Movies - Barbarella

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	Movies - Barbarella

Barbarella was originally a French science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest, who originated the character for serialisation in the French magazine V-Magazine in 1962. It was subsequently published as a stand-alone book by Eric Losfeld. The comic stars Barbarella, a young woman who has numerous adventures, often involving sex, while journeying around the galaxy.

The film

A movie adaptation was made in 1968.

It is famous for a sequence in which the title character performs a striptease in zero gravity during (and inadequately concealed by) the opening credits.

Barbarella is one of the few science fiction erotica films and includes an erotic torture device.

The whole film is played in a very tongue-in-cheek manner—especially when it comes to the frequent (but non-explicit) sex scenes. The special effects look cheaply-made and unconvincing, but there is a suggestion that they are meant to look that way in order to reinforce the film's intentionally camp atmosphere.

The film was simultaneously shot in French and English. In the French version, Fonda performs her own lines in French. In the English version, the character Pallenberg's lines are dubbed by Fenella Fielding, at least according to the region2 DVD booklet notes, although others have claimed that the voice actually belongs to Joan Greenwood. Marcel Marceau's lines are also dubbed into English.

De Laurentiis returned to camp science fiction (but without the erotica) with 1980's Flash Gordon
.

It was rumored that Drew Barrymore had obtained the rights to Barbarella, and was going to make a modern version, with her in the title role. However, in May of 2005, sources at the website Cinescape claimed that Lindsay Lohan has signed on to play the character in a remake.

Primary cast

Jane Fonda
: Barbarella
John Phillip Law
: Pygar
Anita Pallenberg
: The Great Tyrant
Milo O'Shea
: Concierge/Durand Durand
Marcel Marceau
: Professor Ping
Claude Dauphin: President of Earth
David Hemmings
: Dildano

Trivia

Star Jane Fonda was married to director Roger Vadim during the production and distribution of Barbarella.

The psychedelic "blob" patterns that form much of the special effects in the film are created using an oil wheel projector, a popular visual effects device also used in many other '60s movies, as well as in many anti-drug educational films.

The band Duran Duran takes its name from Dr. Durand Durand (O'Shea), a mad scientist who appears in the film as one of the villains. O'Shea repaid the compliment by appearing (as an older version of Durand Durand) in Arena, the band's 1985 concert film. Some of the band's early appearances were at a nightclub called Barbarella's, in their home town of Birmingham, England. The band continued the homage to its roots with their 1997 US single, "Electric Barbarella" (released in the UK in 1998). The band has continually used sound clips from the film in their songs, most notably 1989's "Burning The Ground" and the remixes for 1990's "Violence Of Summer".

As the 1980s girl group Fuzzbox could not get permission to use Thunderbirds for their song International Rescue they spoofed Barbarella with Adrian Edmondson playing the Durand Durand character.

Another famous singer to use the iconography of Barbarella in a pop video was Kylie Minogue who recreated the infamous zero-gravity striptease her award winning video for Put Yourself in My Place

The band Matmos takes its name from the underground fluid creature in the film, as does the lava lamp manufacturer Mathmos.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Barbarella ]

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Movies - Barbarella

The film

Primary cast

Trivia

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