Friday, 18 December 2020

Barbarella

Barbarella, British Quad poster

Watched and filed away for another 20 years... Some talk of Jane Fonda on FB earlier prompted a revisit of Roger Vadim’s 1968 film, a film I have not seen since the early days of DVD, and perhaps with good reason - apart from the joy of watching Fonda at her loveliest, the film seems a waste of talent: Vadim’s direction is pedestrian, Terry Southern’s script is unfunny, the production design by the same man who designed The Leopard is unattractive, Marcel Marceau’s given nothing interesting to do, and Anita Pallenberg loses her voice to an indifferent dub job. I wonder what a great stylist like Mario Bava or Fellini might have done with the film - an injection of Sayricon weirdness would have helped. Everyone knows Duran Duran lifted their name from the film, but I’m assuming Drew Daniel’s Matmos did likewise...

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