movie reviews

About Im Staub der Sterne (1976): After landing on TEM 4 following a distress call, the crew finds Temers denying sending it. At a ruler’s party, drugged food clouds their minds. Navigator Suko, alone on the ship, makes a horrific discovery.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 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 “BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY” thrown in for good measure. In German with English subtitles.