Barbarella: Classic or Dud?

Ally, how can you even ask this?

It is one of the best films ever made. EVER. Yes, it is soft core porn disguised as sci fi, combined with brilliant social parody of the sexual revolution and The Pill. And a little bit of Philosophy In The Boudoir thrown in for good measure.

And Anita Pallenberg...

What more could you WANT in a film?

It is one of my three favourite films of all time along with Performance and erm... I forget what the third one is.

Classic. I will whump the arse of anyone who dares disagree with me.

And oh yes, Duran references up the Ying Yang.

"An angel cannot make love... an angel IS love!"

PSWhat Twisterella is referred to? (Ride's song). Not related with Barbarella, is it?

Remake would star whasserface chick out of Buffy. Sarah Michelle Gellar. Oh yes. She is one of the few people who could pull of the faux naif thing effectively.

yes yes the audience who cares abt them? audience for BUFFY = *not* mentalist dweebs but clevah cultured higher-echelon creative thingummys, because they recognise skill and aptness of main character being turn-off fencepost in the ooh-la-la dept

Roommate and I rent the movie, Xgf randomly shows up with beer so she stays and watches movie we all start in on beer. Girl I had been dating for about two weeks brings over a sock I had lost at her house. Xgf offers for her to stay and watch movie, gf decides to stay and the rest of the movie I have two girls studying me to try and figure out what my relationship to the other is. The worst part was it wasnt even hidden, it was outright nerve raking. Luckily gf is sane and realise Im just friends with the X and we continue to have wonderful time together till she leaves for Japan.

(I've been wanting to say that for years). And it is quite boring. It would be much better with kung fu in it.

Of course Drew Barrymore is remaking it in the near future.

B's "sex" scene w/ David Hemmings = Great moment of cinema

Haha, this is great. I like to picture thee actor from that film going into the bank and saying "hello, I = Flash!!"

I like Barbarella, but I haven't seen it in many, many years, so may think differently if I saw it again.

OTM

Huge DUD, plus it's always on UKTV.

Q: "What's that you're smoking?"

A. "Essence of man"

(takes a toke, smiles and nods)

I think that line is the absolute essense of cinema.

Same theatre a month or so later: They wouldn't let me in to see Goodbye Columbus. :(

http://www.worth1000.com/entries/59500/59759kPrO_w.jpg

RIP John Philip Law (tho I pref'd him in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad)

Also, bonus: cast a remake! BRITNEY SPEARS!

Okay, early ILX is finally starting to show its age a little bit.

Everything about this movie fills my heart with joy.

i rly need to see it

OH MAN DO YOU EVER

They try to kill her with a machine that will give her too many orgasms and the plot is foiled when the machine explodes bcz it cannot handle her ability to orgasm like mad. I think.

It looks like a pipe organ with a waterbed attached.

o
m
g

http://www.swapsale.com/Barbarella_2.jpg

crazy. i'm disappointed in myself, not having seen this yet.

The idea of Barbarella is utterly captivating. Jane Fonda doing anything in her Barabrella costume is the definition of classic. However, actually watching it is somewhat less enthralling, unless you have ingested something that interferes with your attention span.

First viewing at age 14=CUHLASSICK

see some good Fonda movies first

Someone should do a machinima remake with Ariane

classic. there should not be any kind of remake.

this movie is actually why I started my selznick vs bruckheimer vs de laurentiis poll last week that nobody answered

So...I have NEVER seen this movie but it is showing for free at USC tonight...do I make the effort to actually go?

Oh and it is playing with Conan The Barbarian. I haven't seen that either.

on a screen? 35mm or somebody's dvd?

35mm, I think.

hell yeah, go see both. you won't regret it. unless you don't like good things.

tribute to De Laurentiis:

http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/32/event/894384

Yeah, go for it

Wow, Conan is long, huh?

I got to see Barb in 35 sometime ago. Quite the evening out.

Caught a midnight showing of this at the Nitehawk in Brooklyn and it was on a nice 35mm print. As I'd seen the film at least five times before, I noticed a couple of odd things in the credits:

One, the music was credited to Michel Magne. Now I know the music was actually done by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox - I even own the original soundtrack album - and I've always seen it credited to them in the film. Looking into it, imdb says Michel Magne did some kind of original version of the soundtrack (?). If so I wonder why the credit remained on this particular print. On the 1968 soundtrack album's liner notes Bob Crewe says that the film was originally presented to him already finished but with no score, so he wrote one to the rhythm of the film. So what happened with this supposed Michel Magne score?

Two, on this print the title sequence was credited to Maurice Binder, known for the James Bond title sequences. Previously I've always seen the titles credited to "Arcady." imdb says Binder actually did them and is properly credited on the original rough cut of the film. Later cuts say "Arcady" for some reason. So was I seeing the original rough cut of the film at the Nitehawk? That would be weird.

As for the film itself I do think it's a classic and in some fashion beyond criticism. It's bad if you look at it one way, and near-great if you look at it a different way. I don't think calling it camp adequately describes the intentions of Vadim & Fonda nor the results. Not completely, at least.

One legit criticism I would agree with is that the first half of the film is better than the second. Once Barbarella and Pygar enter Sogo the pace slows a bit and there are some dull stretches. But the first half is spilling over with ideas and surprises, and I'm always down for the whole ride.