Barbarella
Related: camp - 1960s - Paco Rabanne - Roger Vadim - Jane Fonda - Eric Losfeld - adult comics - French film
Barbarella (1962) - Jean-Claude Forest [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Barbarella (1968) - Roger Vadim [Amazon.com]
Jane Fonda as Barbarella, clothing styled by Paco Rabanne.
Description
Barbarella was originally a French science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest and published by Eric Losfeld, who originated the character for serialisation in the French magazine V-Magazine in 1962. The comic stars Barbarella, a young woman who has numerous adventures, often involving sex, while journeying around the galaxy. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarella [Feb 2005]
A movie adaptation [of the Barbarella comic book] was made in 1968.
It is famous for a sequence in which the title character performs a striptease in zero gravity during the opening credits.
Barbarella is one of the few science fiction erotica films and includes an erotic torture device that is described in the orgasmatron article.
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 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 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. Marceau's lines are also dubbed into English.
De Laurentiis returned to camp science fiction (but without the erotica) with 1980's Flash Gordon. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarella [Feb 2005]
Styling
Paco Rabanne was a Spanish futuristic designer who appropriately designed the space-age costumes for the 1968 film Barbarella. [Mar 2006]
Comic book
Eric Losfeld had published the first adult comic in France, BARBARELLA by Jean-Claude Forest. It was extremely successful, so he wanted to publish more adult comics. One of my friends was Nicolas Deville, and he was responsible for the decoration of some of my short films. We were very close, and I knew that he was a fabulous painter. I encouraged him to propose something to Losfeld, so I arranged a meeting and it worked out. We did SAGA OF XAM together. It was a little science fiction story about a girl from outer space coming down to earth to experience a lot of strange adventures. I also met Philippe Druillet around the same time. He would later play in Le Viol du Vampire ("Rape of the Vampire," 1967) and created the posters for some of my films.--http://www.shockingimages.com/rollin/interview.htm [Aug 2004]
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