Barbarella (1968)

In the far future, a highly sexual woman is tasked with finding and stopping the evil Durand-Durand. Along the way she encounters various unusual people.

Director:

Roger Vadim

Writers:

Jean-Claude Forest (comic "Barbarella"), Claude Brulé (collaborating writer),

Stars:

Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jane Fonda	...	Barbarella
John Phillip Law	...	Pygar
Anita Pallenberg	...	The Great Tyrant
Milo O'Shea	...	Concierge / Durand-Durand
Marcel Marceau	...	Professor Ping
Claude Dauphin	...	President of Earth
Véronique Vendell	...	Captain Moon (as Veronique Vendell)
Giancarlo Cobelli
Serge Marquand	...	Captain Sun
Nino Musco
Franco Gulà
Catherine Chevallier	...	Stomoxys
Marie Therese Chevallier	...	Glossina
Umberto Di Grazia
David Hemmings	...	Dildano

Storyline

After an in-flight anti-gravity striptease (masked by the film's opening titles), Barbarella, a 41st century astronaut, lands on the planet Lythion and sets out to find the evil Durand Durand in the city of Sogo, where a new sin is invented every hour. There, she encounters such objects as the Exessive Machine, a genuine sex organ on which an accomplished artist of the keyboard, in this case, Durand Durand himself, can drive a victim to death by pleasure, a lesbian queen who, in her dream chamber, can make her fantasies take form, and a group of ladies smoking a giant hookah which, via a poor victim struggling in its glass globe, dispenses Essance of Man. You can't help but be impressed by the special effects crew and the various ways that were found to tear off what few clothes our heroine seemed to possess. Based on the popular French comic strip.

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Plot Keywords:

evil | queen | scientist | planet | mission | 

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Taglines:

Who seduces an angel? Who strips in space? Who conveys love by hand? Who gives up the pill? Who takes sex to outer space? Who's the girl of the 21st century? Who nearly dies of pleasure?

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

France Italy

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 October 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy

Filming Locations:

Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, Marianne Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Anita Pallenberg was dubbed by Joan Greenwood.

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Goofs

When Barbarella is flying around in her spaceship in the opening credits, in a close-up as she removes her gloves you can see her reflection in the Plexiglas she was lying on to give the illusion of floating.

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Quotes

[first lines]
videophone: Stand by for a message from Dianthus, President of Earth and Rotating Premier of the Sun System.

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Crazy Credits

In the opening credits, the letters in the words move around in an attempt to obscure Barbarella's nudity.

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Hercules Unchained (1992)

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Soundtracks

"Drag Me Down"
Written by Bob Crewe & Charles Fox
Performed by The Glitterhouse

User Reviews

Essential Sci-Fi

This is eye candy from start to finish-- *including* one of the most baroque title sequences ever concocted (long before digital technology made this kind of playful titling standard). It's Franco-Italian design all the way through, a celebration of petroleum products and the best of the lava lamp aesthetic. Hard to tell if it's a parody of sci-fi or a parody of porn, or same difference is probably the point. There are some very stylized, sadomasochistic uses of Jane Fonda's long legs, at the same time that Fonda delivers the wittiest lines, in a very witty screenplay by Terry Southern (of Doctor Strangelove fame): "Decrucify my angel immediately!" (Kids, see if you can spot the Chucky in this 1968 precursor.) Skeptics should stay the course to learn what Duran Duran has to do with Barbarella. And Barbarella with the Black Queen. And the Black Queen with the Rolling Stones. And if you don't know what camp is, then you have to see Barbarella: even if the film is more sublime than camp, a kind of psychedelic Brechtian fantasia. (If that's not a contradiction in terms, then this isn't on my sci-fi shortlist.) One to own, to watch again and again.