Review of Barbarella (1968) by Alex K — 01 May 2010

Barbarella... Oh my, what to say about "Barbarella"! It is a 60s free love sort of science fiction comedy, completely aware of its bad special effects and bad taste, but with a powerful erotic drive and great set designs.

If one thing its director Roger Vadim knew was woman. Hell, the guy had affairs with Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve and Jane Fonda! Barbarella was the first ever adaptation of a comic book to the big screen and was pretty ahead of its time in its exploration of the sexuality of Jane Fonda, without ever showing sex.

But really the opening scene as the credits roll is better than sex, as Jane Fonda strips all the way in zero gravity (and I really mean all the way!). The rest of the film she is either naked with the back to the camera (with a few side glances), or covered by a sheet in bed, or else with the sexiest futuristic outfits you ever saw.

Fonda is Barbarella, a girl with hidden talents (well, maybe not that hidden) in a future world where free love reigns and there is no war nor weapons. A scientist disappears, by the name of Duran Duran (yes! where do you suppose the 80s band got their name?!), and the Earth president fears that someone may be using him to create a weapon.

"A weapon?" asks an incredulous Fonda, without really understanding that such a thing may exist. So, Fonda's mission is to find Duran Duran. Off she goes to strange planets and cities, bedding almost every male character that comes her way (she is very pleasure prone indeed, first with the new "sex pills" and then capitulating to the â??old fashion way").

She encounters strange characters and societies, as her search leads her closer to Duran Duran. The special effects are off course poor, and they aim to be too! Fonda's one liners, often with an almost mechanical, comical and amused tone, like she isn't believing what she is saying or what is happening, and the looks she often gives sideways, prove that she is perfectly aware that something is amiss and that many situations are absurd.

The ghost of the B picture is always present, as is in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" of a few years later. Yet, the set design is marvellous, very lavish, and indeed memorable. To note the great David Hemmings' performance as the leader of the resistance, a clumsy and comic character.

Can Barbarella save the world from disaster, and stay with the one that gives her most pleasure? The plot and the interest of the story fade away in the first third of the movie, the rest seems almost stuck in there just to reach the 90 minutes, but the movie has not become a cult classic due to its story, if you know what I mean.

The pop symphonic soundtrack is excellent, the scenery and the photography excel, Vadim created a world without profound meaning but with a witty message scratching the surface, but all of that just fades in comparison to Fonda.

Incredulous, not very adventurous, saves the galaxy almost by chance, but unbelievably sexy and erotic, without resorting to cheap tricks. Jane Fonda IS pleasure, IS free love, and she beams that from every pore of her beautiful body straight into the camera, and then straight into the most intimate senses of the male viewer.