Cultural Gutter: Moonbeams and Miniskirts
Do not name your spaceships after characters in Greek mythology. Naming your spaceship Icarus invites as much calamity as naming your spaceship “Space Titanic”
Read moreTag Archives: Germany
Cultural Gutter: Gods in Wigs
Over on the Cultural Gutter, I’m writing about the loony sci-fi epic, Hard to Be a God, a co-production between France, West Germany, and the Soviet Union made as the Berlin Wall was coming down.
Read moreCultural Gutter: Over the Moon, Comrade
On the Cultural Gutter, Over the Moon, Comrade is my look at the Soviet science fiction adventure Cosmic Voyage and the film that inspired it, Fritz Lang’s Woman in the Moon.
Read moreDeath is Nimble, Death is Quick
Like most Kommissar X films, Death is Nimble, Death is Quick does not make a whole lot of sense. What matters is that there are enough audacious set pieces and comical business to keep us from caring.
Read moreIn the Dust of the Stars
East German production house DEFA got into the scifi game with the solemn The Silent Star. In the Dust of the Stars trades that gravitas for disco style, interpretive dance, and nudity.
Read moreThe Silent Star
The imagination apparent in every aspect of The Silent Star‘s design is a joy, with a story that is solid and economical enough in its construction to survive instances of ideological lip service.
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