BARBARELLA

1968/Director: Roger Vadim/Producer: Dino De Laurentiis/Writer: Jean-Claude Forest, Roger Vadim, Terry Southern Cast: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, David Hemming. Marcel Marceau

Barbarella was never a movie I was thrilled with although I’ve seen it a few times simply because Jane Fonda is so blasted sexy in it. While I am not disappointed with the sets and visuals and even the soundtrack, I just never cared for the story line which is based on the character created by French cartoonist Jean-Claude Forest. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and Fonda would marry him during production. Her character was patterned (legend has it) after Vadim’s previous wife Bridgett Bardot. Who is this guy? I would be honored to tie his boot laces though I am not worthy. I assume the story was supposed to be more tongue in cheek than it comes off as and I always felt the movie unintentionally took itself too seriously. It bombed critically and at the box office when it was released but has garnered and maintained a strong following on home video.

The story is not much really and has a comic book feel to it that works enough times to keep you waiting until the next sexy scenes comes up, and they usually involve a young and stunning Jane Fonda before she was demonstrating against the US in Hanoi. A couple of the most famous sequences involve her undressing in zero gravity and being tortured in an orgasm producing machine. John Philip Law ( from Bava’s Danger Diabolik, also a comic book adaptation) is some blind, angel with a broken wing character and Keith Richard’s common law wife Anita Palenberg also appears in the film.

The film has had a substantial influence on pop culture, one of the more famous being the naming after a character from the film of the 80’s MTV band Duran Duran (who I could never stand). Seems a remake is getting nearer to actually beginning and Desperado/Sin City director Richard Rodriguez is slated to over see the project. He is pushing the studios to have his other half Rose McGowen play the lead and is having a slight tug of war with the studios over this, but lets see what happens. But in the end this is one of those roles that can never be matched by anyone but the original star. Imagine someone else playing the Man with No Name other than Clint Eastwood. Jane Fonda IS Barbarella. I welcome a newer version of the film with better effects and some sort of story, but no one can have multiple orgasms the way she did.

FROM THE BARBARELLA COMIC BOOK BY JEAN-CLAUDE FOREST

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Comic Books, Pin Up Girls-Cheese Cake-Femme Fatales, Science Fiction-Fantasy . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.