Barbarella (film)

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Movie
German title Barbarella
Original title Barbarella
Country of production France , Italy
original language English
Publishing year 1968
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Roger Vadim
script Roger Vadim
Terry Southern
Vittorio Bonicelli
production Dino De Laurentiis
music Bob Crewe
Charles Fox
camera Claude Renoir
cut Victoria Mercanton
occupation
synchronization

Barbarella is a 1968 science fiction film by the French director Roger Vadim , which pioneered the pop art era in the film industry thanks to its equipment and the costumes inspired by the designer Paco Rabanne . It was shot in parallel in English and French and was particularly successful in Great Britain , where it had the second highest income of the 1968 film year. It was based on the comics of the same name by the French draftsman Jean-Claude Forest , which appeared in the French V-Magazine from 1962 and later also in book form.

The main character Barbarella travels through the galaxy and experiences numerous adventures, especially erotic ones. Right in the famous opening scene, she shows a striptease in what appears to be weightlessness . Later she is introduced to the traditional form of sexuality by a hairy daredevil, meets a blonde angel and a sadomasochistic queen, melts an "orgasmotron" and exchanges "rapture pills" with a shy rebel.

The leading actress Jane Fonda felt deeply uncomfortable with the role that Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot had turned down and regretted that the film had become so little “feminist”, but also wrote in her memoir that no one had forced her to write the film turn, which is why it appears to be "not used".

action

In the year 40,000, the astronaut Barbarella (Jane Fonda) receives an order from the President of Earth to find the scientist Durand-Durand (Milo O'Shea), who has disappeared in the Tau Ceti solar system, and to develop a laser weapon with positron beams that could threaten centuries of galactic peace. Strictly speaking, her job is not an astronaut, but an astronavigatrice. With the mutual greeting "Victory of Love", the head of government and Barbarella say goodbye to each other. On the way to the 16th planet of Tau Ceti , where Durand-Durand apparently crashed, Barbarella and her spaceship get caught in an "electrical vortex" of the atmosphere and have to make an emergency landing in an ice landscape.

Barely escaping the rubble, Barbarella is knocked unconscious by two nannies , tied up and attacked by robot dolls with razor-sharp teeth. She is rescued at the last second by Mark Hand (Ugo Tognazzi), a very hairy guy who patrols the ice to catch runaway children and has a special weakness for traditional sex . This has long since been replaced on earth by so-called “rapture transmission pills” that simulate sexual intercourse . But Barbarella also enjoys the traditional variant. Mark Hand and his crew, consisting of two robots, make themselves useful, bring Barbarella back to her damaged spaceship and make makeshift repairs. Obviously too careless, because Barbarella crashes again.

This time the adventurer finds herself near a labyrinth inhabited by outcasts and rebels who do not agree with the absolute rule of the “Great Tyrant” in the capital Sogo . Barbarella meets the blind Pygar (John Phillip Law), a blond angel and, according to his own admission, the last of the ornithanthropes . Out of grief, he lost the desire to fly, because he was terribly tortured in Sogo . Barbarella falls in love with him, and after an intense sexual encounter, Pygar can finally take off again. He brings the astronaut to Professor Ping (Marcel Marceau), a somewhat clumsy professor who repairs Barbarella's damaged spaceship while she flies with Pygar to the capital of the "great tyrant". They are shot at on the way, but can hold their own with their laser weapons.

In town they are already expected by the Black Queen (Anita Pallenberg), a passionate sadomasochist who brandishes a whip and wants to convert Barbarella to lesbian love . When Barbarella refuses, the “great tyrant” has her locked up in a cage with aggressive birds and “crucified” the half-naked Pygar. The queen's submissive assistant, who later reveals himself to be Durand-Durand, explains to Barbarella where the energy for the city of malice comes from: From the Matmos , an ocean that feeds on the criminal and destructive thoughts of the population. Thanks to the rebel Dildano (David Hemmings) Barbarella and Pygar manage to escape. The liberator has an invisible key to the queen's secret "Chamber of Dreams " and hands it to Barbarella after exchanging literally hair-raising "rapture pills".

Returning to Sogo to destroy the capital of wickedness, Barbarella is arrested again and locked in a "pleasure machine" by Durand-Durand, who has aged 30 years because of his wickedness, a kind of organ that, when played, passes through its victims excessive sexual pleasure kills. But Barbarella's sexual energy is too strong and the machine explodes. Angry, Durand-Durand snatches the invisible key to the Queen's "Chamber of Dreams" and locks Barbarella with the tyrant there. When he proclaims himself ruler of Sogo , however, an uprising breaks out and the rebels defeat the villain's troops.

Driven into a corner, Durand-Durand uses his most powerful weapon, the gigantic " positron beam cannon", which he uses to temporarily transport the rebels into the fourth dimension . In revenge, the Black Queen opens the floodgates to the Matmos , believing that she will destroy everything. But Barbarella cannot harm the ocean out of bad intentions: She is innocent, so he rejects her and forms a bubble around her and the Black Queen. Rescued, they meet Pygar, who takes the two women under his wings and transports them back to the now repaired spaceship. When asked why he also saved the tyrant from death, Pygar replied: "An angel cannot remember."

background

The Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis was responsible for two complex comic book adaptations in parallel in 1967. Because technical problems arose in the preparation of Barbarella , the other large-scale action project, Danger: Diabolik! , preferred, where the little talented but extraordinarily handsome John Phillip Law was also involved in the lead. Other contributors to the Barbarella staff, such as screenwriters Tudor Gates and Brian Degas, also worked there temporarily. Some Diabolik sets on the studio premises of Cinecittà in Rome were used again after filming on June 18, 1967 for the Barbarella production that began immediately afterwards .

Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot were asked for the lead role first. The blonde Italian Virna Lisi was then the first choice, but broke off the negotiations. For Jane Fonda, who had been married to Roger Vadim since 1965 and was only known as the daughter of Henry Fonda , this role meant her international breakthrough. She is said to have thrown the offer first in the wastebasket, from which Vadim fished it out with the exclamation "Great!" Because he was a fan of comics himself and eagerly read MAD . According to his own statement, Vadim wanted to make his wife the "Alice in Wonderland" of the future. Fonda himself thought the film was misogynistic from the start, but nevertheless supported Vadim in the project. At that time, Fonda had already had two “nude scandals”: ​​in 1965, a nude photo of her was used as an eight-story advertising poster for the Vadim film Der Reigen (1964) . Circle of Love , for excitement. A year later there were some revealing rehearsal photos for Roger Vadim's erotic film Die Beute (1966). The Game Is Over , sold to Playboy.

The film made the fashion designer Paco Rabanne famous. Costume designer Jacques Fonteray was inspired by his ideas for Jane Fonda's skin-tight catsuit . Rabanne is said to have designed Barbarella's green outfit in the final scene. The film poster for distribution in English-speaking countries was designed by the British illustrator and advertising specialist Robin Ray, who later became known as a master of erotic comics under the pseudonym Erich von Götha .

At one point the galactic -looking password Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is used - in fact, it is the name of a parish in Wales .

During the difficult filming that started in Cinecittà in August 1967, Jane Fonda had to do her striptease while lying on a glass plate that did not appear to be entirely reliable in order to simulate weightlessness. Vadim had promised her to cover up too much of any possible nudity with the letters of the opening credits, which they kept. During the shoot, Fonda was injured several times: In the scene in which she is attacked by birds, the outfitters had sewn birdseed into her costume. Nevertheless, the behavior of the birds was still too peaceful. So director Roger Vadim used fans to shoo the animals in Fonda's direction, with the hummingbirds , wrens and budgies producing tons of droppings with excitement. The actress fell so seriously ill that she had to be treated in hospital. After Fonda was "shot" through a plastic pipe, she developed stomach problems and skin abrasions. For the flight scenes, she had to wear such a tight and hard metal corset that "the pain was unbearable". Before filming the "Sex Organ" scenes, Vadim did not tell his main actors that pyrotechnics would be used on a large scale to create as authentic a shock as possible. Vadim began to consume alcohol at noon while filming, while Fonda suffered from eating disorders and self-hatred because of dissatisfaction with her role.

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Barbarella Jane Fonda Ursula Herwig
Pygar, the blind bird man John Phillip Law Joachim Ansorge
The great tyrant Anita Pallenberg Beate Hasenau
Concierge / Durand-Durand Milo O'Shea Paul Edwin Roth
Professor Ping Marcel Marceau Hugo Schrader
President of the Earth Claude Dauphin
Captain Sun Serge Marquand
Dildano David Hemmings Christian Brückner
Mark hand Ugo Tognazzi Horst Niendorf
Captain Moon Véronique Vendell

Reviews

Pauline Kael from The New Yorker thought Fonda was a "wonderfully fitting heroine in a porn comedy" because, with all her typically American simplicity and playfulness, she was always clear about her indecent actions, what Fonda was about any other naked actress distinguish. For Patrick Lee of Science Fiction Weekly , the film falls into the “so-bad-it's-good” category (so bad it's good [again]). Almar Haflidason from the BBC praised the camera work and the unusual, if cheap-looking sets, and criticized the fact that the film could be annoying at times. A review of the film by the operator of the Austrian Advertising Museum, Peter Suschny, in Vienna in 2004, however, showed that the film was groundbreaking in relation to what was then called the sex wave in the 1970s . The evangelical film observer came to an ambiguous judgment : “Elaborately shot pop fairy tale [...]. Too much backdrop and too little joke overall. Not exactly boring, but also not to be recommended as entertaining. "

"The elaborate utopian vision, based on the well-known comic strip template, is richly loaded with show effects and technical cabinets."

- Lexicon of international film

Quote

When I look at what actors have to endure in action films these days, I got off lightly. Jane Fonda (2005)

Awards

Jane Fonda was nominated for a Laurel Award in 1970 for her role .

In a list of “The 100 Greatest Guy Movies Ever Made” by the men's magazine Maxim (August 1998), the film landed in 86th place.

Quotes, tributes and revisions

  • The band Duran Duran named itself after the villain of the (almost) same name.
  • Kylie Minogue quoted the weightless striptease in her music video for Put Yourself in My Place , as did Jem in one of her two videos for They .
  • The band Matmos and the lava lamp manufacturer Mathmos took their names from the lava-like mass that plays an important role in the film.
  • The techno producers Sven Väth and Ralf Hilden Beutel were inspired by the film to write five titles for the album The Art of Dance .
  • In 2003, Stan Lee chose the name Stripperella for his scantily clad cartoon heroine , who works as an agent with a secret mission and who is externally (and vocally) based on Pamela Anderson .
  • There is a reference to Barbarella in the Absolutely Fabulous series . One of the characters, Patsy Stone, apparently starred in a porn movie called Boobarella in the 1970s .
  • A musical of the same name premiered in Vienna in March 2004 . The music was composed by David A. Stewart , Nina Proll played the title role , Eva Maria Marold played the role of the Black Queen .
  • A remake was planned, directed by Robert Rodriguez , but the project was canceled again.
  • Several motifs from Barbarella have had an impact on film history:
    • When entering the labyrinth in front of the city of Sogo, slaves are shown trapped in a cobweb-like cocoon . The scene is very similar to the victims of the alien in James Cameron's Aliens: The Return .
    • The staging of the bird-man Pygar as crucified is quoted in Jonathan Demmes The Silence of the Lambs , when Hannibal Lecter hangs one of his guards in a similar position in the room when he breaks out of the cage.
  • During an art exhibition (February 8 - April 19, 2009) at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, the opening credits of the film were shown to a wider public. In the entrance area of ​​the organizer, an artist made an approx. 5 m wide and 3 m high painting of the undressing Jane Fonda using an airbrush. Part of this picture can also be seen on the flyer for the exhibition.
  • Emily Fields, from the US series Pretty Little Liars, dressed up as Barbarella in a Halloween episode during season 3.
  • The suicide cells in the series Futurama are based on the examination of Barbarella and Pygar, from which they are rescued by the concierge of the great tyrant .

Premieres

  • USA 10th October 1968
  • Germany October 11, 1968

literature

  • Matthew J. Bartkowiak; Yuya Kiuchi (2015): The Music of Counterculture Cinema: A Critical Study of 1960s and 1970s Soundtracks McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-7542-0 .
  • Patricia Bosworth (2011): Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-547-50447-0 .
  • Roberto Curti (2016): Diabolika: Supercriminals, Superheroes and the Comic Book Universe in Italian Cinema Midnight Marquee Press. ISBN 978-1-936168-60-6 .
  • Gail Gerber; Gail Lisanti (2014): Trippin 'with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-8727-5 .
  • Jerry Lembcke (2010): Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, & Fantasies of Betrayal University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 1-55849-815-X .
  • Tom Lisanti (2003): Drive-in Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-movie Starlets of the Sixties McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-1575-5 .
  • Patrick McGilligan (1997): Backstory 3: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 60s University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20427-1 .
  • Parks, Lisa (1999): Bringing Barbarella Down to Earth , in: Radner, Hilary; Luckett, Moya. Swinging Single: Representing Sexuality in the 1960s University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-3351-7 .
  • Kristopher Spencer (2008): Film and Television Scores, 1950–1979: A Critical Survey by Genre McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-5228-5 .
  • Andy Taylor (2008): Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-0-446-54606-5 .
  • Donald Willis [Ed.] (1985): Variety's Complete Science Fiction Reviews Garland Publishing Inc. ISBN 0-8240-6263-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jane Fonda: My Life So Far , New York 2005, p. 243
  2. ↑ Patricia Bosworth: Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman , London 2011, p. 251
  3. ↑ Jane Fonda: My Life So Far , New York 2005, p. 177
  4. ↑ Jane Fonda: My Life So Far , New York 2005, p. 177
  5. ↑ Parks, Lisa (1999): Bringing Barbarella Down to Earth , in: Radner, Hilary; Luckett, Moya. Swinging Single: Representing Sexuality in the 1960s University of Minnesota Press
  6. ↑ Jane Fonda: My Life So Far , New York 2005, p. 178
  7. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 489/1968.
  8. ↑ Barbarella. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 12, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  9. ↑ Jane Fonda: My Life So Far , New York 2005, p. 177
  10. ↑ Album The Art of Dance