Review of Barbarella (1968) by Alan L — 01 Feb 2008

Terry Southern did not write the screenplay in good taste. Roger Vadim was not a man of good intentions. Jane Fonda does not seem to realize the joke that's being played on her. This is not just a B-movie where the heroine walks from cardboard set to cardboard set in futuristic outfits, even though that may be what the producers paid to see.

Instead, the budget, the source material, the whole 60s enterprise, is being mocked with rhetorical dexterity and saytrishness. Real motive: This is Candide in the Space Age. Or did you miss that? This is camp but it also outsmarts you, which means you can't dismiss it as a mere artifact, because sometimes, the old ways, are so much better.