Director
Roger Vadim
Cast
Barbarella - Jane Fonda
Pygar the Angel - John Phillip Law
Anita Pallenberg - The Great Tyrant
Marcel Marceau - Prof. Ping
Milo O' Shea - Concierge
It has been a month since I've posted a review. Life needed to be tended to. Vacations needed to be taken. Other things needed to be done. That's my excuse.
But life for me is slowly getting back to normal (more or less.) My pursuit of watching obscure or not-so-widely discussed comic book based movies continues, among other reviews both here and on my horror blog www.1000daysofhorror.blogspot.com, with the 1968 science fiction fantasy (heavy emphasis on the word "fantasy" - the kind that would land a good ol' Catholic boy into the confessional) Barbarella.
It's based on the French comic series by Jean-Claude Forest about a young woman who has a variety of adventures as she travels to different planets.
Each adventure is laced in erotic overtones and sexual escapades in some form or another. And the movie definitely follows in style.
In the movie, there's subtle and not-so-subtle imagery and innuendos from the beginning astronaut strip tease during the credits until the very last scene.
Though I haven't read the comic series, the movie is a fetish filled fantasy that I can only call a hallucinogenic driven far-out fever dream.
Jane Fonda portrays Barbarella as an innocent yet determined damsel, wide-eyed, and surrounded by one perversion after another which, though resolute in her mission, she doesn't necessarily turn her back to. The style and atmosphere is unique, unforgettable, campy, cheap, colorful and again, sprinkled with innuendos. Barbarella is very much a movie of its late-1960s period.
The movie takes place in an unspecified time in the future where Barbarella, an astro-navigator flying her own shag carpeted spaceship equipped with an A.I. computer and impressionist art work, is interrupted from her idyllic lifestyle by an urgent message from the President of Earth.
He assigns her the task of searching for the villainous Dr. Durand Durand whose hungry like the wolf. (Just kidding. See what I did there?)
I'll add that the British rock band Duran Duran took their name from Barbarella as they used to perform at an English night club called...you guessed it...Barbarella's.
Anyways, Dr. Durand Durand has invented the positronic ray - a laser powered super weapon Earth leaders are scared is going to end up in enemy possession.
Barbarella takes on the mission, and travels to a realm called Tau Ceti's 16th planet. She crash lands, and discovers two young twin girls who take her to a group of other children by way of skis pulled by an octopus-looking creature along a frozen lake.
The group of children bind her up, and attack her with mechanical killer dolls bearing razor sharp metal teeth.
She's rescued by a catchman named Mark Hand who patrols the frozen areas looking for delinquent children.
Barbarella asks Mark if he knows Durand Durand and he informs her the doctor is in a city called Sogo.
Grateful for Mark's help, Barbarella asks how she can repay him. And he blatantly asks if they can make love. He doesn't hesitate. Bold move, Mark.
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| Jane Fonda as Barbarella. |
In this futuristic earth, sex is no longer physical. Rather, couples take a pill to simulate sexual feelings together.
But Mark is old fashioned and Barbarella agrees to do it "the old fashioned way." So, they do, and after she believes pills are no longer as good as the real thing.
When all is said and done, she takes off for Sogo where she again crash lands.
Sogo is a labyrinth city whose residents are made up of outcasts and rejects from other parts of the galaxy.
In her quest to find Durand Durand, Barbarella meets a blind angel named Pygar (John Phillip Law) who doesn't know the doctor. Instead he takes her to meet Prof. Ping (Marcel Marceau) who repairs her damaged ship.
Ping also encourages her to search for Durand Durand in the main part of Sogo.
She asks Pygar if he'll fly her there as he is an angel. However he can't fly despite having wings as his ability to fly depends upon his will power, which is diminished.
So, to bolster up his will power, Barbarella offers to have sex with him. One thing leads to another as it usually does in promiscuous situations like this, and he flies her to the main area of Sogo.
While there, both she and Pygar are captured by the "black queen", also called "the Great Tyrant of Sogo", and her crew.
To get away, the two enter a chamber where people go to die while experiencing the utmost pleasure they can physically feel.
Underneath the floor is a bubbling liquid called Matmos, which is collected living energy from evil thoughts and desires. It's used as Sogo's power source.
But Barbarella and Pygar are captured by the concierge (Milo O' Shea) of the black queen.
Pygar is mockingly crucified, and Barbarella is (I kid you not) placed in a glass cage and attacked by parakeets. Yes! Parakeets. Real ones, too. I don't know if I was supposed to laugh at this, but I did. Parakeets used as instruments of torture.
Anyways, she's rescued by the leader of an underground rebellion against Durand Durand. And this guy's name is (again, I kid you not) Dildano, played by David Hemmings.
Barbarella may sound like some kind of porn adventure, but it barely falls short of being such a film despite the sexual promiscuity throughout. Sex is done behind closed doors and spaceships. And nudity is barely hidden. That's no defense, by the way.
I couldn't look away from the movie. Not because of all the sexual subtleties, but because of the story and the psychedelic set pieces. To say this movie is trippy would be an understatement.
It still manages to be incredible and imaginative despite its many low-budget effects. There were no slow moments. It flows at a rather steady pace.
The storyline is certainly not complex. And it's adventurous for sure. The effort went into the set work and most of the effects. Also, it's certainly very imaginative all while not leaving much to the audience's imagination thanks in large part to Jane Fonda being, well, Jane Fonda.
The acting seems mundane and scripted. Even Jane Fonda seemed distant and uninterested many times through. She often seemed too intent on properly pronouncing the pseudo scientific lines.
Surely, audiences at the time were too turned on to care whether Fonda, scantily clad throughout, was convincing in her acting or not.
Surely, audiences at the time were too turned on to care whether Fonda, scantily clad throughout, was convincing in her acting or not.
The character Barbarella, both in the comic and in this movie, takes a lot of inspiration from Flash Gordon. But her creator took a lot more inspiration from international sex symbol Brigette Bardot.
In fact, it was Bardot's former husband, Roger Vladim, who cast Jane Fonda in the starring role as Fonda was his wife at the time.
Barbarella came out the same year the TV series Batman was in its final season. So, there is a similar tone and style with the series. But unlike Batman, this is definitely geared towards adults, just as the comic is.
The movie's Producer Dino De Laurentiis's name is also attached to a later comic-based movie, Flash Gordon (1980) along with other well known movies.
But it's no surprise Roger Vadim sat in the director's chair has his name is also found among sensual sounding titles such as The Hot Touch, Night Games, and Pretty Maids All in a Row.
Barbarella is certainly unique in its place among other comic based movies, even today. Of course, part of that is due to its being a product of its decade.
There's something to see in every scene, and I say that despite my comment sounding like a euphemism.
For comic enthusiasts, it would be something to watch simply for its uniqueness in style. Otherwise, its just a mere psychedelic space trip frat boys or a bachelor party would enjoy more than general audiences.
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