voguing in an abstract sculpture garden, tons of silver glam-rock boots and glittery eyeshadow and red leather space-suits, and dialogue like "Thob, I'll upload them to the Lambda channel" and "The Temians are fun people - fun and a little crazy"?! Director Gottfried Kolditz's delirious gem of Socialist eye-candy is set in the future where a team of cosmonauts on Spaceship Cynro 19/4 crash land on planet Tem and are forced to have a really good time against their Communist principles boogying down with the local aliens (who are funding their nonstop Studio 54 action by enslaving the planet's Turi workers in underground mines.) Visually, this ranks alongside Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES as one of the most eye-popping genre treats of the era, with generous helpings of ZARDOZ, "SPACE: 1999," and LOGAN'S RUN thrown in for good measure.