Barbarella (1968)

Director:

Roger Vadim

Writers:

Jean-Claude Forest (comic "Barbarella") and
Claude Brulé (collaborating writer) ...

Release Date:

10 October 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi | Fantasy

Tagline:

Who seduces an angel? Who strips in space? Who conveys love by hand? Who gives up the pill? Who takes sex to outer space? Who's the girl of the 21st century? Who nearly dies of pleasure?

Plot:

In the far future, a highly sexual woman is tasked with finding and stopping the evil Durand-Durand. Along the way she encounters various unusual people.

Plot Keywords:

Evil | Planet | Sex | Lesbian | Torture

Awards:

1 nomination

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
Véronique Vendell	...	Captain Moon (as Veronique Vendell)
Giancarlo Cobelli
Serge Marquand	...	Captain Sun
Nino Musco
Franco Gulà
Catherine Chevallier	...	Stomoxys
Marie Therese Chevallier	...	Glossina
Umberto Di Grazia
David Hemmings	...	Dildano

Also Known As:

Barbarella (USA)
Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy (USA) (promotional title)
Barbarella (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Barbarela (Portugal) [pt]
Barbarella (Austria) [de]
Barbarella (Greece) [el]
Barbarella (Poland) [pl]
Barbarella (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Barbarella (Finland) [fi]
Barbarella, la Venus del espacio (Spain) [es]
Barbarella, rumpigen og den sorte tyran (Denmark) [da]

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:13 | Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) (cut US version) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:Approved | USA:PG (re-rating) (1977) (cut) | West Germany:16 | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica

Trivia:

Barbarella was the first science fiction hero from the comics to be adapted into a feature film as opposed to a serial (Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, her male predecessors, had only appeared in serials up to this point).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Barabarella and Pygar are being attacked by the leather guards in the labyrinth, Barbarella tells Pygar to shoot her gun. "To the right!" she calls out. Pygar, however, swivels left and shoots, hitting the guard dead on. Since Pygar is blind, he had only her instructions to go on.

Quotes:

Barbarella: I suppose you realize you saved my life.
Dildano: A life without cause is a life without effect.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Doctor Who: The Unquiet Dead (#1.3)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

An Angel is Love

Beyond imagination

This is a movie you have to see, or you will not believe it. Categories like "good" or "bad" simply do not exist in the aesthetic limbo in which this film was made. I should mention I saw Barbarella in a movie theatre in Montreal, and there is no other city in the world where Barbarella's "parlez-vous français?" (uttered twice!) sounds more hilarious.