My observations as I am watching the 1968 film Barbarella.
Spoilers if you haven’t seen Barbarella, but it’s been out
for 40 years.
I'm about seven minutes in and she's been naked for most of it. Not
complaining, mind you, just think it's odd. Note: Jane Fonda was pretty hot
back then. Also, her spaceship is lined with shag carpeting.
Her outfits are all adorably campy.
15 minutes in and someone’s already tying her up.
And now she’s skiing on a sled of some kind being led by an
ice manta ray or something? This is fun so far.
And the walking dolls are scaring the crap out of me.
The ships are pretty cool. P.s. She just had sex with a guy as payment for
fixing her ship. Huh.
And now a blind angel. And the blind angel is leading them
through anti-hell? That’s what this Labyrinth seems to be: anything not evil banished here.
Saving her life gets the angel sex. And he can fly after the
sex, too.
She just told the blind angel to watch out.
A lot of the sets are pretty neat.
“A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming.” I
can’t make these up.
The Earth sex is…interesting. And pretty funny.
Also, her costume changes are built into the story. A scene
I just watched had her ask Dildano (not making that up either) if he has an
outfit she can change into. It seems the men are always the ones who provide
her clothing after her first change.
Quotes here from IMDB:
Dildano: [radioing instructions to the rebel army] And our
password will be... Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Barbarella: You mean the secret password is
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?
Dildano: Exactly.
Researching the film, I found out there was a remake in the works (to be
directed by Robert Rodriguez) and starring Erica Durance (Lois Lane from
Smallville). I’d watch the heck out of that. She’s actually pretty funny and
appropriately hot, too, and Rodriguez knows how to make unapologetically
gratuitous films.
The Excessive Machine is a good example of the gratuity I
mention. The Concierge tries to torture her by overwhelming her with pleasure,
but Barbarella breaks the machine with her overwhelming ability to endure
pleasure. Huh.
“The nobility of pure evil…”
Chamber of dreams is pretty cool. And the bed the queen
sleeps on is awesome. I totally want one.
The Black Knights are as about as intimidating as
Stormtroopers, as in not at all.
Barabarella is reduced to watching the movie with us at this
point.
Barbarella: “Pygar, why did you save her after all of the
horrible things she’s done to you?”
Pygar: “An angel has no memory.”
And those are the last spoken words of the film. An odd
little film, but very entertaining. I would watch it again, if just to figure
out what the heck actually just happened.
