'60s Class: Barbarella (1968)

 Come for the curiosity, stay for the execution.  This is Barbarella, the 1968 Cult Classic featuring Jane Fonda in the Lead.  For starters, every release now seems to call it Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy, which isn't remotely accurate.  The reason- a 1977 Re-release called it that...and cut the minor amount of nudity to capitalize on Star Wars.

Just a thought: Barbarella: Queen of the Stars would have been better, right?  Plus, it won't make people think of that softcore Emmanuelle stuff from the '90s.

The Film is based on a French Comic and Directed by a French man, so it has that certain je ne sais quoi.  It's also really weird.

The Plot involves the titular character being sent to recover a Scientist.  She's not ready for the danger, but she is ready to change costumes throughout the Film.

To see if she succeeds, read on...

Our Heroine begins the Film by stripping.  If only The Seventh Seal had been so daring!

She's sent by the President of Earth to retrieve Durand Durand, a Scientist who created a dangerous weapon.  Good luck!

To be fair to the Film, Barbarella has apparently only known peace, so she's not exactly equipped for a dangerous mission skillset-wise.

That said, she immediately crashes her ship, meets some children and is captured.  Yikes.

She's saved from some killer dolls- think Feisty Pets- by a guy who's job it is to capture the loose children.

He wants a simple reward- to have sex with her.  At least he's not forward!

She does so- on Earth, they do that fake psychic sex from Demolition Man- and goes to the Planet's lower levels...and she's immediately knocked out.

This does still pass the Bechdel Test, shockingly enough.

She's not captured this time, since it's Pygar, the Blind Angel (Space Mutiny's John Phillip Law).  She needs his help to get to the City, but he's lost the will to fly.

She has sex with him and that does it.  Yep.

They don't *immediately* get captured.  It takes a few minutes after their arrival for that to happen.

She's captured by the Black Queen and her Concierge.

Her punishment- having friendly-looking birds fly around her, which somehow shreds her outfit.

She's saved- again- by Dildano, the Leader of the Resistance.  He's David Hemmings (who I know from Deep Red) and he actually replaced the original Actor- Antonio Sabato Sr.- when he was 'too serious.'

She goes back...and is immediately-captured again.  Yep.

This leads to the infamous Scene where a pipe organ designed to make her um, enjoy herself to death is too weak to kill her.

In case you didn't guess, the Concierge is actually Durand Durand.  She's shocked by this, despite the being she was shown being 25 years old.  

He's not Paul Rudd- he's going to age in that time!

For some reason, she agrees to work with him...and is immediately-betrayed and left to die.

The whole Planet has a dark liquid call the Mathmos running underneath it, so Barbarella and the Queen free it to stop Durand Durand.

They float to the surface and are rescued by Pygar...before the Film just kind of stops.  Okay.  The End.

It's...weird.  It's very weird.  When your Director was supposedly drunk by Noon every day (according to Fonda), that might be a factor.  That or all of the just general drug usage in 1968.

The concept- Female Agent goes to crazy Planet on Mission- is fine.  I just wish they could agree on whether or not she's competent.  In one Scene, she trips over her own feet.  In another, she's doing precise laser shots to hit flying ships.  Pick one.

She's also inconsistent on what she knows.  She's shocked by the guy on the Alien Planet doesn't use the pills for Psychic Sex, but then tells another guy that 'it's only done by Earthlings.'  Did she learn or just forget?

The big draw of the Film is that it's definitely a great Time Capsule for the Period.  The lush colors, the strange vibe, all of the Rear Projection Effects and the barely-lucid Story are all of the time.  For better or worse (I choose better), it's of its time.

If you want to know why the Film looked so good (and weird), look to the Credits to see the Grandson of Auguste-Renoir- Claude- as the Cinematographer.

Next time, I jump from the height of artistic weirdness to something just plain dumb.  Killer Mushrooms are on the Menu!  See you then...