Space Oddities Film Review: Barbarella

Figure 1

Made in 1968, Barbarella is a Franco-Italian science fiction film adaptation of a French science fiction comic strip created by Jean-Claude Forest that was published in the early 1960s. Forest teamed up with Claude Brul to start writing the film along with Terry Southern, director Roger Vadim writing the screenplay and Jane Fonda as the leading female, who was Vadims wife at the time. Plot: In the year 40,000 in the 41st century a female astronaut known as Barbarella, has been given the mission of entering the city of Sogo on the planet Lythion in order to find a scientist called Durand Durand who as invented a weapon called the Positonic Ray. On her journey she encounters Pygar; a blind angel who helps her on her quest, a lesbian Queen known as The Great Tyrant who has a Chamber of Dreams, and Durand Durand himself, who has been posing as the citys concierge and has in fact been planning an evil scheme that threatens universal peace. He has an Excessive Machine that he uses to try and drive Barbarella to death with pleasure but the machine proves too weak for Barbarellas sexual endurance and exhausts all its power. After failing to kill Barbarella, Durand Durand finds out that she has the invisible key to the Chamber of Dreams in which the Queen lies. He forces her into opening it and traps both of them inside so that he can take over the throne. In light of Durand Durands betrayal of her, the Queen forms an alliance with Barbarella to defeat Durand Durand and his Positonic Ray and save the world from destruction. Before the film itself has evening begun, the opening credits feature Jane Fonda performing an anti-gravity strip-tease out of her space suit with the song Barbarella written by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox and performed by The Glitterhouse. Straight

away from watching this, the audience knows that this is no ordinary science fiction film and it will certainly shock them throughout in more ways than one. The overall look of Barbarella is quite extraordinary as there is nothing like it in any other film to date. It evokes the psychedelic fashions and colour schemes of the 1960s with bold, swirly, bright patterns, lava lamp like details, miniskirts, shiny boots, strange looking sculptures and the notion of hippies in relation to the quote make love, not war which in this case becomes quite literal.
- Its cardboard sets lit in a variety of pulsing colours, with swirling designs and lots of fog and bubbles, Barbarella is a delightfully kitsch piece of psychedelia: Roger Vadim had more to show off than his then wife. - J. Kermode, 2012

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Not only does the look of it reflect on the 1960s but so does its content. 1968 was the year of the summer of love, the contraceptive pill, psychedelic drugs and love was not about marriage anymore but about sex, women could have sexual intercourse however many times they liked because it feels good and they would not be judged. So within the film it shows a huge aspect of that as Barbarella meets many sexual encounters with alien men when shes feeling a bit naughty. As well as this most of the outfits worn by Fonda and other females within the film do not cover much of their bodies which again show the notion of the freedom of sex in the 60s (Figure 3).

Figure 3

The film has not been a huge inspiration for main stream science fiction and at the time of its release it was not very successful. But whatever peoples feelings and opinions about it, it still is the film that made Fondas name and is the film for which she is most famous but not necessarily proud of.
- Jane Fonda may have given better performances in better films than BARBARELLA, but none are as iconic as her portrayal of the sexy sci-fi super heroine. And yet upon its initial release, BARBARELLA failed to resonate with audiences and critics alike. Over the years, however, it's become a bonafide cult classic. - B. Ignizio, 2011

On a side note the 1980s band Duran Duran is in fact named after Durand Durand minus the d that also had an album featuring a song titled Electric Barbarella. Aside from all of the films sexual conducts, bright colours, bold patterns and psychedelic look it can also be labelled as a comedy as it is very quirky with tonguein-cheek humorous gestures and phrases by Fonda and other cast members which puts a nice edge on the film and lighter mood as opposed to just being crazy and strange.
- Barbarella is a genuine delight. It is easily amongst the most entertaining science fiction films I have seen. It is funny, visually appealing, and engaging. - K. Allen, 200-

Bibliography Quotes Kermode, 2012, Available at: http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/writer/Jennie%20Kermode Review: http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/barbarella-film-review-by-jennie-kermode [Accessed online on 21st October 2012] Ignizio, 2011, Available at: http://www.clevelandmovieblog.com/ Review: http://www.clevelandmovieblog.com/2011/07/barbarella-july-31st-atthenorwalk.html [Accessed online on 22nd October 2012] Allen, 200-, Available at: http://www.movierapture.com/homepage.htm Review: http://www.movierapture.com/barbarella.htm [Accessed online on 22nd October 2012]

Illustrations Figure 1: http://www.impawards.com/1968/barbarella.html Figure 2: http://blackholereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/barbarella-1968-ultimate-guide-part5.html Figure 3: http://blackholereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/barbarella-1968-ultimate-guide-part5.html