Barbarella, an astronaut from the 41st century, sets out to find and stop the evil scientist Durand Durand, whose Positronic Ray threatens to bring evil back into the galaxy.
The year is 40,000. After peaceful floating in zero-gravity, astronaut Barbarella lands on the frozen planet Lythion and sets out to find renowned scientist Durand Durand in the City of Night, Sogo, where a new sin is invented every hour. There, she encounters such objects as the Excessive Machine, a genuine sex organ on which an expert artist of the keyboard, in this case, Durand Durand himself, can drive a victim to death by pleasure, a lesbian queen who can make her fantasies take form in her Chamber of Dreams, and a group of ladies smoking a giant hookah which dispenses Essence of Man through a poor victim struggling in its glass globe. You can not help but be impressed by the special effects crew and the various ways that were found to tear off what minimal clothes our heroine seemed to possess.Written by
alfiehitchie
Jackie Lee worked on the original soundtrack, written by Michel Magne, but her songs were removed before release. See more »
Goofs
After Barbarella faints from being attacked by the "tooth dolls," several wounds on her legs and arms are visible. When she gets into the iceboat immediately after being rescued, the wounds have disappeared. See more »
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. See more »
Alternate Versions
In 1968, all the legislative rules about not showing female nudity were applied by the Australian Film Censorship Board, when Barbarella was classified (SOA) SUITABLE ONLY FOR ADULTS.
The Australia Film Censorship Board ordered the elimination of "all shots of female nudity" i.e. Australia Film Censorship Board insisted that the brief female nudity is never seen by Australians.
In 1968 BARBARELLA quickly became a cult movie film outside Australia, because under the pretext of Jane Fonda completely removing her spacesuit, she does a revealing zero-gravity striptease during the 4:49 minutes of opening credits, whilst the title theme song is performed by The Glitterhouse. Bright white animated titles are used, where the letters forming the words move around in an attempt to obscure Barbarella's nudity, plus there is visual blurring to hide Jane Fonda's incomplete nakedness.
Projected in glorious SPLICE-ARAMA, BARBARELLA when shown in Australian cinemas on its first theatrical release, at the request of the Australian Film Censorship Board the movie had all nudity eliminated. Because of large number of censorship cuts in the opening credits to remove all the female nudity, the title theme song also had some lyrics cut. These are the six sequences of cuts during the opening credits sequence:- Before the title sequence says "David Hemmings" cut 3:46 to 3:47 left breast and nipple, then cut 3:41 to 3:56 right breast and nipple, then cut 4:08 to 4:14 left and right breast and nipples. Before the title sequence says "Dino De Laurentis" cut 4:15 to 4:17 left breast and nipple, then cut 4:30 to 4:43 right breast nipple then left breast nipple. Before the title sequence says "Roger Vadim" cut 4:45 to 4:50 left breast and nipple then right breast and nipple.
Inside her spaceship, cut 8:32 to 8:34 brief rear view of Jane Fonda
In the labyrinth sequences, the topless women, cut 32:42 to 32:45 then cut 33:38 to 33:50 then cut 39:29 to 39:40
All the topless women plus the woman suspended from the ceiling in the city of Sogo sequences, cut 71:21 to 71:41 then cut 72:52 to 73:01
If you're looking for a quality science fantasy experience, you will probably be disappointed in BARBARELLA, which tells a typical story of an intergallactic astronaught who is sent on a mission to save a brilliant scientist from the clutches of an evil force that threatens to destroy the universe.
On her quest she finds daunting foes, unexpected comrades and twists and turns like any good superhero story should have. The only problem is that her world is made up of Christmas lights, cellophane and balsa wood, and it's all held together with scotch tape.
However what some might consider schlock entertainment, I saw it as pure camp all the way, with some hysterical situations and outrageous costumes draped over not-so-difficult-to-look-at actors (especially our babe-o-naught Ms. Fonda), and to top off the cake we have an icing of infectious music by comedic composer Charles Fox (9 to 5, Foul Play) and singer/songwriter Bob Crewe.
This is pure candy all the way so don't expect any nutrition here, but if you let it happen instead of looking for more, you may find yourself inspired to watch it again and again, when you don't feel like using any brain cells in this dimension.
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If you're looking for a quality science fantasy experience, you will probably be disappointed in BARBARELLA, which tells a typical story of an intergallactic astronaught who is sent on a mission to save a brilliant scientist from the clutches of an evil force that threatens to destroy the universe.
On her quest she finds daunting foes, unexpected comrades and twists and turns like any good superhero story should have. The only problem is that her world is made up of Christmas lights, cellophane and balsa wood, and it's all held together with scotch tape.
However what some might consider schlock entertainment, I saw it as pure camp all the way, with some hysterical situations and outrageous costumes draped over not-so-difficult-to-look-at actors (especially our babe-o-naught Ms. Fonda), and to top off the cake we have an icing of infectious music by comedic composer Charles Fox (9 to 5, Foul Play) and singer/songwriter Bob Crewe.
This is pure candy all the way so don't expect any nutrition here, but if you let it happen instead of looking for more, you may find yourself inspired to watch it again and again, when you don't feel like using any brain cells in this dimension.