Barbarella (1968)

 (This post is part of the Fifth So Bad It's Good Blogathon hosted by Taking Up Room)

The Space Age and the Sexual Revolution were two events that coincided, both roughly taking place in the Fifties and the Sixties. It was probably these two events that resulted in the French comic strip Barbarella, created by Jean-Claude Forest. Jean-Claude Forest imagined Barbarella as an emancipated woman of the sort that the Sexual Revolution might produce. In the comic strip Barbarella travelled through space, often winding up in sexual situations with aliens. The comic strip first appeared in the spring of 1962 in the French magazine V. It was in 1964 that publisher Éric Losfeld collected the comic strip stories into the book Barbarella. In France Barbarella was a source of some controversy as one of the first adult comic strips ever published. Barbarella would find its way to the United States, with an English translation by Richard Seaver appearing in issues 37 to 39 (1965-1966) of Evergreen Review.

While controversial in its native France, the comic strip Barbarella was also popular. It should then come as no surprise that a screen adaptation of the comic strip would come about only a few years after its debut. Producer Dino De Laurentiis bought the film rights to the comic strip. He then negotiated a distribution deal in the United States between the French production company Marianne Productions (which would produce the film) and Paramount Pictures. Although Barbarella remains one of Jane Fonda's best known roles, she was not the first actress considered for the part. Virna Lisi, Bridget Bardot, and even Sophia Loren were all approached about starring in the film. Finally Jane Fonda was cast in the role of Barbarella. Her husband at the time, Roger Vadim, would be the film's director. According to Miss Fonda's autobiography My Life So Far, he was enthusiastic about science fiction movies and believed they were "the wave of the future."

Terry Southern, known for his novel Candy as well as having worked on the screenplays for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and The Loved One (1965), was hired to write the screenplay. While Terry Southern's screenplay drew upon Jean-Claude Forest's first batch of Barbarella stories, he largely altered the character of Barbarella from that of the comic strip to something more resembling his character Candy from his novel of the same name. Like Candy, Terry Southern's Barbarella was a wide eyed innocent who often finds herself in sexual situations. While Mr. Southern enjoyed working on the script, he also thought Dino De Laurentiius wasn't particularly interested in making a good film. In the end, seven other screenwriters would be credited for the screenplay for Barbarella, with Charles B. Griffith later saying he did uncredited work on the screenplay. Jane Fonda would later say that they had not worked out the screenplay in advance.

It is perhaps because of the sheer number of writers that worked on Barbarella that the film's plot is not particularly easy to describe.  The President of the Republic of Earth (Claude Dauphin) assigns Barbarella (Jane Fonda) the task of locating scientist Durand Durand (Milo O'Shea), who has developed a positronic ray capable of mass destruction. She crash lands on the 16th planet of the Tau Ceti system. From there she encounters children with flesh eating, mechanical dolls, Mark Hand, the Catchman whose job is to retrieve stray children (Ugo Tognazzi); Pygar, a blind angel who can no longer fly (John Phillip Law); Pygar's mentor, Professor Ping (Marcel Marceau); and ultimately The Great Tyrant, also known as the Black Queen, essentially the villain of the film (Anita Pallenberg).

As seen above,  Barbarella featured several notable actors beyond Jane Fonda. Immediately prior to Barbarella, John Phillip Law had appeared  in the title role in Dino De Laurentiis's Danger Diabolik (1968). He had earlier appeared in the comedy The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966) and later played the title role  in the Ray Harryhausen movie The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973). Of interest to comic book fans, John Phillip Law not only read the Barbaella comic strip, but comic books featuring DC Comics' Hawkman as well to prepare for his role. Anita Pallenberg had a relationship with The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones and would later have one with Keith Richards. Milo O' Shea was a veteran of stage and screen who had played Leopold Bloom in the 1967 screen adaptation of Ulysses. Of course, Marcel Marceau was a world famous mime who appeared frequently on variety shows on both sides of the Atlantic.

Filming on Barbarella began on June 6 1967 and continued until November of that year. It was filmed at Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Studios in Rome. Barbarella was released in the United States on October 10 1968. Barbarella  was not particularly well received by critics. Variety called its script "flat" and described the cast as "not particularly adept at comedy." The New York Times noted that following the film's initial, now famous, zero gravity strip tease scene, Barbarella "...rapidly becomes a special kind of mess." The Globe and Mail stated that following the striptease scene, "we are plunged back into the mundane, not to say inane world , of the spy thriller with a dreary overlay of futuristic science-fiction." As might be expected, even though it is mild by today's standards, the sexual content of Barbarella was controversial upon its initial release. The National Legion of Decency gave Barbarella a "condemned" rating , which meant practising Catholics should not see the film, and even attacked the Production Code Administration for having approved it.

If Barbarella was not particularly well received by critics upon its initial release, it could be because the film was a bit of an anachronism even in 1968. Barbarella appears to have been made with a camp aesthetic in mind. The style known as camp, which according to Susan Sontag in her famous 1964 essay Notes on Camp emphasizes artifice, frivolity, and middle-class pretentiousness, was a bit of a fad in the mid-Sixties. Indeed, the hit television series Batman was intentionally made in a camp style. Like many fads, however, camp ran its course and was pretty much out of fashion with mainstream audiences by 1968.

Even if Barbarella was not intentionally made as camp, it would certainly seem to qualify as such. The film's production design is over the top in a way that only Federico Fellini films might usually be. Particularly given 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in the same year, the special effects in Barbarella seem rather cheesy. The music can rightfully be described as psychedelic. The episodic plot of Barbarella is hardly progressive in its portrayal of the sexes. In many respects Barbarella simply fills the role of a Space Age damsel in distress. The movie has even been described as adolescent and it is hard to argue that it isn't. Even so, the film's plot is so outrageous that it is hard to take seriously. Quite simply, it is so over the top as to be laughable. Even though it was meant to be a comedy and may have been meant to be camp, it may well succeed in ways Roger Vadim did not intend for it to.

If there is one thing that keeps Barbarella from being a truly bad film it is Jane Fonda's performance as Barbarella. As Barbarella, Jane Fonda projects an innocence and sweetness that greatly adds to the film's appeal. Indeed, if Barbarella works as a camp classic, it may well be because of the sincerity of Jane Fonda's performance. The film certainly would not be nearly as enjoyable without her.

Despite being critically lambasted upon its initial release, Barbarella would become a cult classic and would even have a lasting impact. Among other things, the classic New Wave band Duran Duran took their name from Milo O'Shea's character in the movie, Durand Durand. Barbarella would also have a lasting impact on the production design and costumes of science fiction TV shows and movies. The animated television series Æon Flux and the movie The Fifth Element (1997) both drew some inspiration from Barbarella.

Barbarella is an altogether ridiculous film, but at the same time it is an appealing movie for those who appreciate camp or even kitsch. For those who are willing to suspend their disbelief (or even their tastes) for  98 minutes, it can be quite enjoyable. Certainly there was never a science fiction movie like it before and there hasn't ever been one like it since.