Barbarella

Barbarella (1968)

Image From IMDB

Is there a better opening sequence in cinema? I mean, I love the dancing socks in Footloose, and the amazing animated credits at the beginning of It’s a Mad Mad Mad World, but does anything quite beat Jane Fonda floating around in her ship as she strips from her space suit? You can throw around stupid terms like male gaze (although I'm sure this sequence was for everyone) but the scene really does set the tone for the whole movie. If you don’t like the opening few minutes, there’s really no point watching the rest.

Barbarella (Jane Fonda) is about a sexy space heroine who sets about to find the villainous (she doesn’t know that at the time) Durand-Durand, who happens to be in possession of some kind of space Mcguffin. Along the way she constantly crashes her ship, and sleeps with whoever helps her repair it. It’s pulp sci-fi at its finest.

Sure, it lacks plot, character development, good action, and a budget, but you can’t help but be lured in by its charms. The sets are paper mache and yogurt pots but that’s my sort of things. The costumes are outrageous, which is exactly what you want in Space Opera. The ships have that classic feel, and the effects again suit the genre brilliantly. There’s so much charm in this movie, if you let yourself enjoy it.

Jane Fonda is likeable through-out, and I enjoyed Anita Pallenberg as the great tyrant too, while everyone else was kind of there. Some had their moments, others didn’t, but all at least looked interesting and weird. The world building and effects were fun, and I liked the idea of this sector of space being ran by the tyrant. Can’t ever go wrong with that evil empire enslaving people trope.

If you’re looking for a fantastic story and strong character, you’re not getting it. But if you want sexy space babes, cardboard angels, a bird attack machine, space Mcguffin’s, horny female space tyrants and loads of ice and nudity, Barbarella is the film for you. It’s stupid fun never intended to be serious, despite it not exactly being a joke a minute. The funs in laughing at the movie, in a kind way, not mean spirited.

It’s campy, crazy, and definitely sexploitation at times, but it also has a wonderful vibe about it. Something that could only exist at the time it was made. (Although 2001 Space Odyssey was also made in the same year) It’s space opera Wizard of Oz, and who doesn’t want that?