Review – Barbarella (1968)

I can’t quite recall the first time i saw Barbarella, but it was more than likely a late night screening on television, nicely tucked away after the News At Ten. It was like nothing i’d ever seen before. To me, aged about 13, it was science fiction, with some mildly dirty bits, and fused with the most amazing 60s pop soundtrack, some of which i couldn’t get out of my head for weeks afterwards. I sort of knew this movie was going to become a firm favourite of mine for years to come, and i wasn’t wrong.

Jane Fonda, in one of her first acting roles, plays space sex kitten Barbarella, a kind of interstellar secret agent, and the opening credits, featuring a slow, zero gravity striptease, perfectly sets the tone for what follows.  She’s asked by earths President to go undercover, on a rescue mission, to locate a missing scientist named, wait for it, Durand Durand, and yes, this is where the new romantic band of the 1980s found their name, before conquering the world with hits like Planet Earth, Hungry Like The Wolf and Girls On Film. Durand Durand is the inventor of the “positronic ray”, a weapon of mass destruction, which, can’t be allowed to fall into the wrong hands due to the universe having been pacified for centuries.

Along the way, Barbarella loses her clothes at every opportunity, and we meet an assortment of weird and wonderful characters. These include a resistance fighter, Dildano, yes honestly, played by British acting legend David Hemmings, most famous for the controversial 1966 movie Blow Up. We also have renowned French mime artist Marcel Marceau as Professor Ping, John Philip Law, who, in 1973, went on to play the lead role in the Ray Harryhausen fantasy classic, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, as Pygar, a blind angel, and rounding things off, 60s starlet, Anita Pallenberg as The Great Tyrant, who was at the time of filming, Keith Richards “Old Lady”.

The movie itself is based on a series of French comic books written by Jean Claude Forest. Directed by Roger Vadim, who was Fonda’s husband at the time, the film has a totally unique visual style. Oddly enough Jane Fonda wasn’t the first choice of actress to play the lead. Believe it or not, the Producer, Dino De Laurentis, wanted either Sophia Loren or Brigitte Bardot, to play the role, but for their own reasons they both turned it down.

The very mention of the name Dine De Laurentis, is enough to grab anyone’s attention, since he was behind so many amazing movies, including Flash Gordon, Army of Darkness, Conan The Barbarian, Conan The Destroyer and the 1976 version of King Kong.

Strange thing is, upon it’s initial release, it didn’t perform as well as expected in the States, but it was a runaway success in Europe, and especially in the U.K where it was the second biggest box office draw of 1968, second only to The Jungle Book. In 1977, due to the success of Star Wars, Paramount re released the film, with all scenes of nudity removed. They also changed the title to Barbarella Queen Of The Galaxy, which i assume they thought would appeal more to the Star Wars crowd, and of course with all the adult material cut out, they were able to slap a PG rating on it, making it much more family friendly. The more adult scenes were reinstated for it’s home video release years later. I have to admit i’d love to see what the cut version looks like. Maybe Paramount will include it, if it still exists, in a future Bluray or 4K release.

As for the critics of the time, opinions were, to put it mildly, varied. One reviewer called the film a “sick, heavy-handed fantasy with nudity and graphic representations of sadism”. That’s certainly not the film i saw. I’ve also heard the movie described as “A gift wrapped, X certificate bon bon, for the free love, pop art generation. I couldn’t have put it better myself.” I mean, how can you not like a movie that has, among others, the classic line,  “de-crucify the angel or I melt your face!”

In the fifty plus years since it’s original release, it has definetely acheived cult status. Any doubt about that was dispelled when Entertainment Weekly ranked it number 40, on its list of top 50 cult movies” in 2003.

Watching the film now with modern eyes, one question keeps cropping up, and that is, Just what were they on??? Barbarella is one of those sixties films, which would also have to include The Beatles movie “Help”, and The Monkee’s totally weird film , “Head”, which, although they make no actual references to the decade’s drug culture, nevertheless leaves you thinking, that the director, the scriptwriter, the set designer, the costume designer, the cameramen and the rest of the cast must have been under the influence of mind-expanding drugs throughout the entire shooting period. How else could you come up with killer dolls, murderous birds and an Excessive Pleasure Machine which induces fatal sexual pleasure.

To sum up, Barbarella is a psychedelic, bright, camp, sexy, kitsch movie and is completely of it’s time. It also has a soundtrack by the Bob Crewe Generation which i love, and is to die for. It screams the 1960’s, so turn on, tune out, plug in your lava lamp and take a look at it. You’ll love it, or hate it, but you are guaranteed to have great fun with it.