Dear Tor.com, are you in a primitive state of neurotic irresponsibility? I know I am! But never fear, the Movie Rewatch of Great Nostalgia has the cure! Or something!
Today’s MRGN entry is 1968’s Barbarella. Yes, that one. No, really. No, for real! And you might actually be really surprised by what I have to say about it.
Previous entries can be found here. Please note that as with all films covered on the Nostalgia Rewatch, this post will be rife with spoilers for the film.
And now, the post!
LIZ: Well, we’re definitely not in the ’80s anymore, Toto.
No, no we are not.
Barbarella is a departure from the MRGN’s usual fare in more than one way. For one, it’s the first movie we’ve done from a decade that none of us were alive in, and for another, it’s the first movie we’ve done that none of us saw as young kids—probably for good reason.
However much I may hate to admit it, though, at this point movies I first saw in college are quite long enough ago to still count as “nostalgia”. Sigh. Liz and Kate saw Barbarella in high school and 8th grade, respectively, probably right around the same time I saw it, in fact.
KATE: We randomly stumbled across it together at like 3 o’clock in the morning one weekend. We sat there and watched it with our mouths open the entire time.
ME: …Yeah, sounds about right.
Probably partially because none of us, at the time, had any real context for this madness whatsoever. I mean, I was aware that the ’60s had happened, in a cultural osmosis blur of Vietnam and hippies and Woodstock and coo coo ca-choo Mrs. Robinson and sitar music and drugs and really weird fashion choices and lava lamps way, but my actual concrete knowledge of the decade was pretty threadbare. I blame this on the fact that not one of my history classes before college managed to get past World War II in anything but the most superficial of ways. And also that when I was younger I was kind of a snob about caring about things that happened before I was alive. And Liz and Kate, I am assured, had even less context for Barbarella than I did.
So watching this movie at complete random was… well, it was trippy, is what it was. Not just because of the excruciatingly ’60s-ness of it, either, but also because of how unbelievably, insanely, jaw-droppingly bad it was. Is.
Because regardless of anything else I say in this article, make no mistake: Barbarella is a bad, bad movie. The special effects are beyond wretched:
KATE: Okay, that is literally just a sparkler. COME ON.
The acting is absurd, the dialogue is worse, and I’m not even sure you can call the sequence of events in it a “plot”. Anyone who watches this movie expecting anything else but badness is going to be sorely disappointed.
We also had a fantastic time watching it.
Seriously, I don’t think we’ve laughed and gleefully shouted this much at a movie in years. We basically MST3K’d our way through the entire thing, which is about the only thing you can do with a movie which is so awful and yet so weirdly compelling to watch—mostly because of all the things that are supposed to support the movie, rather than being the only things worth noting about it.
I’m mostly talking about the production design, of course. Just like before, we were both horrified and enthralled (horrithralled?) with the deeply whacko and yet oddly delightful set and costume designs, which were so screamingly mod that apparently even people in the ’60s were like, wow, that’s hella mod. And the music!
LIZ: Oh my GOD, the music.
The theme song from the opening credits (where Jane Fonda does her infamous spacesuit strip tease) pretty much sums it up; every time a groovy new riff came up, Liz and Kate and I automatically started doing The Frug in our chairs and giggling our asses off. The music in this movie is ridiculous. And also, awesome. Just like almost everything else in it that isn’t the plot, the dialogue, or the acting. Actually if you could have just taken those three things away the movie would probably have been amazing.
LIZ: Holy crap I forgot that her entire spaceship is shag carpet, that is priceless.
KATE: Brown shag carpet, no less.
As for the outside of the ship:
KATE: It’s like a pulsing… caboodle.
LIZ: …That’s not the noun I thought you were going to go with.
ME: Every prop in this movie looks vaguely like an inflatable sex toy.
Which, I’m sure, was no accident. Things were greatly clarified for me this time around when I realized that Barbarella was a French-made movie, based on a French comic. When I told Liz and Kate this, their reaction was the same, a breath of “ohhhhh, that makes sense.”
Why it makes sense is kind of hard to say, but it was the exact same sense of clarity I got when I found out that The Fifth Element was French. Because… yep, makes sense. French. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In that vein, it is of absolutely zero surprise to me that Jean-Paul Gaultier’s costume designs for The Fifth Element were heavily influenced by Barbarella. Let’s just say, you can tell. Liz and Kate and I had a vigorous argument over which of Barbarella’s seven (!) costume changes (eight if you count the spacesuit!) were our favorites. I held out for the silver lame cape suit:
But Liz was more partial to the fur one:
But mostly only because it was genuinely hilarious how Jane Fonda kept tripping on the ridiculous six-foot tail.
Speaking of which, even though I do not take back my statement about the general awfulness of the acting, it’s very easy to see why this movie helped further Fonda’s career. I mean, I’m sure the nudity and skimpy costumes (and how good she looked in them) also helped a great deal, there, but Fonda’s adeptness at physical comedy (mostly pratfalling) and what I sincerely hope was painfully ironic earnestness in delivering some of the worst dialogue ever provided most of the moments that we were laughing with the film, instead of at it.
Although, David Hemmings’ performance as Dildano—
KATE & LIZ: HIS NAME IS DILDANO??
—was fairly hilarious as well. I cannot for the life of me put my finger on who he reminds me of, though.
And then there was famed mime Marcel Marceau, in what I can only assume was the ironically verbose role of Dr. Ping:
And John Philip Law as the most specifically ’60s-handsome angel ever:
I spent his entire screen time wanting to tug his feather diaper down to at least his waist, for crying out loud. Also, we can list “feather diaper” among the very many phrases I never thought I’d type in my life, but here we are.
The character of Durand Durand (played by Milo O’Shea) is most famous for inspiring the name of a certain New Wave band (who may or may not also be the makers of the first album I ever owned), but if he’s also not at least partially the inspiration for Stanley Tucci’s character and wardrobe in The Hunger Games I will eat my hat.
ALL THREE OF US: omg it’s the ORGASM MACHINE!!
Discussing the movie before we watched it, this was unquestionably the thing all three of us most vividly remembered from when we watched it as teenagers. Mostly because we found it inexpressibly funny that apparently Barbarella was just so darn sex-tastic that she broke it. It was just as funny this time, in fact.
Which, of course, brings us to the elephant in the room.
ME: So… are we bad feminists for enjoying this movie?
LIZ: I… don’t know? Maybe?
KATE: Obviously it’s sexist. But the question is, was it sexist then?
Which… well, yes, that is the question, isn’t it? By modern standards, Barbarella is unquestionably sexist. Barbarella’s only power in the movie is sex, literally, and in every other way she’s helpless, passive and compliant, managing to exude lasciviousness and innocence simultaneously. She eagerly rewards her multiple male rescuers with sex, and never really questions or resists anything that anyone in the movie wishes to do to her. Which, looked at in that way, is every last creepy male wish fulfillment fantasy brought to life.
However, it’s also worth noting that it is often both disingenuous and counterproductive to judge a thing independent of its context. And in the ’60s, Barbarella’s brand of sexual freedom was considered liberating and progressive, at least as far as I can tell. The idea that the experience of sexual pleasure is unconnected to a person’s innocence (or lack thereof) was a quintessentially ’60s philosophy, and as weird as it seems to be to say, more than anything else Barbarella is portrayed in this film as an innocent.
In context, she thinks nothing of wearing revealing clothing (or being stark naked, for that matter) or offering sex to anyone who wants it, because to her neither of those things have any moral stigma attached to them. She doesn’t even resist the mean or evil things other characters do to her—
LIZ: Like DEATH BY PARAKEET, WHOO
—because, the film tells us, her culture has no concept of aggression or violence. (You know, not counting the fighter ships she blows up with the guns her leader gives her, but hey.)
It’s basically the slogan “Make love, not war” in cheesalicious sci-fi form, and on that level, it’s kind of hard to be mad at it. It has always been science fiction’s purview to extrapolate the future implications of the culture of its present, and in that sense, Barbarella is perhaps one of the more accurate sci-fi extrapolations of its own era around. In its own ridiculous, cuckoo bananas way, of course.
Don’t get me wrong, I still raise a highly skeptical eyebrow at the way all that glibly justifies ogling Jane Fonda’s nubile body for 90 minutes, but… I don’t know. To me, there really was a sense of artless sincerity to the whole thing that prevented me from getting much more worked up about it than some eye-rolling at some of the most egregious bits. Maybe we should have been offended by it, and if it were made today in the same way I would have been, but, as it stands, well, we really mostly weren’t. Take that as you will.
KATE: Plus, the movie is so ludicrous I can’t take the sexism seriously anyway.
…And there’s also that.
The next question, of course, was how the hell we were supposed to rate this thing. The “Nostalgia” rating was pretty easy (if lower than usual, owing to how much older we were when we first saw it), but as Liz pointed out, no matter how much we enjoyed mocking watching it, it is still, objectively, a terrible movie, and our “Reality” rating really should reflect that.
Eventually we threw up our hands and decided to divide it up into three ratings this time, because why not. So without further ado, here is our Nostalgia Love to Reality Love to Enjoyment Love 1-10 Scale of Awesomeness!
For Barbarella:
Nostalgia: 4.5
Reality: 2
Enjoyment: 8
And that’s the MRGN for today, dears! Barbarella is available on Netflix streaming, so if you have sufficiently snarky friends/family to laugh at it with (alcohol is also highly recommended), give it a gander and tell us your thoughts! Were we wrong, were we right? Let me know, and come back in two weeks for Moar!
The really weird fashion choices got worse in the 70’s…
“I cannot for the life of me put my finger on who he reminds me of, though.”
Looks kinda-sorta like Donald Sutherland.
Of course we all have Electric Barbarella on our iPods.
(I’ve never seen this movie.)
Barbarella is very much in line with the cheesy production values of ‘pulp’ (exploitation, not really sexism) movies from the 60’s & 70’s. Is Flesh Gordon on your list?
It’s also very much in keeping with surrealism of movies & TV from that period. Check out the very early Steed & Mrs Peel Avengers, Danger Man, even the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
I’ve seen this movie several times. Each time I sit there in wonder and awe. Wonder that anyone actually made this movie. Awe that anyone actually made this movie! What were any of them thinking? And does that even matter? Needless to say, the promised remake of this has stalled. Likely because no one can think of a good reason to remake it. Would a remake be better, worse, the same? Are any of those goals achievable? Well, I’ll probably watch it again some time, just to return to those quirky days when nothing made sense, and I was happy that way.
Never did watch this one because Jane Fonda. To say that veterans have a low opinion of her is an enormous understatement. Even now, almost half a century after her actions supporting North Vietnam, she remains one of the most despised women alive. To be fair, she has apologized (sort of), but it didn’t make much difference.
David Hemmings looks just like Paul Dano.
I saw this in 1980, plus or minus a couple of years. It was an age before cable was king and people were trying out strange concepts like direct broadcast, pay-per-view services. Providers were desperate for content and would show any old thing. Like Barbarella. Anyway, sixteen to eighteen year old me wasn’t quite sure what to make of this. The horny teenage boy warred with the science fiction purist. I think the purist won.
The film did have some influence. Some of the esthetic can be seen in Flash Gordon, and there is a really cheesy Italian flick that is like the lovechild of Barbarella and Star Wars, called Star Crash (Christopher Plummer. David Hasselhof! Marjoe Gortner!!), and another one I can’t remember the name of but the hero’s ship is basically a gigantic pair of breasts.
ETA: Oh, and in the still in the article, David Hemmings looks a little like Bud Cort or possibly Aidan Gillen as Littlefinger.
Each individual rescue-sex sequence embodies that creepy male fantasy, but collectively they kind of subvert it. Because there isn’t an awesome Bond-like male identification figure who “cures” her of that pesky sexual independence. Or, indeed, general independence – as much as she keeps getting herself in trouble, the narrative never seems to suggest she should behave differently. She will never settle down with one of her rescuers, nor does the idea even occur to her.
The narrative seems to raise a glass to patriarchy with one hand and a middle finger with the other. Which is itself very Sixties, and very French.
Well this shows my problems with modern feminism more than anything else. The idea that sexual freedom is sexist (which is what you seem to be saying here) is rather ridiculous. Make love not war is a great slogan and idea – wish it could work. Now have not seen this movie and then I am not up in arms about playboy adding nudity back in so YMMV.
Surely the point of the sex in this is that at the start Barbarella is a virgin – yes she’s had future sex, but only of the type of sex that David Hemmings wants – where you take a pill, put your hands together and steam comes out the end of your fingers.
So she finds herself on a barbaric retro planet where they have sex the old fashioned way, and the film is a story of sexual awakening and sexual adventurousness for Barbarella.
Also to have a review of this film without mentioning the word “camp” seems rather remiss. The film is knowingly aware of it’s ridiculousness and its high camp stylishness, which is why it’s still such good entertaining fun fifty years after it was made.
While you’re in a mood for a cheese, have you done a rewatch of Flash Gordon 1980 lately? That’s a gloriously campy movie.
DemetriosX: The other movie you’re thinking of, with the breast-ship, is BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS.
Strange to realize this movie came out around the same time as 2001: A Space Odyssey. And, yes, I own this movie on DVD and have watched it more times than I want to admit.
(My college SF club actually showed BARBARELLA as a fund-raiser back in the eighties. As I recall, we sold a lot of tickets!)
Barbarella has significantly more personal agency (and isn’t a virgin) in the original comics. They arguably still hold up as modern feminism.
“I blame this on the fact that not one of my history classes before college managed to get past World War II in anything but the most superficial of ways.” Yup; I was born in the ’60s and the history teachers never got past World War II or the conditions of the countries right after WWII.
@1, yes, 70s fashions . . . I see clothes at the mall that smack of ’70s styles and I think “Well, the designers didn’t have to live through wearing that stuff the first time so they’re fascinated by it.”
“However, it’s also worth noting that it is often both disingenuous and counterproductive to judge a thing independent of its context.” Yes. We can say “Hey, I don’t agree with that or that’s just plain wrong of the characters to do but what is the text’s meaning, what is the author saying about the culture that is being written about?” And contemporary sources are helpful, and sometimes those contain debates on whatever’s going on in the culture (the debate on Woman’s Mission that can be found in nineteenth-century English periodicals, for example).
I always thought that Dr. Dildano (ahem), aka David Hemmings had an early Jonathan Pryce vibe to him, like in Brazil.
@2 I’ve heard FLESH Gordon is porn. Flash Gordon is cheesetastic 80’s of the highest order and would be a fun re-watch.
I have never seen more than two minutes of Barbarella and still not sure I want to despite the fun you had watching it slightly buzzed but it’s definitely a 3am kind of movie.
Lawd, it was a crap movie. Most of the French movies from that era I have seen were just pretty (or attempted thought provoking) vignettes strung together without even trying for a plot. But Jane was nice to look at.
But the movie was stupid. And everything I have ever seen labeled ‘camp’ is someone trying to be hip and funny and being total crap at it.
I’ve always loved this film. I caught it the first time in the early 70’s as a young lad and thought it was awesome. I still watch it occasionally now.
As for Flesh Gordon, it’s a terrible film that can’t pass up a filthy pun or rude comment. It’s rude, crude, terribly silly and well worth watching. It’s not high art and it’s certainly not for the easily offended, but it’s very funny.
Yeah, if you hadn’t read Heavy Metal, then you would have absolutely no frame of reference for this movie.
It’s clear that Babarella was that highly stylized, European graphic SF, by way of cheesy 60’s production values. For contemporary comparison, see also Fantastic Planet, and Danger: Diabolik. In the modern era, we’ve got The Fifth Element, Jupiter Ascending, Guardians of the Galaxy, even the Riddick movies, to a degree, though the second is really Warhammer 40k, #amirite?
Please tell me you plan to move into the 70s and address the glorious awfulness that is Sean Connery in Zardoz.
Literally everything about that movie is bad, Barbarella gets an oscar by comparison.
@19
Been there, done that.
Between this and your last post, I thought of another 70s movie for your rewatch, the obvious Superman starring Christopher Reeve. All kinds of potential in comparing it with today’s onslaught of the genre.
Hey, Leigh:
Can you do Tommy (1975), please? I would very much gladly appreciate that.
I think you are being a little harsh on Barbarella; 2001 it isn’t, but it’s charm and sheer French comic book madness steal the show for me. It’s a pure product of the late 60s – far more than Kubrick’s often tiresome epic. You do at least acknowledge that it’s entertaining, but watched with The Prisoner, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and maybe a lot of Batman you get a better sense of the campness that Barbarella belongs to.
“Reality: 2”, sure – but surreality 9. And definitely combine this with Flash Gordon and even Dune – they’re all equally eurotrash mad.
8: Dwcole, I didn’t take what they were saying as “sexual freedom is sexist” at all. What’s sexist is that sex is all she can do–she can’t take any sort of useful action, she just has to be rescued over and over, and then she has sex with whoever rescues her. If she got rescued and had sex, but then she rescued somebody else and had sex with them, then that would be a very different thing. Heck, even if she didn’t change at all, but there were other female characters running around and doing useful things and having sex, that would still be a lot better.
I tried to watch this movie when I was home visiting my parents from college, sometime between 1981 and 1983. I even stayed up late just so I could see it. Made it about 20 minutes in, then gave up and went to bed.
I heard that Jane Fonda turned down the lead in “Bonnie and Clyde” (that went to Faye Dunaway) in order to make Barbarella, which was directed by her (then) husband, Roger Vadim. I don’t have a citation, but it seems she made some rather strange choices over the years…
My enjoyment of this film has always been helped (a lot) by playing the drinking game that goes with it.
The rules are very simple, for good reason.
1. Every time they say Durand Durand, take a drink
2. Every time Barbarella changes costume, take a drink
3. Ever tine Barbarella has sex, take a drink
The opening scene when they say “Durand Durand” about 12 times will get you well and liquored up and you spend the rest of the time topping up our blood/alchohol levels :)
Alice Cooper was influenced by this movie too.
The password, er, secret word is always Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (because Cardiff would be too hard to remember)
I feel old. I was alive in 1968 but no I was not old enough to watch this movie. I didn’t see it until a decade or two later and then laughed myself sick.