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| Sexy space heroine Barbarella (Jane Fonda) makes an impact! Images: PARAMOUNT. |
She's now more remembered for her tireless work as the eighties and nineties Queen of Aerobics, and for her prior sixties/seventies anti-war political work (where her nickname of Hanoi Jane would unfortunately stick to her like glue during her campaigning against the Vietnam War), but to me I'll always remember Jane Fonda at her loveliest and sexiest (as well as definitive affection and downright lust!) as the sixties sci-fi sex-bomb and space heroine Barbarella, from the comic strip evocative movie of the same name directed by her French film-maker and then husband, Roger Vadim: truly an admirer of the female form and determined to transform his desirable wife, then known for a lot of comedy and light hearted US film work, into the next Brigitte Bardot (whom he'd also just happened to have been previously married to as well!)
Barbarella (1968) Trailer - YouTube
And Fonda certainly made an impact worldwide as the innocent, happy-go-lucky, often scantily clad space agent, sent on a mission to the planet Tau Ceti to find the missing scientist turned baddie Durand Durand (played by Milo O'Shea), ready to enslave the universe with his positronic ray. Helped in her endeavours by a blind, blonde angel, Pygar (played by the late John Philip Law), and mixing with a plethora of weapons and technology (used for good and bad, of which, in typical French fashion, only its brand of sci-fi would have a sex-device like the Excessive Machine!), Barbarella's colourful adventure was barking mad and kookily charming in its kitsch comic-strip, late-sixties ways: the latter a primary factor for its longevity as an iconic B film classic. Plus, of course, remaining in the mind's eye all these years later, there was Fonda's unforgettable intro as Babs, doing an audience friendly outer space striptease before the film's main titles had even finished! (A moment, originally co-handled by the late Maurice Binder, that has since been imitated, but never bettered, by the likes of Kylie Minogue!)
barbarella opening titles - YouTube
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| Vintage movie poster for the popular film. |
Attempts to revive Barbarella as a feature film re-imagining began in the early nineties, when TWIN PEAKS sex siren Sherilyn Fenn, an excellent choice for the time, was attached to the project, followed, I believe, by rumours of another equally lovely lady in the Fonda family, Bridget. A further stalled rebirth effort came from cult director Robert Rodriguez a few ears back, with the tempting Drew Barrymore to have starred in the role. Now, the news has come in that a fresh TV series revival effort is underway courtesy of popular British JAMES BOND movie scripters Robert Wade and Neal Purvis, produced by Martha De Laurentiis (whose late husband Dino had the original film rights). Just who will be playing the new vision of Barbarella remains to be seen, as will the all-important decision of how much on-screen sex appeal and skin she'll be able to display in between girl power battles against space aliens and power mad evil empires. Somehow, though, I suspect that this new in the planning, bigger budget version, with early episodes produced and directed by DRIVE's brilliant Nicolas Winding Refn, will likely be played a lot more seriously. Ah well...
Get hold of BARBARELLA on Blu-ray here: Barbarella (1968) [Blu-ray][Region Free]: Amazon.co.uk: Film & TV
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