As a 15-year-old Pulp fan the ultra-coolest thing you could possibly do was to practise snogging on your boyfriend�s single bed while watching kitsch 60�s trash. Or so I thought, anyway. So it�s with fond memories that I write about Jane Fonda�s pre-feminism, happy-crappy detour as space agent Barbarella.
This is the definitive �all style, no substance� film � and what style! Barbarella has to be the most ripped-off film ever � to count the pop culture references, read on� However, when I say �style,� we�re not talking Ocean�s Eleven slickness here, but the campest, trashiest, most badly-put-together piece of jolly glitzy nonsense in the history of film.
Barbarella, the best and least-clothed space agent in the universe, has to find and stop the evil Duran Duran in her fur-lined spaceship. Crash landing, she basically shags her way across the planet, restoring �flight� to the angel Pygar through her innocence and lovemaking. Note the cleverly-disguised symbolism here � let�s just say that the virgin/whore complex goes through some WILD permutations in this film.
Jane Fonda looks great in any number of costume changes, and strikes a clever balance of doe-eyed innocence and sheer tongue-in-cheek. She eventually reaches Sogo, the home of the evil lesbian tyrant, and of Duran Duran itself. She has to conquer the Mathmos, which is the glooping manifestation of evil that flows through Sogo, in order to win.
To say �bad plot� would be making the dubious assumption that it had a plot at all. It also surely has to be one of hetero/sexism�s greatest hits in that way that only the 60s could manage. But these faults are made up for in volumes by the kitsch soundtrack, the costumes, the sets, and the joyful, wide-eyed erotic silliness of it all. This is the kind of film you�ll find playing in the background at your party, or showing at 3a.m. after too many alco-pops, or appearing on the mood-boards of every two-bit fashion student in the country. Definitely worth a watch, and then straight into the trash bin where it belongs. |
