Flower Power in Space
Added 10/11/2009
Do you remember "The Summer of Love" ? Do you remember "The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius (Where Peace will rule the planets and Love will steer the stars ... ) ? Well, this is the standard for the vision portrayed as Barbarella treks to far off galaxies on a quest to apprehend Duran Duran and return him to Justice. In retrospect she seems to be overly starry-eyed, perhaps even ditzy or air-headed, but those are all tolerable traits in a naked lady. Are there parallels to "The Wizard of Oz" ? Certainly there is Wonder in abundance. In the end Justice is served all around.
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Roger Vadim does Jane
Added 8/20/2009
For decades I had been meaning to watch this to see if Jane Fonda was as gorgeously displayed by Roger Vadim as advertised (and as reported by my horny friends). Well, yes. But the rest of the movie--high camp? Interesting sci-fi spoof? Satire on the genre? Well, no, but there are some eyebrow-raising and rather bizarre flights of fancy by Vadim including some creepy children in an icy landscape who bean Fonda with a rock, knock her out and tie her up. They have little dolls with piranha teeth that they sic on her luscious tied-up bod, drawing some very red blood to contrast with her white skin. You get the picture.
Another interesting idea is that of the labyrinth containing the "good" people outside the city of all sins. Vadim reverses Dante's Inferno and puts the angels and other people in hell while the evil doers live in their decadence in the not so fair city. Fonda rides on the back of an angel with wings (John Phillip Law) while shooting down the "leather" storm troopers from the city in their flying machines. Ka-boom! Jane doesn't miss but of course she does get captured and...well, scantily clad Jane in chains or rather ropes in the city of evil... You get the picture.
Roger Vadim gained international fame as the director of "Et Dieu... créa la femme" (1956) starring the amazingly beautiful Bridget Bardot. He seemed to have a way with actresses, especially young, beautiful and aspiring ones. It was quite a coup to somehow capture the heart or perhaps it was the ambition of the young and beautiful Jane Fonda. One can see that part of his technique was to really put the lady on display. Here in Barbarella, Fonda more or less undresses for the camera as the opening credits roll. It's a kind of "you gotta have a gimmick" strip tease as she is turned upside down and sideways by the seemingly lack of gravity in her spaceship as she dodges behind the text of the opening credits. This peek-a-boo would be quite titillating were I still 19 years old (or what the heck, 50). Regardless the point is the full (as much as possible) display of Fonda who does indeed look gorgeous. But that would not be enough, not nearly enough for the actress that Jane would become. She exclusively holds the camera for much of the first part of the movie in her space ship as she re-robes, talks with the President of Earth, and moves about and begins her space faring mission looking for "Duran Duran" (yes, they got their name from this flick). Her skin is flawless, her limbs elegant, her eyes beautifully made up in the dark sixties style. The camera loves her, Vadim loves her, the audience loves her, Jane loves her.
To be candid I did not watch the entire movie. But that is more a problem of age (mine) than it is of the movie which was at least as good as most sci-fi spoofs and a bit more creative. However if you don't find Jane Fonda attractive, you won't even be able to watch as much as I did.
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Hot Sci-Fi
Added 8/16/2009
Jane Fonda looks fabulous in this movie. So fabulous it's hard to believe that's Jane Fonda, but it is. In her youth she looked fab as the sexy vixen Barbarella and space never looked better.
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Jane Fonda never looked better!
Added 8/7/2009
Total sixties cheese, but a true cult classic (with benefits) IMHO. I won't bore you with a recap of the story; many here have done admiral jobs of that. This movie has it all: Acting that is pure pork on the huff, dialog that never met a corny pun it could pass up, and art direction out of "Be Kind Rewind." I might add that this movie brought back fond(a) memories of other truly cheesy sci-fi flick from my childhood like: "In Like Flint," "Our Man Flint," "The Reluctant Astronaut," "Land That Time Forgot," etc. The main difference being, the SMOKIN' HOT nude shots of Ms. Fonda. Okay, they're pretty tame by today's standard. Sure, some will argue that she was a communist sympathizer, but no one can deny she was an absolute HOTTIE back in the day. Enjoy a little whine with this cheese.
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This my favorite movie
Added 7/2/2009
I saw this on it's first theatrical run as a teenager, and it has been my favorite film ever since. This DVD is a very nice 16 by 9 transfer of this fun movie! And in my opinion, the cheesy special affects actually make this movie more endearing. Jane has nothing to be ashamed of here, as she is quite beautiful and very funny. The print that was used needs some restorative work, but it looks great on an HD set, and the sound quality is good as well, considering it is monophonic. It would be great if they did a special edition of this some day while some of the cast members can still participate. But that probably won't happen until another Barbarella movie gets made. Highly, highly recommended!
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