Barbarella (1968)
Directed by Roger Vadim

Film Review

Intended as a colourful adaptation of Jean-Claude Forest's comic books of the 1960s, Barbarella has since acquired a reputation as very possibly the most gloriously over-the-top science fiction film in cinema history.  The mere fact that the film never lets up for a moment but continues to take itself seriously right up until the closing credits - seemingly oblivious to its artistic and technical inadequacies - gives it a certain intoxicating charm.

It is certainly easy to find fault with the film, which accounts for why it often ends up highly placed in lists of the worst films ever made.  The script contains some of the most laughably wooden dialogue and ill-judged attempts at humour since language was invented; the special effects are so bad (even by 1960s standards) that they end up provoking more laughter than the script; the acting varies from the mediocre to the abysmal - with its star Jane Fonda showing as much dramatic range as a Barbie doll.   If the word “kitsch” could only be applied to one film, that film would assuredly be Barbarella .

Yet, in spite of all its faults, Barbarella still manages to entertain and, by accident or design, is a wonderful spoof of the whole science-ficttion genre.  For those who can see past the clumsy editing, dire special effects, silly double entendres and pretentious schoolboy dialogue, there is a real feast of unforgettable images and side-splitting comedy.

Milo O'Shea makes a deliciously camp villain, who is only just out-staged by the seductively svelte Anita Pallenberg (who is dubbed by velvety tones of Joan Greenwood).   French mime artist Marcel Marceau also makes one of his few film appearances.   In a role which she obviously feels uncomfortable in and would regret for the rest of her career, Jane Fonda plays the dumb blonde space agent Barbarella with the wide-eyed innocence of - well, a naive young actress who would regret playing the part for the rest of her career.

Barbarella was directed Roger Vadim, one of the most controversial and high-profile French film directors of the late 1950s, early 1960s - although this had more to do with his very public liaisons with star name actresses (including Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda and Catherine Deneuve) than his cinema work.  Vadim's films such as Et Dieu... créa la femme (1956) and Le Repos du guerrier (1962) broke new ground in their daring depiction of free love and sexually liberated women, putting him in the vanguard of the French New Wave.   Barbarella marked a radical (and some would say unfortunate) departure for Vadim into the sphere of science-fiction and comic book fantasy.  Although Barbarella is undoubtedly one of his best-known films, it is is also his most flawed and atypical.

Film Synopsis

In the 41st century, space agent Barbarella is sent on a vital mission by the President of the Earth Republic to locate the missing scientist Duran Duran, creator of the deadly Positronic Ray.  In the Tau Ceti star system, Barbarella's ship crashes on an alien world where she encounters vicious children with killer dolls.  Resuming her mission, she meets the outcasts of the evil City of Sogo, who include a blind angel Pygar and helpful scientist Professor Ping.  Realising that Duran Duran is likely to be in the City, Barbarella asks Pygar to take her there.   Not long after her arrival, she is captured by the Great Tyrant and sentenced to death…