Barbarella
France - Italy / 1968
Directed by Roger Vadim
Starring
Jane Fonda
John Phillip Law
David Hemmings
Color / 98 Minutes / PG
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
Paramount Home Video
Music from the film
Black Queen's Beads
MP3 format - 3.2 MB
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New Blu-ray edition in 2012
Review by
Brian Lindsey
 
5
     5   10 = Highest Rating  
Inspired by Troy's recent review of Danger: Diabolik, I decided to give that film's much better known contemporary, Barbarella, a shot. I'd watched it before, but that was almost 15 years ago via Pan & Scan cable broadcast — therefore I hadn't really seen it. In any aspect ratio it was just as silly as I remembered.
    There ain't a whole lot of plot here. In the year 40,000 AD, the President of the Republic of Earth contacts star-trekkin' hottie Barbarella (Jane Fonda) — the galaxy's top-rated "astronavigatrix" — aboard her shag carpeted spaceship. He has an urgent mission for her. The brilliant scientist Duran Duran has disappeared in an unexplored region of space, taking with him the secret of an über-powerful weapon called the Positronic Ray. Barbarella is to find him and return him to Earth at all costs. A magnetic storm causes her ship to crash-land on the rocky planet Lythion, where she episodically encounters a number of strange humanoids both friendly and hostile. In her search for the missing scientist, a hunky blind angel named Pygar (Diabolik himself, John Phillip Law) helps her infiltrate Sogo, a city built atop a lake of liquefied negative energy that thrives on evil...
    I have no idea whether or not Barbarella's extremely campy tone is in keeping with its source material, a racy French comic strip which I've never read. Either way, it's evident that director Roger Vadim (at the time Fonda's husband) didn't really have a clue as to how to direct such a movie. He seems inspired more by lava lamps than comic books. There's quite a contrast between his approach and that of Mario Bava in Danger: Diabolik. Bava was a director with the aesthetic acuity to see the comic book and the motion picture as similar, complementary constructs; Vadim seems content to just point his camera at weirdly garbed actors standing around on bizarre, trippy sets. The film is further undermined by spectacularly crappy special effects, about on par with something you'd see in a '60s episode of TV's Doctor Who. (A low budget cannot be cited as an excuse. Barbarella was reportedly made for $9,000,000 — at the time a considerable sum.) The only truly 'alien' creatures we're shown are a plastic-looking 'ice manta' and some blue-painted bunny rabbits. (???)
    The film does have a couple of positive things going for it, however. The memorable pop/psychedelic score by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox is delightful and complements the visuals immensely — this is the kind of music that the term "groovy" was invented for. (Check out the MP3 link on the left-hand sidebar for a primo example.) As Dildano, the fumbling revolutionary who hopes to topple Sogo's evil queen with Barbarella's help, the late David Hemmings (Deep Red) is quite amusing in an atypically comedic role. Then there's Jane Fonda herself. Not only is her performance fully attuned to the film's kitschy/camp spirit, she makes for one fine babe-a-licious space vixen. About 30 when Barbarella was filmed, she's at the height of her beauty here. It's very easy to see why she's considered one of the sexiest actresses of the 1960s. (Although the DVD packaging lists the film's rating as PG, this is the uncut version that includes a few tantalizing glimpses of Fonda in the buff.)
    While I personally find Barbarella a disappointment (I'm content to turn it off after Fonda's famous zero-gravity striptease during the opening credits), I'm fully cognizant of its secure status as a bona fide cult "classic". The film certainly has its devotees; although it bombed at the U.S. box-office it was popular in Europe, later gaining cult cachet in the States via midnight movie screenings attended by stoned college kids. Undeniably, its look and sound have influenced filmmakers — and pop culture — in the decades since. Were Austin Powers ever shot into space a la James Bond in Moonraker you could expect to see quite a few references to Barbarella. (Let's all hope and pray that Mike Myers never gets around to that...)

Since the demise of the laserdisc format Barbarella could only be seen on home video by way of the horribly cropped Pan & Scan VHS edition. Paramount's 2003 DVD release consigned those tapes straight to the rubbish bin; the anamorphic transfer is letterboxed at 2.35:1. A bit of wear is occasionally noticeable but the image is sharp and the psychedelic colors vivid. The film's groovy score really deserves a stereo mix but I was quite surprised by how good it sounds here in mono — I'd be hard pressed to name another mono audio track in which the music sounded so crisply clear. (An inferior optional French language track is also selectable, with Fonda doing a fine job of dubbing herself en Français.) Alas, the DVD comes with no extras except the U.S. theatrical trailer. 6/30/05

UPDATE Paramount is releasing a remastered Blu-ray edition on July 3, 2012.
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