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Barbarella
- By Bill Harry
‘Barbarella’,
released almost forty years ago in December 1967, is a camp classic if
ever there was one. Statuesque women in Perspex bras, comic strip
adventures on other worlds, fantastic landscapes, bizarre machines
which cause death by ecstasy, dotty dialogue as a Candide-like
heroine.
‘Barbarella’
is a film Jane Fonda may feel is merely a light-hearted romp in
contrast to the serious films she is proud of – but it’s one she
shouldn’t be ashamed of.
As
strange as it may seem, at one time Jane felt uncomfortable about her
body – at least when it came to exposing it, which was inevitable
when hubby Roger Vadim directed her.
She
had a lean, coltish figure, didn’t wear a brassiere and her breasts
weren’t the pneumatic type favoured in some quarters. When she began
filming ‘Any Wednesday’, studio head Jack Warner said he didn’t
like the size of her breasts and ordered her to wear a bra.
She
had observed, “When I first became an actress, I was told that I
didn’t look right. That I wasn’t right. I had to dye my hair
blonde. I had to wear falsies, my lips were repainted. That all helps
to make your mind alienate you from what you are, not only inside, but
outside.”
Jane
decided to leave
America
for Europe and moved to
France
to appear in the film ‘Les Felines.’ That was when she was
labelled ‘La BB Americaine’ by the French press.
The
label would become more relevant when she began to be moulded by
Bardot’s former husband Vadim, who said, “When she left
Hollywood
it was because she wanted to make a name on her own. She was a little
starlet, the daughter of Henry Fonda. Some journalists compared her
with Brigitte Bardot and she hated it. She was right to hate it. She
came to
France
to make a name of her own. That was very courageous and typical of
Jane.”
When
she was tagged the American Bardot, Jane remarked, “I’ve a lot of
respect for Brigitte Bardot, but I don’t think I’m like her at
all, and in my case, I prefer being myself.”
Vadim
had wanted her to star in a remake of ‘La Ronde’, a classic French
film of 1954. During the making of the movie she moved into his flat
with him.
The
film did not create much of a sensation in
France. Jane had to deny rumours that she acted in the nude in the film.
“I am supposedly nude in bed,” she said, “but I wear a bra and
panties. There were ninety-five people on the set.”
The
reaction in
America
where it was called ‘Circle of Love’, created controversy because
of an eight-storey billboard erected at the DeMille Theatre on
47th Street
which showed Jane totally nude. She filed a $3 million lawsuit and her
bare derriere was hastily covered over by a sheet of canvas and a
spokesman for the theatre commented, “We are not in the pornography
business.” The box office boomed, the billboard was taken down and
Jane dropped her suit.
Their
next project together was ‘La Curee’, based on an Emile Zola
novel.
In
the film, called ‘The Game is Over’ in English, there was a
ten-second scene in a Turkish bath in which Jane was naked. At the
time it was quite daring for a major actress to reveal her breasts on
film. The set had to be cleared, but a photographer was hidden in the
sound stage rafters and his photographs appeared in Playboy magazine.
She sued, but she lost the case.
The
next film was their famous collaboration, ‘Barbarella.’
Vadim
was pleased that she agreed to appear as Barbarella and said, “One
of the reasons I was pleased she did it was because she was not very
secure as far as her looks were concerned. She didn’t feel that she
was in any way sexy. She was insecure about her body and her face.
People may not believe that, but it’s true. Barbarella gave her a
certain sense of confidence.”
An
intriguing opening scene provided the first striptease in space as the
captivating space agent Barbarella is first seen covered from head to
toe in a space suit which she slowly peels off while floating
weightless. Although she appeared completely nude, she only agreed to
do so with the proviso that portions of her private anatomy would be
covered by the title credits. She wasn’t satisfied with the result
and made him refilm the scene.
The
assistant make-up man on the film began to boast widely of caressing
Jane’s breasts, bottom and inside thighs as he touched up her body
with paint and powder. His wife bought a gun and threatened to kill
him. He retreated from the picture – and lived!
Jane
was to say, “The over-emphasis on identifying me with sex is pretty
silly. I’m no sex siren just because I believe in approaching sex
and the human body with honesty. I think the whole obsession with sex
and the size of a girl’s breasts is a perversion.”
The
character was based on a popular French comic strip by
Jean-Claude
Forest
, which first surfaced in book form in 1964, and
Forest
based his blonde-haired, free-loving creation on Brigitte Bardot. He
collaborated on the script with Terry Southern, who was the author of
the sexy American best-seller ‘Candy.’
Jane
was hoping that her father would appear in the role of President of
Earth. At first Henry was interested, then commented, “Will I have
to take all my clothes off?” before declining. The part went to
Claude Dauphin.
John
Phillip Law, who had appeared with Jane in ‘Hurry Sundown’ was
cast as the blind angel Pygor, Marcel Marceau appeared as Professor
Ping, Milo O’ Shea as Duran Duran (yes, this is where the pop group
found its name), Anita Pallenberg as the Black Queen and David
Hemmings as the revolutionary, Dildano.
‘Barbarella’
is a space-age version of ‘The Perils of Pauline.’ In one scene
she is to be attacked by two thousand wrens that peck her clothes to
tatters. The birds wouldn’t co-operate, even when Vadim put birdseed
in Jane’s costume. Eventually they succeeded in filming the scene
using lovebirds – but Jane had been under such a strain that she was
hospitalised for three days with hypertension and nausea.
In
another scene she is attacked by a horde of vicious dolls with metal
teeth, who seek to rip her apart. Duran Duran locks her in a machine
of ultimate ecstasy that kills its victims with pleasure – but
Barbarella absorbs as much ecstasy as it can give and the machine
eventually blows a gasket!
Erotic
costumes and its irreverence and sexiness helped to make
‘Barbarella’ a box office success.
Vadim
commented, “It looks more like a Brigitte Bardot type movie, it is
true. Sex is there, but not graphic sex. It is fun. People have
forgotten completely that Jane became Jane Fonda through some other
movies that helped her before ‘Barbarella.’ But all people
remember is ‘Barbarella’ because ‘Barbarella’ looks more like
a Bardot movie in a certain way. But it was just one of the movies
that Jane could do.”
American
critic Pauline Kael was to write, “Jane Fonda, having sex on the
wilted feathers and rough scroungy furs of ‘Barbarella’ is more
charming and fresh and bouncy than ever – the American girl
triumphing by her innocence over a lewd comic strip world of the
future.”
Many thanks to
Bill Harry for this article
Mersey
Beat - Merseyside's Own Entertainment Paper
The Beatles, The Liverpool Sound, The Swinging Sixties...
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