First Take Classics: Barbarella- it was OK in the 60s apparently

Well, this one has been sat in the archives for a while. Almost a year in fact- and because this one is definitely of it’s time, finding images that were suitable enough for the blog was a nightmare.

SYNOPSIS: 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.

Yes, we are actually doing this. 1968 gave us a lot of strange, but defining things in popular culture. Martin Luther King was assassinated, The Beatles’ White Album came out, and the very first Big Mac went on sale. Meanwhile, in European cinema, fresh off the heels of the surrealist films brought out from swinging London, and the end of the German expressionist movement, an adaptation of a French comic was in production. And 40 years on… it’s still a weird film.

Roger Vadim directs this 1 hour 38 minute film, and co-writing the script with Terry Southern, there are good bits, and bad bits. We can’t mention the bad bits about the plot, because this film rightly got the X certificate from the BBFC on its cinema run (under the current guidelines it is now a 15 for infrequent sexualised nudity and moderate sex references), but the good bits are that it is faithful to the source material. VERY faithful in fact. It’s shot decently by Claude Renoir, with designs that look ahead of their time for 1968, and the score from Bob Crewe and Charles Fox just about does the job.

Cast wise, it’s obvious that they had a lot of fun making this film. Jane Fonda begins her long career pretty well with this one, she arguably holds the production together, especially during the points where the plot gets so ludicrous that even an Earl Grey can’t hold back a potential rant. Other highlights include Milo O’Shea as the professor Durand-Durand. I think I’ve heard that name somewhere before- but with a supporting cast of mostly Italian talent, it’s hard to find performances to note. And I’m not lying about the Durand-Durand thing being familiar, this is arguably how much of an impact this film has had on pop culture. 

THE VERDICT

It is difficult to review this film in a serious manner, but we’ll give it a damn good go- Barbarella is definitely a product of its time. And sure, while some elements of the plot make absolutely no sense, Film, Media and Popular Culture students will have an absolute field day with this one, as it does a great job at describing exactly what the 1960s were like. Either way, this film is definitely NSFW.

RATING: 3/5