From the very beginning of Roger Vadim's Barbarella, the film's aggressive sexual nature is front in center, with Jane Fonda's iconic zero gravity striptease front and center as the opening credits play. The film tells the story of Barbarella, a 41st century astronaut, who sets out in search of a missing inventor, Durand Durand, whose positronic ray poses a serious threat to all of humanity. Traveling from star system to start system in various outlandish outfits and psychedelic sci-fi infused backdrops, Barbarella discovers the joy of sex along her journey, eventually finding her way to Druand Durand. Roger Vadim's Barbarella is an outlandish sexcapade that provides a rather entertaining time capsule of the 1960s, being essentially a sex romp masquerading as a sci-fi epic. It's really not that difficult to understand why Barbarella has become such a cult classic in the science fiction community, between Jane Fonda's half-naked performance and the extensive and impressive production design and world building that make Barbarella an over-the-top but awe-inspiring-ly creative space opera. Jane Fonda personifies the objectification of the female form in this film, with Barbarbella being a sexual creature who is sought after and desired by nearly everyone she comes across. The whole film has such a kinky, sleazy undertone, as nearly every major set piece, whether it be an exposition or action-driven sequence having some type of sexual symbolic intention. There is a scene in the film where Barbarbella withstands an adversaries organ of love, which essentially has Jane Fonda showing the world her "O face", which destroys the machine due to it being unable to deal with Barbarella's sexual energy. While it's probably a little harsh to call Barbarella an incoherent film, the storyline itself is very convoluted and simply not that interesting, outside of the film's lavish production design. Very much a product of the time, the swinging sixties, Barbella is a lavishly designed sci-fi epic that is a one-of-a-kind experience, for better or worse.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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