Tuesday, 26 July 2011

Barbarella (1968) Dir: Roger Vadim


Based on a cult French comic strip, this is the ultimate in high camp silliness.

The plot:
Jane Fonda plays Barbarella, Captain of a pink, plushly carpeted spacecraft, tasked with hunting down renegade Durand Durand.
On her way, she will encounter a lesbian queen, pot smoking aliens and Durand Durand himself, capable of driving a victim to death by the power of sexual pleasure alone.

And it's all a load of old nonsense, though not without it's charm.
The special effects are great; completely over the top, all garish colours and elaborate design.
Jane Fonda, in the lead role, does an impressively comical job of delivering some of the worst dialogue in movie history, and doesn't really try too hard to keep a straight face.
With an offbeat, sexy quirkiness that has ensured its status as a camp cult classic, this is certainly an acquired taste but, if the likes of Flash Gordon or the Adam West Batman series bring a smile to your face, you could do a lot worse than check out this kitsch oddity.
Enjoyed it rather more than perhaps I should have done, and not just because of Jane's deliciously pert breasts.

4 out of 5

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