tenshi_ippikiookami "Barbarella" is a movie that seems to just have a purpose in mind: follow Jane Fonda's character Barbarella as she changes from one costume to another. And just that. Everything else is an empty excuse for this fashion show.But just in case, let me enlighten the casual reader of this review: Barbarella, after getting naked for no particular reason in the opening credits, gets the mission of finding Durand Durand (yes, he afterwards went on to be a member of a famous music band), who is going around with a dangerous weapon. Barbarella's cool red spaceship crashes and... well, she encounters curiously scantly clad characters while going from one place to the other (and getting her clothes destroyed by all kind of accidents).If this sounds campy as hell, well, kudos, because it is. And when it embraces its campiness, and the silliness of it all, the movie is enjoyable. Jane Fonda plays Barbarella with a glee that is contagious and she is helped by characters as the angel Pygar. Sadly, the movie has little else to offer (apart from the fashion stuff and some psychedelic moments). With no plot, no action, character development or... well, anything, "Barbarella" seems to be a movie to look at, not to view.

classicsoncall Now that I've finally seen it I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it. This film along with "One Million Years B.C" with Raquel Welch were a couple of the more highly publicized films of the mid-Sixties, neither one relying on much of a story to showcase it's lead actress. Watching today, I now know what I missed by not dropping acid during my college years. For myself, the only redeeming factor in checking out this flick was in directing me to learn how the British new wave band Duran Duran came up with it's name. I looked it up so you can to. Otherwise, the picture is more or less an hour and a half of soft porn interrupted by not much else. I did get a kick out of the scene when Barbarella got overwhelmed by all those parakeets and finches, a subliminal way that Jane Fonda's then husband and director Roger Vadim teased the male audience who might have wondered how she'd handle all those little peckers.

Leofwine_draca I'm usually a fan of dated, camp science fiction movies but only when the camp is unintentional and not put on. Unfortunately with BARBARELLA, loads of effort has gone into making the film a camp comedy, one of those films you just know that the producers hope will be termed a "cult classic", and there's nothing I hate worse than a film which tries to be funny like that. This is the reason that BARBARELLA leaves me cold; it's a slow-paced, dated and extremely silly affair from beginning to end, more of a 60's fashion show than a real movie.I had been looking forward to watching this film for a while (Italian science fiction has always been an entertaining genre for me) but sadly the end result is a highly disappointing outing in '60s kitsch with little or no redeeming values for a modern audience. The best thing about the film are the imaginative and colourful sets, but these are countered by some appallingly dated special effects (the back projection in particular is awful) and a music score that really grates on the nerves with one or two dreadful songs.The plot is pushed so far into the background that it becomes non-existent, the film instead concentrating on the weird and wonderful characters that Barbarella (herself included) encounters on her journey. Most of the adventures are of the sexual variety, with Barbarella herself a highly sexual space creature - already in the opening credits we see her stripping naked from her spacesuit and then losing most of her clothes as the film gradually progresses along.Jane Fonda is plain annoying as Barbarella, although I'm positive that her style of acting was just what the doctor ordered, and her attempts at being sexy just do not work. Elsewhere, Euro-stalwart John Philip Law embarrasses himself as a blind angel - yes you heard me right. Meanwhile, we have French actors overacting, Milo O'Shea striving for the award for worst overacting as the baddie, and David Hemmings wasted as he stands around on the sidelines looking handsome. I had expected a lot more from director Roger Vadim than this silly, arty-farty look-at-me sci-fi comedy provides, and although I'm sure the film has an audience who enjoy this sort of thing, I know that I never can.

Kirpianuscus it was courageous, provocative, strange, fascinating, maybe. it remains provocative, fascinating. and amusing. a cocktail of rock, nudity, psychedelic art, Sci. Fi., eroticism in large slices and bizarre dialogs, chaotic scenes and fake links between the characters. one of lovely films about nothing. like a game of children. not complicated, out of rules, charming for possibilities, eccentricity, for the strange manner to translate reality in original forms.a parody, off course. but, more important, a delight. that status does it a legend despite the insignificant script. and new occasion for discover a Jane Fonda as a flame of a complicated revolution. a film who gives all to the viewer. as a child's game.