Gwen and the Book of Sand 4K Blu-ray
HomeGwen and the Book of Sand 4K Blu-ray
Posted February 2, 2025 11:48 PM by Webmaster
Deaf Crocodile has detailed its upcoming 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack release of Jean-François Laguionie's Gwen and the Book of Sand a.k.a. Gwen, le livre de sable (1985). The release is expected to arrive on the market on February 25.
Also on the same date, the label plans to bring to Blu-ray Signals: A Space Adventure & In the Dust of the Stars (1970-1976).
Gwen and the Book of Sand 4K Blu-ray
Description: "Why search the sand for answers? It has told us everything," whispers Roseline (voiced by Michel Robin), the 173-year old desert nomad narrator of French director Jean-François Laguionie's hauntingly poetic animated feature of life after the apocalypse, where the few hardy survivors walk on stilts from well to well, scorpions glow like lanterns, and the mysterious Makou drops giant everyday objects – forks, eyeglasses, bathtubs – from the skies.
Into this desolate science-fiction landscape, part-DUNE, part-FURY ROAD, emerges the story's teenage heroine, Gwen (voiced by Lorella Di Cicco), who refuses to stay silent and hide in the shadows – and whose love for teenage boy Nokmoon, kidnapped by the Makou and its followers, will drive her and Roseline on an epic journey across the endless sands, "the still silence of chaos and oblivion."
A sublime and breathtaking masterpiece of world animation, painted in remarkable gouache images, GWEN… is on par with René Laloux's FANTASTIC PLANET, Hayao Miyazaki's NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND and Mamoru Oshii's ANGEL'S EGG as a visually stunning and truly otherworldly experience, interwoven with surreal and dreamlike moments: a pillow fight in the desert; phantom projections of red UFOs in the night sky; a mystery cult who worship an ancient product catalog and sing gorgeous hymns to fireworks and a watering can made of galvanized steel.
Beautifully restored in 4K with the director's participation for La Traverse Films in France and released for the first time ever in the U.S. by Deaf Crocodile. In French with English subtitles.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
SIGNALS: A SPACE ADVENTURE (SIGNALE – EIN WELTRAUMABENTEUER), 1970, DEFA, 86 min.
The first and most ambitious of two epic space operas that prolific 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. Featuring breathtaking 70mm cinematography, recently restored in 6K from the original camera negative by the University of Massachusetts Amherst / DEFA Film Library for its first-ever world Blu-ray release by Deaf Crocodile. In German with English subtitles.
IN THE DUST OF THE STARS (IM STAUB DER STERNE), 1976, DEFA, 95 min.
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.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Also on the same date, the label plans to bring to Blu-ray Signals: A Space Adventure & In the Dust of the Stars (1970-1976).
Gwen and the Book of Sand 4K Blu-ray
Description: "Why search the sand for answers? It has told us everything," whispers Roseline (voiced by Michel Robin), the 173-year old desert nomad narrator of French director Jean-François Laguionie's hauntingly poetic animated feature of life after the apocalypse, where the few hardy survivors walk on stilts from well to well, scorpions glow like lanterns, and the mysterious Makou drops giant everyday objects – forks, eyeglasses, bathtubs – from the skies.
Into this desolate science-fiction landscape, part-DUNE, part-FURY ROAD, emerges the story's teenage heroine, Gwen (voiced by Lorella Di Cicco), who refuses to stay silent and hide in the shadows – and whose love for teenage boy Nokmoon, kidnapped by the Makou and its followers, will drive her and Roseline on an epic journey across the endless sands, "the still silence of chaos and oblivion."
A sublime and breathtaking masterpiece of world animation, painted in remarkable gouache images, GWEN… is on par with René Laloux's FANTASTIC PLANET, Hayao Miyazaki's NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND and Mamoru Oshii's ANGEL'S EGG as a visually stunning and truly otherworldly experience, interwoven with surreal and dreamlike moments: a pillow fight in the desert; phantom projections of red UFOs in the night sky; a mystery cult who worship an ancient product catalog and sing gorgeous hymns to fireworks and a watering can made of galvanized steel.
Beautifully restored in 4K with the director's participation for La Traverse Films in France and released for the first time ever in the U.S. by Deaf Crocodile. In French with English subtitles.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- TWO-DISC COMBO PACK
- NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
- DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
- NEW video interview with director Jean-François Laguionie, moderated by Dennis Bartok of Deaf Crocodile. (In French with simultaneous English translation by Fred Cassidy)
- NEW video essay by journalist and physical media expert Ryan Verrill (The Disc Connected) and film professor Dr. Will Dodson
- NEW commentary by film historian Samm Deighan
- In French, with English subtitles
- New art by Beth Morris
SIGNALS: A SPACE ADVENTURE (SIGNALE – EIN WELTRAUMABENTEUER), 1970, DEFA, 86 min.
The first and most ambitious of two epic space operas that prolific 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. Featuring breathtaking 70mm cinematography, recently restored in 6K from the original camera negative by the University of Massachusetts Amherst / DEFA Film Library for its first-ever world Blu-ray release by Deaf Crocodile. In German with English subtitles.
IN THE DUST OF THE STARS (IM STAUB DER STERNE), 1976, DEFA, 95 min.
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.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- NEW 6K RESTORATION OF SIGNALS: A SPACE ADVENTURE
- New commentary by film historian and comics artist Stephen R. Bissette and Dr. Mariana Ovanova of the DEFA Film Library
- NEW "Other worlds, strange dreams: the East German space operas of director Gottfried Kolditz" - video essay by film historian Evan Chester
- Original DEFA trailers for both films
- New art by Beth Morris
- Slipcase featuring 4 new alternate covers by Steve Thomas
- 80-page illustrated book with:
- New essay by film historian Rolf Giesen
- New essay by Jennifer Barker
- New essay by Walter Chaw
- New written interview with the director's son Stefan Kolditz
