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Barbarella is a 1968 erotic science fiction film based on the French Barbarella comics created by Jean-Claude Forest. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.
[edit] PlotIn the 40th century, Barbarella (Jane Fonda) is assigned by the President of Earth (Claude Dauphin) to retrieve Doctor Durand-Durand (Milo O'Shea) from the planet SoGo in order to save the earth. On her quest, Barbarella is seduced by a human resident of SoGo (David Hemmings), who introduces her to penetrative intercourse, something she is unaware of, since civilized people of Barbarella's society find their sexual release through pharmaceuticals. In turn, she seduces an angel named Pygar (John Phillip Law), and overloads a torture device called the Excessive (or "Ex-sex-sive") Machine, which kills through sexual pleasure. [edit] Cast
[edit] StyleBarbarella is noted for a sequence in which the title character, played by Jane Fonda, undresses in zero gravity during the opening credits. The whole film is played in a tongue-in-cheek manner; especially when it comes to the frequent (but not explicit) sex scenes. The most controversial of those scenes involves Barbarella being tortured by the use of an organ-like instrument that delivers sexual pleasure in doses that can be lethal, although Barbarella survives the ordeal and is visibly disappointed when it is discovered she has overloaded the machine. The film was simultaneously shot in French and English. Some characters' lines were performed by the same actors in both languages; others were not. For instance, Fonda was fluent in French and performs her own lines for the French version, while Marcel Marceau's lines are dubbed for the English film. De Laurentiis returned to camp science fiction, but with far less erotica, with the 1980 cult classic Flash Gordon. [edit] SoundtrackThe songs in the film were written by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox. During his first European tour in 1967, Frank Zappa had flown from Copenhagen to Italy to meet Vadim and Fonda in order to discuss the possibility of composing the music for the film, but this did not happen. [edit] Special effectsThe psychedelic "blob" patterns that form much of the special effects in the film were created using an oil wheel projector, a popular visual effects device which was widely used for psychedelic light shows at rock concerts in the late 1960s and was also used in many other '60s movies, as well as in many anti-drug educational films. [edit] ReceptionThe film was both a box office and critical failure on its release. Variety's review stated that "Despite a certain amount of production dash and polish and a few silly-funny lines of dialogue, Barbarella isn't very much of a film. Based on what has been called an adult comic strip, the Dino De Laurentiis production is flawed with a cast that is not particularly adept at comedy, a flat script, and direction which can't get this beached whale afloat."[1] Despite this, in the years since its initial release, Barbarella has garnered a cult following. [edit] In popular culture
The band Duran Duran, a British music band of the 1980s, took its name from the mad scientist in the film, Dr. Durand-Durand. Milo O'Shea, who played the part, repaid the compliment by appearing as an older version of the characater in Arena, the band's 1985 concert film. Some of the band's early appearances were at a nightclub called Barbarella's, in their home town of Birmingham, England. The band has frequently used sound clips from the film in their songs, most notably 1989's "Burning the Ground" and the remixes for 1990's "Violence of Summer (Love's Taking Over)". The band continued the homage to its roots with their 1997 US single, "Electric Barbarella" (released in the UK in 1998). Stephen Duffy, an original member of Duran Duran, released a solo song titled "Barbarellas" on his 1998 I Love My Friends album.
[edit] RemakeA remake of Barbarella is planned. It will be penned by current James Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and produced by Dino and Martha De Laurentiis.[2] It was recently announced that Sin City director Robert Rodriguez is slated to direct the remake for Universal Studios.[2] The remake of Barbarella was originally planned in the 1990s with Roger Vadim as director, and actresses Sherilyn Fenn and Drew Barrymore were considered for the title role.[3] As of May 2007, it was announced that actress Erica Durance of the WB's Smallville was a front-runner for a 2008 remake. However, subsequent reports have identified British actress Sienna Miller as the favorite to take the role, along with Rodriguez's Grindhouse star Rose McGowan. According to Elle magazine, McGowan has been cast in the title role.[4] According to the New York Observer, Universal Studios has backed out of funding the movie because of Rodriguez's insistence to cast McGowan in the title role. Executives reportedly do not think that she can carry a movie with a budget close to $100 million. Once Universal learned of Rodriguez's decision to cast McGowan they slashed the budget significantly. Rodriguez denies this, saying, "Universal had initially signed on for $60 million, but then when we were done with the script it wound up at closer to $82 million." The filmmaker is currently shopping the project around to other studios in the hopes of getting more money. He has cited the fact that most of the movie takes place in outer space as the reason for the rise in budget, and that "we don’t want the movie to look like the original."[5] Rodriguez backed out of the project, and in June 2009, Entertainment Weekly reported that Robert Luketic will be directing the remake with a different studio. Screenwriter Joe Gazzam has been hired to write an entirely new draft -- taking the film in a different direction. [6] [edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] External links
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