via Genevieve Valentine http://ift.tt/1gkaCS3
[Huh, this didn't mirror from this morning! Now it has.]
(Above: Jane Fonda, posing masterfully in her winter gear outside her spaceship.)
So, when the Barbarella TV series was announced, it clearly mandated a rewatch of the movie, which I remembered only in individual scenes, none of which were the showstoppers, which means that I was surprised all over again when Barbarella is repeatedly stymied by a series of obstacles that are alternately pretty avoidable and nightmarish above and beyond the call of the actual plot, many of them rich with promise, and most of them roasted by a laser right at the end.
Then again, there's something to be said for a movie that's not afraid to fill the frame:
This movie never looked at a situation and said, "Maybe we could scale back a little."
Of course, what makes this campy, lurching comedy/horror show tick (if you think it ticks, and frankly if you think it's completely broken I wouldn't blame you) is going to be a tough gig for the TV show. I wrote up a wish list at io9 last week, including a mix of things a Barbarella show might want to consider.
One of the things that interests me most, of course, is the costuming, which eventually reached points where Barabarella was having sex just so she could change into something else after. Most of them were meant to be space outfits, such as this one, a space exploration suit for engineering repairs on one's spaceship and encountering possibly-hostile life. I believe she took three steps before this happened.
THE FUTURE, EVERYONE. (Though, if you can leave aside the fact that she has space garters on and that space pants and space sleeves have both gone obsolete in favor of the weather-resistant popped collar, please note that her heels are about an inch and a half high, which is a more sensible pair of space boots than some I've seen.)
But honestly, and to no one's surprise, my favorite moments of the movie are the tiny glimpses of Barbarella breaking the fourth wall by being completely over it.
While a lot of meta would definitely tip the scales (you either have to go full Xena or forget it), there's room for a little over-it in the New Barbarella, I'd say.
[Huh, this didn't mirror from this morning! Now it has.]
(Above: Jane Fonda, posing masterfully in her winter gear outside her spaceship.)
So, when the Barbarella TV series was announced, it clearly mandated a rewatch of the movie, which I remembered only in individual scenes, none of which were the showstoppers, which means that I was surprised all over again when Barbarella is repeatedly stymied by a series of obstacles that are alternately pretty avoidable and nightmarish above and beyond the call of the actual plot, many of them rich with promise, and most of them roasted by a laser right at the end.
Then again, there's something to be said for a movie that's not afraid to fill the frame:
This movie never looked at a situation and said, "Maybe we could scale back a little."
Of course, what makes this campy, lurching comedy/horror show tick (if you think it ticks, and frankly if you think it's completely broken I wouldn't blame you) is going to be a tough gig for the TV show. I wrote up a wish list at io9 last week, including a mix of things a Barbarella show might want to consider.
One of the things that interests me most, of course, is the costuming, which eventually reached points where Barabarella was having sex just so she could change into something else after. Most of them were meant to be space outfits, such as this one, a space exploration suit for engineering repairs on one's spaceship and encountering possibly-hostile life. I believe she took three steps before this happened.
THE FUTURE, EVERYONE. (Though, if you can leave aside the fact that she has space garters on and that space pants and space sleeves have both gone obsolete in favor of the weather-resistant popped collar, please note that her heels are about an inch and a half high, which is a more sensible pair of space boots than some I've seen.)
But honestly, and to no one's surprise, my favorite moments of the movie are the tiny glimpses of Barbarella breaking the fourth wall by being completely over it.
While a lot of meta would definitely tip the scales (you either have to go full Xena or forget it), there's room for a little over-it in the New Barbarella, I'd say.
No comments:
Post a Comment