bar-bar-bar-bar-barbarella

Easily my favorite type of movies are the ones that are so bad they are good. There seems to be much more going on in the backgrounds, experimental shots, and I believe a limited budget opens up a director to more creative solutions (see: George Lucas past vs. today). Possibly my favorite one of all (maybe favorite movie in general, it's really hard to choose) is the marvelous Barbarella. A camp classic, follows Jane Fonda in the future as the always sexy Barbarella adventuring to a new planet to find the long lost scientist Durand-Durand (yes, that's the origin of the band name).


Set in the 41st century, future fashion is full of metallic textures, fur, chain metal, and plastics; all as leotards with matching boots of course (also inspiring the fashions in the fifth element). Barbarella's clothing always manages to get partially torn of in one way or another during her adventures letting the viewer enjoy multiple outfit changes (my favorite being the fur number above). Although none of the outfits would be good for daily wear they would all make amazing Halloween costumes! Wardrobe is perfectly matched to the sex bomb theme with large hair, nude lips, and lots of black eye liner.


Scenes of danger are particularity wonderful as she seems to be always attacked by items completely harmless in real life. When she crashes her ship, strange sets of identical twins kidnap her only to have creepy little dolls attack her with razor sharp metal teeth (this scene creeps J out as he hates porcelain dolls). As parakeets start to peck her to death she says wonderful lines like, "this is really much too poetic of a way to die" and "a good many dramatic situations begin with screaming." Thankfully, luck seems to be on her side as someone always seems to appear last minute or miraculously a trap door is lays underneath her.


A sign of the times, landscapes are purely sixties with rainbows of color and trippy scenery. Space seems to be comprised of pink and blue lights on water droplets and gradient backgrounds. And when Barbarella is trapped in the dream chamber after having her invisible key stolen, we experience intense oil and water skies and tar-like swamps. I can't help but be impressed with the artist special effects as they surely are a treat to the eyes.

watch as I take of my bear suit to reveal....another bear suit!

This post may seem long but one of the reason I hate doing movie screen shots is there are always too many to choose from! I end of cutting a bunch of pretty shots so I won't kill load times so feel free to check out the rest on flickr.