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Barbarella (1968)- The Gams
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Buckle up friends because we were really on one for this episode. And how could you not be for a movie like Barbarella? This movie sent our brains into outer space. If you are looking to learn something, you will not find it here. What you will find are killer dolls, killer parakeets, killer organs, killer lakes, and a lot of killer costumes.
Info from:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062711/
https://costumedesignarchive.blogspot.com/search?q=barbarella
https://time.com/3634395/life-with-jane-fonda-behind-the-scenes-on-the-camp-classic-barbarella/
Music: Cassette Deck by Basketcase
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm Melinda. I'm Ariel. This is Hot Set, the movie podcast about costume design.
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to Hot Set. We are here today to talk about a delightful gem of a film, 1968's Barbarella. Ariel, I need to know what was your initial takeaway. Oh, okay. So I watched this movie.
00:00:42
Speaker
I spent a lot a lot of time with my grandparents when I was younger, because my mom was a flight attendant. So I would stay with them for days. And my grandma was not in the best of health, so she would like excuse herself during the days for like siestas and naps, right? So I would have free run of the house and the TV. Did not have TV at home. So I was like, look at this box of technology. And one day, Barbarella came on when I was maybe 10 or 11.
00:01:09
Speaker
Wow. And I saw that movie and I discovered upon this watch that I probably watched about 60 or 70% of them. Okay. Wow. So this was a real wild watch because I remember so much of it and it's so bonkers. It's so bonkers. So I had a lot of thoughts. I had a lot of thought ah like kind of the, from the social commentary side of it and like looking at it. And then I loved the design.
00:01:44
Speaker
I thought a lot was really amazing about the design. And then I just was having this like freak out about like, I was watching this when I was like 10. Yeah, I don't know if that's the best time. And I was just like laughing because some of this stuff.
00:01:59
Speaker
It is so bonkers. like I can't handle it. So there were a couple times where Phil heard me just like absolutely dying across the house. I was like, wait a minute.
00:02:15
Speaker
What in the name of Holy Cocaine? Cocaine the drug. What is happening? Yeah. What about you? What were your initial emotions? Well, I realized that most of my knowledge of Barbarella was actually just from like photographs that I had seen of mostly just Jane Fonda in like various costumes in this movie. And I love the 1960s just for fashion. And this movie just truly gave me everything that you could possibly want from like a 1960s sort of slightly psychedelic. We are exploring what modern is and what society could be and what drugs can do to your brain. Oh my goodness.
00:03:14
Speaker
So yeah, I really didn't know anything about what happened in the movie, I guess I just really did not know what the plot of this movie was. And now having seen it, I'm not 100% sure that I know what the plot of this movie is. Oh, I'm so excited to hear your takes.
00:03:32
Speaker
So yeah, I'm just like kind of scrolling through pictures that I pulled from the movie like that I have off to the side here and I just am trying to make sense of. I do want to shout out costumedesignarchive.blogspot dot.com because that's where I got the concentration of photos that I was working off of. It's like a pretty thorough collection of little notes and images. So thanks to the person who runs that project.
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, very helpful. And I found some I think a life magazine like spread from like the 60s with pictures of Jane Fonda. And I found like a little archive with some nice like good photos in there.
00:04:17
Speaker
that I was looking at, I kept kind of Googling, like, behind the scenes, like, how was, what happened? How is this movie made? And I didn't find, like, enough information. I didn't find, you know, I wanted the, like, where's, like, the oral history of Barbarella book? Like, that's what I wanted, and I didn't find that. Yeah, I feel like that would be a pretty interesting read, because just even going to Wikipedia, which was the depth of my academic research, oh Absolutely. um So thank you to Wikipedia contributors for the film of Barbarella. Soft clap, opera clap. So even on that page, there were kind of conflicting responses from Jane Fonda, and some of them were directly from her at different times when she'd been asked about her experience, and some were from somebody else's perspective. But it seems like
00:05:09
Speaker
And this is totally me putting something on Jane Fonda. ah But there's like a quote that I think that you also have it in your notes ah where Fonda felt her priority for the character of Barbarella was to quote, keep her innocent. yeah And the character is not a vamp and her sexuality is not measured by the rules of our society. She's not being promiscuous, but follows the natural reaction of another type of upbringing. She's not a so-called sexually liberated woman either. That would be rebellion against something. She's different. She was born free. And so like that quote,
00:05:44
Speaker
feels like a Jane Fonda quote because she's very conscientious of stuff. But it feels like more of like a positive spin on something where she's like, I'm trying to look at this academically. Like she's not just a men's play thing. She's got an innocence or whatever. Like she's trying to put some things, she's trying to gild the Lily a little bit with what she's been given, which is just a sexual fantasy. And then her ex-husband who was the director really had a lot to say about how he wanted Barbarella to exist that felt exactly like what it is and like later and I can read that quote but also later on there's like um from his perspective talking about how Jane Fonda did not enjoy the experience of filming and did not enjoy the character of Barbarella because she felt
00:06:37
Speaker
like, I don't remember what the exact quote is, but basically she was like, this character has nothing to it. Like she doesn't have like depth death and she doesn't have agency. And like Jane Fonda is famously an activist and famously somebody who monster in law signed a lot of her career. I feel like she's wanted to kind of have like a message in her work yeah um that goes with what she's doing in the real world. And there was a quote that like kind of spoke to that from her perspective about there's no like cultural resonance with this character. And Vadim, the director, said that he did not want the actress to play Barbarella tongue in cheek, and he saw the character as just a lovely
00:07:25
Speaker
average girl with a terrific space record and a lovely body. I'm not going to and intellectualize her, although there's going to be a bit of satire about our morals and our ethics. This picture is going to be more of a spectacle than a cerebral exercise for a few way out intellectuals.
00:07:44
Speaker
and There is somebody else on Wikipedia quoted as saying, like at the time, we had like Stanley Kubrick and all these other you know directors trying to expand sci-fi, and here's this guy sending us back. I was like, no, thank you. Yeah. I was like, you know what? Preach. There's a lot that is going very backwards in this, but it's also design-wise, loved it. Beautiful. There's so much going on.
00:08:11
Speaker
yeah but yeah the the story of our brother should we try to attempt to describe the story before i just wanna say before that like the initial quote that you had about jane fonda like explaining her character from like a more positive i feel like when you're working on a creative project.
00:08:30
Speaker
you have to be committed and and like you you have to find those things in the project. Otherwise, you will not be able to make the film and make it the best thing that it can be. like You have to fall in love with what you're doing in the moment in order to do it with any kind of authenticity or like seriousness. even Even a silly movie, you have to find the the truth that you can play in the movie. and so It makes sense to me. like like There's definitely you know projects that I've worked on that are not like the most serious but
00:09:13
Speaker
in that moment, you have to take them seriously. Oh, yeah, you have to put in the authenticity because what you're trying to do is kind of convince an audience of something. yeah And even if that something is that you believed in it enough to do it.
00:09:29
Speaker
then that's like your baseline. That's your your entry level. Yeah. It's like if you're making a ah comedy, like you have to play the joke. You can't have this removal where you're not invested in trying to make something funny, otherwise it won't be funny and no one will laugh at it. like You have to commit to Playing the joke and i feel like that's the same even in like a in a serious don't like you have to commit to the seriousness in like a crazy camp. Movie i can't be movie you have to commit to.
00:10:10
Speaker
that moment, otherwise the audience will immediately understand that you didn't give a shit about it and they won't give a shit either. A perfect example of this is the recent movie, Madam Web. Yes. Because Dakota Johnson is the perfect example of this. In PR, she was like, this is stupid. Yes. Like she basically in like interviews and everything was like yeah this is garbage it's garbage and you can I did not watch it cuz I was not interested but I've seen clips and of course I listened to how did this get made again we had naturally yeah but like the observation was that because this actor is
00:10:54
Speaker
could not enter into that 100%, I believe, in this kind of authenticity. It affected a lot of the movie, like including the performances of other people around her who were trying to like adjust to how much she was giving. yeah And you know that's not all on Dakota Johnson. It's the writing. It's the directing. It's the editing. It's the concept. It's all of the stuff. Absolutely.
00:11:20
Speaker
When you're handed a steaming like soup of madness, you gotta take a big spoonful. You do because if you don't, it does affect how other people latch onto it. yeah And so like, it's okay to get like a terrible movie.
00:11:40
Speaker
and act at 100% Nicolas Cage because then people are like, look at Nicolas Cage going 3000%. I'm in it for that alone. Otherwise, they're just like, well, I don't think anybody believed in this movie.
00:11:55
Speaker
think that Jane Fonda did an amazing job with what she was given to work with. I really do. Like, this this is a crazy story. And I think that she just Jane Fonda-ed it. Like, she came in and she was like, I'm going to do this movie. And unfortunately, it had some negative effects on her and her self-esteem. And like, that is all truly serious. And the story of this female character existing in this interesting world is not like a great view of sexual liberation and female agency and all of those things at all. But with what she was given, Jane Fonda did a great job. She did a professional's job. Yes.
00:12:42
Speaker
but yes Yes, I don't agree ah with a lot of the sort of worldview portrayed in this movie. And it's also one of those things as you get older and do more things and have more life experience, you can look back on stuff that you have done and be like, oh, shoot.
00:13:04
Speaker
That just, that wasn't it, you know? And I'm sure that some of like her feelings about this movie probably could only come with hindsight and, you know.
00:13:16
Speaker
I mean, it seems like some of her views were pretty in the moment. They true. Like where she was like, I know exactly what this is. And because, um, there were a few actresses who were, they did pursue to try to do the the role, to perform the role of Barbarella and Brigitte Bardot, I think was the first, and she did not want to take the role. And then Sophia Loren was next, but she was pregnant and did not feel like she could do the role.
00:13:42
Speaker
And Jane Fonda was married to the director. So I don't know how that came about if that was like, oh, well, you're here and you are the Jane Fonda. So do you want to do this or or how that came about? But she ended up being the the choice. She sure did. yes she did so shall we yeah Do we want to try to attempt to explain the plot?
00:14:06
Speaker
i I think we we owe it to everyone to try. To all of our millions of listeners. That's right. Let's walk through this. I have a synopsis here that is from IMDB. I did edit the synopsis a little bit to to be real, so if anyone goes on IMDB, they can find a pretty much like similar thing, but I'm sure that we will diverge from that But that is the starting point that I threw up in the notes. So um this movie takes place in the distant future. A lot of things that I've read have placed it
00:14:41
Speaker
either at like 4,000 BCE or 40,000 BCE. And I don't know which one, but those are very different from each other. I don't think it's necessarily relevant, but- Oh, that's hilarious. 40,000. Like, those are different. If it was 40,000, just end humankind on all planets. I know. Just let us go. Let us go if this is a feature.
00:15:10
Speaker
way But in some time from now. um We open and on Barbarella, who's an astronaut, in her bizarre fur-lined spaceship. I could not necessarily understand the objects inside her spaceship and why they were there. She had like this giant like sort of room like divider-looking screen that was a print of the painting Sunday in the park, and she had
00:15:45
Speaker
a like bronze statue, like human sized bronze statue of a woman. It was almost like Artemis C? Yeah. And then like her, and then she became like the television screen.
00:16:01
Speaker
i watch know chart but that ah great I don't know what to say about that. It also felt a little bit like there were little alcoves that were meant to be like 60s bars that were like full of rhythm sticks or something because there's a point where they get turbulence.
00:16:16
Speaker
And there's a random shit is like falling all over the place, but they're just like colorful cylinders that have no true purpose. No purpose. Yeah. And the whole interior of the ship is just like shag carpeting. ah Like 100 every surface. And I was like, if there if you did not know that this movie was made in the 60s, that would do it. for Like you would understand immediately. Oh.
00:16:40
Speaker
that this movie is from the 60s because everything inside that ship is coated in checked brown shag carpeting. So yeah, the movie opens on Jane Fonda as Barbarella in this giant silver spacesuit, and then she does ace like a basically like a strip tease alone in the spacesuit. I did clock as I was watching it,
00:17:05
Speaker
that they filmed the like zero gravity by just filming her straight down and her kind of like rolling around on the floor. Yeah, which was pretty crazy. it It looks like she's trying to take herself out of a straight jacket. Yes. and The way that it's filmed from above, you're like, I can let the illusion work. Yeah.
00:17:28
Speaker
I know that how this is happening. It's just Jane Fonda rolling around. It's all about this. And I thought it was it was kind of fascinating because sort of like the first, um I think you see it like you see just like her hands first, but the first kind of major part of her body that's revealed is her legs.
00:17:47
Speaker
And that just felt like so 60s to me, the emphasis on legs, other game the the games. And I was just like, here we are. Also, but the big like bubble helmet was huge because it had to contain all of her hair and.
00:18:05
Speaker
there's a lot of hair. The way that she's revealed from a giant bubble helmet is it looks metallic and then the metallic stuff starts to like sink down. Her face is revealed like in a giant. But it looks massive because of the glass and the plastic distorting it. So she looks like, I don't remember the name of the character, but Madame Something in the Haunted Mansion, just this head floating in glass. The pacing of the metallic substance going down is so weird that you're just watching the top part of her face for a really crazy amount of time. That was my first gut laugh of the movie. You can see
00:18:54
Speaker
echoes of those types of like reveals in movies, but it was just bizarre to watch. It was it was a weird striptease. I feel like Dita Von Teese could like modernize it somehow, and instead of like rolling around on the floor, would be floating in a giant cocktail glass.
00:19:16
Speaker
a thousand percent while magically coming out of this tubed up space uniform that looks like galvanized steel. I feel like that was our first kind of like our first majorly synthetic fabric that we have seen in our movie journey of this like podcast series. like We're getting into the land of like fully plastic-y PVC vinyl stuff. We're here. We've made this. Because now we've got like cool textures to the plastic and the synthetics. Whereas like in Forbidden Planet and Just Imagine, we're seeing stylized choices and then like layering. In Forbidden Planet, there was a lot of layering and a lot of playing with texture by creating ruching and things like that. And there was stretch fabric.
00:20:08
Speaker
but some of that could have been bias. And this one is like 100% that is extruded plastic turned into a fabric. I feel like our next costume moment is sort of a lack of costume moment because she takes a a video call from the president of Earth and she's fully believe nude. Fully nude. And it's just like, oh, I can grab something. And the president goes, don't worry about it. Yeah. He's like, don't, don't, don't trouble yourself. Like the key, like this is the key moment to the audience of being like, this is what this movie is going to be like. yeah Get ready. We're very flexible with our nudity. That's not a big deal for us. And we are mission oriented. What that mission is, is very loose.
00:20:57
Speaker
Yeah, there's there's one solid and that is go find this person Durand Durand and if that's familiar to anybody it's because the band Durand Durand took their name from this character.
00:21:13
Speaker
They sure did. 100%. They just took off the D at the end of the name. Durand, Durand. And it's one of those things like, of course, I've heard heard and heard of the band Durand Durand many times. And I always thought that that was kind of like a strange name and you kind of wonder where you get a name like that. And now I know. One of the campiest villains. Spoiler alert. Oh my gosh. One of the campiest villains. Ariel, don't give it away. It's so fresh, this movie.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah. it's The plot of this movie is about as thin as some of Jane's costumes. and there's just it's It's not a plot movie, it's a vibe movie for sure. and I think the 60s, especially the late 60s, there are a lot of vibe movies being made in this time and this is just- This is strongly one of them. Yes.
00:22:10
Speaker
So yeah, like all we really have for plot is like she needs to go to this planet and find this guy, Durand Durand, who's also from Earth, right? The Earth planet, which is how they seem to refer to it. The Earth planet. We're going to take you back to Earth planet. I'll never go back there. Very normal. And yeah, he's like a scientist who's, I think at that point just considered like missing. Like they think maybe he's like in trouble. I think that they know that he has created some sort of weapon.
00:22:50
Speaker
Right. And so that's what they do know. They don't know exactly what he's up to. They don't know exactly where he is because he did go MIA, but they've like gotten wind of some information that he's basically built a weapon. And on ah the Earth planet at this time, they don't do violence. They don't do any of these things. They are almost beyond Star Trek when it comes to being advanced. Like they don't really seem to have like a strong concept of like what violence is. Yeah or what conflict is and the language that they used to describe that is pretty bonkers like when Barbarella is responding to the president of earth and she's like instead of saying are you trying to tell me that he created a weapon to like create
00:23:41
Speaker
like foment descent and conflict and all this stuff. Instead, she like refers to conflict by terms that are like if somebody was flipping through a thesaurus and just wanted to get more word count in a paper that they needed to like turn in at 8 AM the next day, and it's 2 AM right now. It's just so pretty crazy. Yeah, because the president's like, he wants to do war, and she's like, what? She does not- Emotional immaturity?
00:24:10
Speaker
No, it's crazy. bing Bang, bang, violence. Bang, bang, no, no. So they have this conversation with her and then he's like light faxing her weapons and something that I think is like a translation device. yeah um But she calls it a tongue box, which I was like, that's okay.
00:24:33
Speaker
All right. We're in it now. And because it's, it's called a tongue box, but it's worn on her wrist and it's like a cool little device. It's made up of some bracelets that like link together. Um, it was pretty and it like served a purpose, but why is it stop calling it a tongue box? It's not in your mouth and it's not a box. Let's come up with something else. She ends up holding while, while nude, all of these crazy like laser guns, which Yes. I don't know how often she really uses any of them because where would she pack them? All of these costumes have no ah storage. like this is why This is why we talk about having pockets. she I think she uses two of them. in Yeah, late and she's like handed a bunch and one of them looks like some sort of gun situation that has silver hands at the end of it. Yes. but
00:25:33
Speaker
i I did not track that prop. I couldn't think about it too much. I just had to let it go. Yeah, you have to let it go. But in that moment where I see it, where she's holding all these weapons and she's like, ah thanks, I guess, to the president, I was just like, what does that one do? but What does that one do? I don't know. no Does it clap lasers? like I just let it go. Does it slap you across the face? I don't know.
00:26:02
Speaker
Oh, also just the shape of her spaceship was really confusing. Yeah. I didn't I couldn't begin to think about it. That felt visually like a step back from the spaceship design in a Forbidden Planet, which was based off of like a regular old run of the mill saucer. This one was like, no, we can do something different and looks like a bloated haggis somehow.
00:26:25
Speaker
Yeah, it was a very awkward. It's interesting. sense No, and like the inside of this ship made about as much sense as the inside of the ship on just imagine where like just imagine there was absolutely nothing inside of it and no storage and no food, no windows, nothing.
00:26:43
Speaker
This one actually had view screens. This one had like technology inside of it. It had the shag carpets. So I guess technically everything was a seat, but it didn't have any kind of like internal safety measures like seat belts. So when she slept on like a plexiglass slab, but from a different point of view, when you see it kind of from above, it's just shag rug. So that, true that.
00:27:07
Speaker
that plastic tarp thing that she was laying on was just to have the perv POV from underneath. Yeah, that's true. That's it. and she is We did have a closet. Yes, we did have a closet because you have to have somewhere for all your fabulous outfits and space. Exactly, exactly. That was kind of it. Yeah, like that was it and and kind of like some little storagey things that I only noticed when they hit turbulence and chaos.
00:27:32
Speaker
Right. But ah when that happens, it's after the conversation with the president, she has put on an outfit. And this is actually, I think, one of my favorite outfits because it feels less like the rest where once we hit the new planet and Barbarella is changing into the rest of her costumes.
00:27:51
Speaker
The theme of costumes in this movie is very much what can you see? Like it's cut out, it's plastic molds that like hold body parts, very much like high cut things and very thin things that you can see through. It's all about like what can you see without necessarily looking directly at it. And this outfit is this black like suit with Kind of like hip holsters and like there's like a plastic piece at the belly and then she has like this plastic over.
00:28:27
Speaker
over shirt armor piece. And it has like a little so like a little cap sleeve. And it's like chilled plastic like layered over and then like kind of lightly healed boots. So it seems like something that is a little bit more functional than the others where it's like very movable and very skin tight and all of those things, but it's not as about like look directly at this that is reminding you of that.
00:28:55
Speaker
It seems more like, ah we're in space. and so It also feels pretty metal, and probably because it's black. like It just feels like like this would be something that you would see. What was that? Heavy metal? Is that that like cartoon? But yeah, for illustrated. I don't remember what it is, but yeah. I was just like, this feels like something that definitely influenced the 80s hardcore.
00:29:18
Speaker
but Totally. No question. I kind of wish she had stayed in this outfit a little bit longer. I will say just throughout the movie, the theme of all of her outfits is like she puts them on and then they get like completely like shredded and ripped apart. Shredded. And then she puts something else on and then it gets shredded and ripped apart and it just kind of goes that way throughout the movie. Or she like slithers out of a couple of them because she's like, we'll get to it. We'll get to it.
00:29:45
Speaker
so So she hits turbulence, there's like some crazy like magnetic storm that she flies through, sees the planet that she's headed toward and doesn't quite land at her destination, I think, but lands on the planet. yeah And costume change number two.
00:30:02
Speaker
Yes, into the little like silver with the mini cape. The snow gear? Is that what we're talking about? Yeah, the little silver bikini that is meant for like the ice that she runs in. It's got almost like a fishnet body stocking situation underneath. Just hose, totally ah revealed arms, little capelet.
00:30:27
Speaker
She's on this ice-covered lake with like snow and it's like got that snowy fog everywhere. and it's so You have the idea that this might be cold. It doesn't matter. It seems to be. and like the The other characters that you meet there are wearing a lot more clothes than she is and they seem quite comfortable. Certainly the men. Yeah, the the the catch.
00:30:53
Speaker
What's the name catch man the catch man whose name is mark hand not the actor the character's name is mark hand the catch man and he's wearing this like and a tailored like for Muppet bear suit and then we also see the Sauron of children.
00:31:12
Speaker
like made out of leather and it's just like crazy whipping these like insane, weird, crazy feral children. When the children, so like the first people that that she needs are like the little kids and she's like, oh, little children, you'll be nice to me. Let me try to adjust my tum my tongue box to get to your language so we can speak to each other.
00:31:36
Speaker
And they take her to, like, a blown-up, abandoned spaceship. Does that end up being Duran Duran's spaceship? Yeah, she mentions, well, this is herran Duran Duran's ship. So they take her inside and then they they chain her up and they attack her with dolls but dos with metal teeth. And I was just like, I didn't think that I could be more creeped out by creepy dolls, but this, and here we are, took it to a level that I did not think was really possible. like
00:32:09
Speaker
like jigsaw each your heart out. Like these dolls are so scary. And they are like, there are some that are like purple, like they they all have this like sickly color into them and none of them are identical. They're all very different, but none of them are a doll that you're going to look at and go, oh, that's cute. And yet, Barbarella in this like chained up situation goes, that's really cute that you want to show me your dolls, but if you don't behave, I'm going to tell your parents. Yes.
00:32:39
Speaker
okay Now we know that this character is put into this crazy situation and already her problem-solving is not it's not great. It's not going well. Yeah, it's not going well. Like looking at these feral children and going like, okay, thanks for showing me your sweet little dolls. and I was like, sweet little dolls. Yeah, they have like chomping metal teeth, just like hungry, hungry hippies. Yeah, it's crazy.
00:33:07
Speaker
And so she's just like, oh, no. And it's being like taken apart by these little dolls until all of a sudden we get this like, like I said, the Sauron four and of children who comes in and starts like magically whipping these children. And they're like cries are weird, distorted digital sound. And then the catch man comes in and he's like Barry Muppet outfit and like is like just this crazy thing where she's like,
00:33:37
Speaker
I'm doing air quotes, passed out. And he takes her out from this little, it's like three pipes, like that she has three poles that she's been tucked into. Yeah, like zip tied her to or something. She's not even attached to them, I don't think. She's should just stuck in them. um and But she's not even stuck. It's like that thing where you can see her and you can go, you can just step out of that. It's like she's staying in there to be polite.
00:34:01
Speaker
And so like her hands I think are attached to each other, but they're not attached to anything else. So what he does is absolutely nuts. He takes her and he like bends her backward and then sets her back up the way that you would with like an hourglass where you're like, let me just readjust the sand in here. And so she's like passed out leaning back and then comes back up and she's awake again. It's just so great. And then the Sauron character just disappears with these children into the ice and the catch man is like, oh yeah, I'm the catch man. And we're like, ah what? That means nothing. What are you talking about? Yeah. And he's like, I live out here by myself. And like,
00:34:44
Speaker
hunt down the children who live here until they're of an age to be of service and she's like a service and he's like don't think about it. Don't don't don't worry you're pretty little head about it. Look at my really cool ice sled which I refer to as icy chitty chitty bang bang.
00:35:01
Speaker
100% and I will say I liked it. I liked it too. I liked it because it feels like this crazy set was built and then you have this thing just like sliding across it so slowly until. we get to why I called it Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on ice, which is the second part of the name, the Bang Bang portion, because she's like, Oh, I need help fixing my ship. And he goes, No problem. I work on this sled so I can fix anything. ah But i very yeah, very confident. And she's like, How ever can I repay you? And he says, Well,
00:35:38
Speaker
let's do it. And she's like, great, let's do it the earth way, the earth planet way, which is the advanced way with pills. I think I have some on me. And like, you're supposed to take these pills and you connect like, you're like, put your hands through your hands. And then it's like a neural It's very like Vulcan mind meld kind of but 100% and he's like no thanks that's weird we're gonna do it the old fashioned way. I kind of ah agree with him that it is weird. Yeah it's super weird and we're gonna get to that later because we do see it play out and that was another massive laugh for me. I just
00:36:17
Speaker
so they But she's never ah been physically intimate with somebody. She's been mentally intimate with people before. So this is her first time. And she's like, this is just so like archaic. There's no point in this, barbaric. yeah And so she like lays back and he's like, without your clothes. And she goes, oh, OK, I guess. And then we like snap to an overhead shot of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Ice Sledge just going in circles. Yeah.
00:36:45
Speaker
while everything's happening. It was very like the train going into the tunnel. I'm losing it. They complete their there session. We don't see any of it. Yeah, the only time that we see the physical stuff is when it's the mental experience and that is something else. I didn't feel like we should have been seeing that either.
00:37:10
Speaker
But it was kind of to be Jane Fonda and having to play that scene where she's just like laying in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sled. Which is like this tube at the back of it, like the the body of a dragonfly. And that's the bed. though the like The way that she like had to play that scene of just being like having her her mind just like totally blown. I was like, please tell me this movie was written by a man. Oh my God, like there's no question from from moment zero that this was written by men. This is that a female character created by men because yeah, like she gets her mind blown.
00:37:49
Speaker
by the catch man ah sch and she's naked and the cameras on the outside of the dragonfly tail. And so you see her naked body through this plastic way while she's getting dressed. He's already banged dressed ready for business and he goes and fixes her ship while she's like doing her hair and then then I did really appreciate how quickly she was able to make a body suit out of random fur pieces. She makes this like mini body suit, mini dress that has this crazy long tail and like a collar that I really appreciated. It was so cute. It was great, but this tail
00:38:32
Speaker
I don't know what that's about except to be a bit for when she goes into her ship and the tail gets get like closed in the door and then the door opens again and she whips it through. I did appreciate that like in the next scene, she was like trying to do something else and the tail was kind of being unruly and she's like, I've got to get rid of this tail. I was like, I agree. like did you i don't I don't know. We don't need to go into details on how like where you found this in the pile of furs everywhere. but like Why did you choose the tail? It's so crazy. I mean, it did kind of complete the outfit, so like I get it. I mean, it did. It did. But like logistically speaking, you're an astronaut who's supposed to be like super capable, and you are the astronaut that the presence of Earth. Is she a fashion designer, Ariel? No, she's sushi. You got me. Call me out.
00:39:24
Speaker
So this this thing really cements for any viewer, any modern viewer, this was absolutely made by men. Because the men that we've seen so far have been accepting for the catch man pulling down his costume to like pounce on her and we see some of his hairy chest. These men are covered like neck to toe and we only see their hands and their faces. So far that will change. It it will will change. will But like so far just to emphasize that Barbarella is this gorgeous
00:40:02
Speaker
a young person. They have like really crazy dressed the male figures. Yeah. And I will say like going back to the president of Earth Planet, he seemed to be wearing a like floor length black robe that had like ostrich feather trim.
00:40:21
Speaker
And I appreciated that because that is such a wild choice for like, this is a serious political figure and he is wearing little black ostrich trim plumes. I just liked it. I was like, I don't understand and I don't need to. I feel like I would have loved, because this is so campy, I would have loved a little bit more like flailing of the cape, you know what I mean? Like,
00:40:45
Speaker
like whipping the cape like over a shoulder, that kind of stuff. So like yeah dramatic proclamations, but we do get that from somebody else later. So I got what I wanted. I think after this, after she ditches the fur look is when she puts on the silver. Yeah. The utility jumpsuit with, um,
00:41:06
Speaker
pubic marking, I believe. Yeah. And the thigh high. Yeah. but It's all attached by like a black art garter that goes up to the shoulders. Yeah. I think this might be my favorite look. This one is super, super iconic because it's like so hardcore Barbarella. Like it is, you see this and you you know the time, you know the place and you can guess the movie. And yeah so this is how she goes and experiences. So she's back in her ship and she basically tunnels down into the planet, I believe, to get to this place called Sogo. Here's my question. Did the catch man really fix her ship? Because it seems like she immediately started having problems again.
00:41:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think that he made it so that she could at least communicate with the computer again. ahha ah At least, like because I think that she wasn't she was like having trouble. There was something about like the magnetic stuff like disturbing. There is no science being applied to this, by the way. This is me absolutely trying to make this make sense.
00:42:10
Speaker
Because, yeah, instantly the computer's like, none of this is working. And she's like, oh, well, let's go down into a planet the She did have like a screen in the ship where she could like see out. But as far as I could tell, almost everything that she was seeing looked like the inside of a lava lamp. Oh, yeah. was no There was nothing nothing useful. It's kind of like when you see anything on like old anything sci-fi where they're like, the computers are going crazy and the computers are just like a line graph.
00:42:38
Speaker
That's not even like going anywhere. There's no marker. It's just like a static image of something that's like, what is that? Yeah, you're like, how do I know? if school is that mean I don't know. So we have a great woman written by man moment where she gets out of her ship once she's like gotten to where she's going inside the planet and she just like falls down.
00:43:00
Speaker
As you do. And knocks herself out. When you're like an experienced space traveler, scientist. you are his the astronaut. I'm just going to keep repeating that. You are the astronaut. Like the president of her blew smoke up your ass at the beginning of this movie to talk about how you are the only person qualified to do this job. And instantly she knocks herself out and gets down, felt up oh immediately.
00:43:26
Speaker
by a blind angel. Listen, he had to feel her up because he couldn't see couldn't see. But we had to have a really loving shot of him grabbing her chest to be like, oh, that's a lady. And this name is Pygar. Don't worry. If you're going to watch this movie, you'll remember it because every single time Barbara Ellis says his name, it's always in multiples. It's never just once. No, she screams it a lot. A lot. And it's always like in threes or twos. Pygar! Pygar! Pygar! It's crazy. And I lost my mind. And this, this angel man, these giant wings, a very empty expression on his face. Yes. Which i I guess translates to not being able to see. And um a massive diaper.
00:44:16
Speaker
It was, you know. It's sort of like a skirt, a little. Yeah, it's like a little bit of like a Grecian drape skirt with feathers situation. But it's also like, this is another moment of like a Kylo Ren high waist kind of thing. Oh, for sure. He chops his body in like a weird way. It's sitting like at the rib cage. It's so high. Crazy. Which is why it makes it feel like a diaper situation. It did a little bit.
00:44:44
Speaker
And he is just a metaphor for, you know, erectile dysfunction because he was injured and he was found by this character named Professor professor Ping, I believe. Ping, I think. yeah Yeah. So Professor Ping, and that might be Marcel Marceau.
00:45:00
Speaker
It might be. I'm convinced. That character might be played by Marcel Marceau, who is in this film. And um and ah so he's found by this professor and he's like nursed back to health and he can't fly.
00:45:18
Speaker
He lost the will. He lost the will. Physically he's able to, but he lost the will. So, of course, Barbarella says, Pygar! Pygar! Pygar! Pygar! Why don't you show me your home? And so he takes her to a giant bird's nest.
00:45:34
Speaker
That she loves she's into it. She didn't like it. Can you blame her? I mean, he knows how to he knows how to build him. He looks like the sort of ideal of this era of like a surfer. He's got that Southern California.
00:45:52
Speaker
tan, blonde, kind of shaggy. So tan. His color palette is like the tan skin, the blonde, and a lot of gold and crease. Yeah. And like fairly muscular, like the way that men's bodies are sort of sculpted muscular today was not really a thing back then. So I feel like he had like a very like, very athletic physique. Yeah. Just like a big like solid, but like with muscular definition. Yeah.
00:46:21
Speaker
And um so he she's discovered, okay, so they are attacked somehow by some more Saurons and leather. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. And Pygar, ah she instructs him, Pygar, Pygar, Pygar, to the right, a little bit to the right to get to one of her laser guns. And so he blows up like some of the Saurons. And they're just, there's nothing inside. There's nothing inside. It's just like a suit.
00:46:49
Speaker
Yeah, they're like animated suits. To thank him for this, they take each other's hands and he just walks her, we assume, because they cut to his nest and when the camera comes back up, she is and then and she's like taking like a feather out of her hair. And she looks up and Pygars in flight.
00:47:14
Speaker
I already out of my mind.
00:47:21
Speaker
Oh, and this is something I forgot too. I meant to open it up with this. for The earth greeting is to lift your hand up and go love. And the angel, Hagar, is just always being questioned about like, what are you? What is an angel? Well, an angel is love. An angel is love. An angel is love. And so there's just like this conversation about love that's kind of happening in the background of this very general frame of trying to find Durand Durand. If you forgot that that was part of the plot, don't worry about it. So
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah this love thing is very like please tell me how the summer of love happened the year before it was made. And how how strong and also tell me how French and Italian this movie is.
00:48:08
Speaker
ah house of god so Now we are in this era with this utility jumpsuit of Barbarella's costumes, yeah where we're starting to see all of the costumes playing with suggestive visibility. right So like with the angel, we're seeing a lot of his skin. um With Barbarella, the jumpsuit is like showing us like high high thigh, collarbones, and arms.
00:48:37
Speaker
but it's like suggestive. There's this like black square right over her pubic bone that is suggestive, but it's not showing anything. But from now on, all of the women's costumes that we see and some of the men's will have very creative cutouts, plastic inserts and molds that are over the breasts, over the belly, all these different things to show like muscles and belly buttons. And some of them are going to be like,
00:49:05
Speaker
super suggestive like Barbara's next costume, which is basically like a body stocking unitard white situation with no sleeves where there's like a breastplate made out of pseudo chain mail. Yeah. And like she's got like cuffed boots, but you can see through this like fabric, you can see her belly button, like the actress's belly button. It's like wearing like white tights where They're fairly opaque, but not 100% opaque. It's like if you're wearing tights instead of leggings in terms of like you can still kind of see through if when it's stretched. Yeah. And we've seen some some other, you know, general characters of Sogo who are like outside of Sogo. They're kind of like an elaborate. Elaborance. Yeah, which is like there's kind of this great color palette going there where it's like this muted metallic kind of situation where it's like very silvery geological geological stuff. And so we're starting to see and how Barbarella's costumes are set apart from everybody else's. She's very metallic.
00:50:12
Speaker
And like she does have this like body stocking situation going on, but there's a lot of like silvers and metallics and everybody else is starting to become me a mix of more earthy, organic and plastic.
00:50:26
Speaker
yeah at play yeah and um and she's like metallics and plastics. So it's just interesting to start seeing like the denizens of this planet having furs and feathers and leathers and like stones. Definitely more organic materials, especially like the labyrinth, like you actually see people that are sort of like fused into like the stones at certain points.
00:50:51
Speaker
So you get this kind of like weird, we are the geode kind of like thing going on. It's just not happening for her at all. Yeah. And she's got like, it's almost like militant like style happening where it's sexy night lady in a way, very early D and&D. ah dumb Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. And like the next costume that she wears when she wakes up from len and La La La La La with Pygar is this, yeah, white, like, unitard situation, which I called the travel unitard with the chainmail edge, like, cape and bodice. It's like, it's a pretty great costume. I mean, it it's, like, functional for her. And I don't remember if it gets torn apart completely, but she is condemned to death by Budgie.
00:51:40
Speaker
Yes, it's going to get torn pretty much like it's going to get torn a lot and I think she kind of ends up ripping the rest of it off later. um I had a really hard time with this scene where she sentenced to death and we watched this prolonged scene. It seemed like something that just didn't the threat did not translate to a visual medium for me. It did not. I noted that this is the orgasmic meta version of what Tippi Hedren endured at the hands of Hitchcock, because these are budget guards. These are tiny, tiny parakeets that are sitting on her. She's like put in a big chamber. Yeah, like a plastic page. Yeah, and all these birds are like pumped in
00:52:32
Speaker
and they're like going to like basically peck her to death. is And she's just kind of laying there. And at first there's really not a lot of urgency. And yeah why I said it was meta is because it feels a little bit like she breaks the fourth wall to make a diary entry to be like, this is crazy.
00:52:50
Speaker
There's like more birds flying around looking very confused. And then like a trap door opens. and she's saved and like slides down into this underground room. Yeah, it's sort of like the you know the the basement. like There's different weird tubes coming and going like ways in and out. kind of like But yeah, I really struggled with watching her being attacked by little green parakeets. like It was not scary. No, it was like, you are laying here with seeds all over you. You have to be. And these birds are like, I don't know. like They're not.
00:53:35
Speaker
Parakeets, as far as I know, are small birds. They are not as fearsome as crows who will peck out your eyes. Like I think it might take a little bit more for a parakeet to peck out your eyes. ahha And- They're not big enough. No, they're not big enough. And so it's it's the same um reasoning as being like bitten to death by metal piranha tooth dolls. It's like death by a thousand cuts, death by a po ah thousand pecks. Like it's pretty crazy. The dolls were so much creepier though. The dolls were terrifying and these birds were like thanks for the massage and the little feet. I think I read because this movie is based on a comic book, I think I read that in the comic she's supposed to be attacked by hummingbirds. Which makes sense.
00:54:22
Speaker
kind of could be, but it was sort of like there's absolutely no way that we can do that with real hummingbirds. Like visually, okay if they were space hummingbirds with like long sharp beaks, I get that being like a scary visual, but like little parakeets, I'm more concerned about the safety of the parakeets.
00:54:41
Speaker
Honestly. Because Jane Fonda is just like like laying there, not moving. And I feel like she doesn't look worried about being surrounded by these parakeets like as an actor or as a character. She looks more concerned about herding the birds, which I was like, thank you. Probably true. Yeah. Thank you for caring about the welfare of these birds. But also like they're not going to hurt you. know It's crazy. And so she like is slid down to this basement underneath this death chamber, immediately meet Can you please say his name for me? My favorite characters of all time. Before I tell you his character name, have you ever seen Veronica Mars?
00:55:22
Speaker
No. Okay, so there's an actor. The actor's name is Kyle Galner and he plays this character named Cassidy Casablancas. I will not give you any spoilers. But that actor looks very much like this actor whose name is David Hemings. And David Hemings is given the wildest role and he acts his heart out. This character is the the leader of the rebel resistance of the Kislay. It's just when you thought that we couldn't add more irrelevant plot. There's a ah tyrant queen in Sogo, and there's another person who's vying for power, whose spoiler alert we find out is Durand Durand, who remembered Durand Durand.
00:56:13
Speaker
He's got heavy, like, Jafar vibes. Jafar as Dalek. That's what his vibes are. Totally. Totally. So, Barbara Ella goes down the slide into the torture basement and meets the rebel leader whose name is Dildano. And I just want to say that again for all of our listeners. Dildano. D-I-L-D-A-N-O. Dildano.
00:56:42
Speaker
I think that was just a weird coincidence personally. I don't. I think that everything is pretty, became fueled in tension. His outfit is so rewarding to me because this is, I think, one of the first times that we see one of the men dressed as Batgirl.
00:57:05
Speaker
because so far we've been seeing the women of Sogo like laid out wearing these very short dresses with deep V's and laces and cutouts, some revealed breasts, like you know all this stuff and like harnesses. And some of the men we've been seeing have been in these like skirts or pseudo diaper situations. Or just yeah like harnesses a weird drape and not much else. So we've seen flesh.
00:57:32
Speaker
But this one takes it to a whole new level because Dildano's outfit is total Batgirl. There's like like a little like speedo situation and like a suit that's like segmented into different tan and brown shapes with like a little cap sleeved so that you can really see his muscles. And there's a cape attached with a chain around his neck.
00:57:56
Speaker
as like look up the decoration. It is phenomenal. And he's got these like thigh-high boots that have cutouts. And it is so camp. I can't. It is something that you would see at Pride.
00:58:14
Speaker
100% or like the Folsom Street Fair, 100%. And I think that he's even got like some gauntlet-y gloves going on. yeah And so it's like the most fabulous bat boy in tan.
00:58:32
Speaker
I don't think I even like absorbed this costume because i my mind was just shot into space because immediately he's like, oh my goodness, you're from Earth. And she's like, yeah, boy. He says, you know all this exposition, we've got this like rebel union, all this stuff, blah, blah, blah, really important. By the way, I've really been wanting to try Earth sex. I have some pills.
00:59:01
Speaker
Yeah, he's like, I've been waiting five years or something. I can have this experience. And so he's like, she's all, okay, I guess. But they take the show. One thing I do like about about Barbarella, is it like, other than like her sort of like reactions to some of these encounters beforehand, she's just kind of like, you know, whatever, like, she's not, yeah, that she's not really that interested. She's just like, yeah, okay, fine. it's Yeah, for her, it's, it's like scientific in a way. And it's almost like an exchange of language, because like for her, there's one way that she's used to it. But it's not like an intimacy, like it's a physical intimacy, but it's not
00:59:44
Speaker
each time is slightly different like the first time was exploration the second time i think that it was like for fun and then this time she's like okay like sure and she actually tries to convince him to do it the archaic way and she's like but we can do it your way and he's like no no no i have to do it this way oh my god so they have mind sex it's You watch the whole thing happen. It's so long to sit there and watch that. Melinda, I'm crying. They put their hands together. And this was like excellent puppeteering of their hair. The stop motion of their hair was phenomenal. They each start to like ah vibrate, bounce a little bit so that you see something's going on. Their eye contact is like,
01:00:35
Speaker
electric. They are not blinking. They're not looking away from each other. And Barbara's hair starts to curl. She turns into Shirley Temple. She turns into Shirley Temple. And then Dil Donna's hair starts to curl. He travels forward in time to the 1977 punk movement.
01:00:58
Speaker
think of like a squid or an octopus and their tentacles like extending and then retracting. That's what he's here to show you. It's so crazy.
01:01:13
Speaker
She's a very serious movie and I'm gonna make sure you take it seriously.
01:01:26
Speaker
because she gets, she reaches her conclusion, removes her hand and notices that a whole other human person has entered the room. And just standing and it's just like he came in from one of the slides talking, expecting to see the leader of the rebellion and to say like we need these things for the rebels, whatever, and he stops. He's like, oh like oh oh no.
01:01:58
Speaker
What was the name, the Martian guy from Just Imagine? I can't even remember right now. Cause he has the same hair. He has the same exact hair and he also has the same vibe where he like comes in and he's like, oh, not to be like in the middle of this, but uh oh. Like oops a daisy. And so he just has to hang out for a little bit while Barbara is like gathering herself and then still donenna' still frozen I did like the little bit of like his like little like control panel is like not really working so it just kind of gives the vibe of like this guy's not doing very well. He's not doing great. ah she She puts her hand back up to his hand and then
01:02:42
Speaker
he like revs up even more and his hair is like even more fried and steams like smoke starts coming from between their hands and he's like getting fried and she's like wow this is really blowing his world and that feels like a commentary on sex right there and then he like gets what he means And his hair is insane. And this little man who's in the corner of the room is like, um, guys so like we're in the middle of a rebel like uprising planning session. I just need to make a couple notes.
01:03:20
Speaker
So Diltano tries to like pat down his hair and he's like super solicitous to like Barbarella now because he had this like wild. And I wrote, Barbarella almost murdered a man with her mind to see. No, you did that.
01:03:42
Speaker
And I said that out loud to my husband and he just deadpan said, excuse me.
01:03:52
Speaker
but good man you knows It's so wild to me that when this movie came out, people just did not know what to think of it, you know? Apparently it was really popular in the UK. They were They were ready for this film. I just I know that this makes me seem like I'm an immature like 10 year old, but it is such is genuinely such a funny scene that is insane. It doesn't really need to be there. like I get that we're you know seeing all these different like sexual exploits and stuff, so I do get why. They're like, oh no, the audience is going to wonder why we didn't show them this thing that we kept talking about, but it's so long. It's so long.
01:04:36
Speaker
That like you you feel like that little man who just rode the slide into this torture dungeon and it's like, um, should I be here? I feel like I've got to get out of here. But like this actor with his like slutty little mustache who's playing this character who's excited for this experience.
01:04:56
Speaker
As an actor this isn't another example we we're talking about it at the beginning with jane found that of an actor getting handed a role reading the script and going well. We're gonna do it i have to figure out how to make this do it with much.
01:05:12
Speaker
yes
01:05:15
Speaker
I think I read that they originally cast someone else and like didn't like the performance and like recast this guy. I could be wrong, but I feel like I read that he that this character was like recast and there's like a photo like a set photo somewhere of a different person playing that part. Well, good job to whoever recast this role in with this actor because he really acted.
01:05:39
Speaker
It's pissed off. It's bonkers. And so, yeah, I just wrote that poor little rebel messenger man. And then I don't know if you caught... So after this whole experience, Dildana was like, okay, back to business. And he creates a rebel password.
01:05:57
Speaker
Did you catch what that is? I didn't. I read about it later so I know about it now, but I was just sort of like, oh, that's gotta just be gibberish words. And it was very, very long. I was very excited because I recognized it immediately and played it again. The rebel password is a Welsh town name. It is the longest name of a town in the UK and Europe. And there's no way I can pronounce it. I was gonna say, do you have it memorized? Can you say it to us now? A few years ago, Taryn Edgerton and Luke, forgetting his last name, but two Welsh actors, ah kept getting asked to pronounce this on talk shows. And Taryn Edgerton was getting asked this a lot after the Kingsmen came out, like any of the Kingsmen, basically. People would like go back and pull from this.
01:06:47
Speaker
And so he would pronounce it. So you can look up Taryn Edgerton saying a Welsh town name. There you go. That's the password. It's 58 letters in English and 51 letters in Welsh. And it translates to St. Mary's Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Cecilia of the Red Cave. That is a very, very long name and such a pole that I was like, what a great random little Easter.
01:07:16
Speaker
some nerd really was getting their life when they put that as the password in this movie, and I'm happy for them. I loved it. I'm so happy for them. And I was just like, what a double whammy. First we've got that scene and then we've got this. And he says it, I think, like three times, and each time I feel like he's so proud of himself. Like, he just looks like,
01:07:40
Speaker
He probably got the pages for this movie like two days before he saw the scenes, so I bet he is proud of him. And it's like the last few, like the last chunk of it is go, go, go. And it's like he really hits the go, go, go at one point. And he's like, eh, eh, eh, eh. Oh my God. With all of that said,
01:08:01
Speaker
we have a new costume for but yeahr that's right this is rebel rebel now now she is in a black get up with a black cape and this is where she has the one molded plastic breast that's right it was really and i believe the belly cut out as well.
01:08:17
Speaker
It was really giving me Amazon, like like Greek Amazonian. It was really giving me that feeling. And like Bodicea, that's another one, like the breast out. And there was also like a period in French history where women, I think,
01:08:36
Speaker
in portraits had a, like maybe also in English, but there was like a period in portrait history where women would have one breast out and revealed, which also might kind of connect to the Amazon thing. I don't remember interesting the information behind that. But yeah, this is a molded breast where there's like a molded like Batman nipple. So now we're like super doing the suggestive and now like explicit visibility.
01:09:01
Speaker
of different parts. And she's got, I don't know, it's just like the little cape is so great that there are these little accessories for all of these outfits. And her hair is gigantic now. Just you can't imagine. It's amazing. You can't handle it. We should mention the city is controlled by a lake of evil liquid that feeds. Everyone in the city is evil. That's part of it. That's the thing. All the people that are trapped in the labyrinth are all of the good people. They've been cast out. That's why our angel is out there. Everyone in the city is bad. They're so bad.
01:09:45
Speaker
And they're it's all ruled by the this like evil queen figure, which i I did appreciate. They did a little bit of like the the evil ruler, and then it's like revealed to be this like beautiful woman instead of like a big dude, which is kind of like what they set you up to think. It kind of turns it into like a sapphic moment because this woman it comes out with like a an eye patch. And Barbarella refers to her as a one-eyed wench a couple of times, I think. And she just has this like super powerful, like I think that she calls Barbarella pretty pretty. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty. So crazy. It's just like this. Everybody in this city is like super sexual. They're doing drugs. The drugs that they're doing is that they're basically like smoking like man essence hookahs.
01:10:36
Speaker
Yeah, like a giant 10 foot tall puka with like the the liquid inside and just like a dude rolling around in there. Yeah, it's just like his bathwater. And he kind of looks at Barbara like, help, please, please help get me out of here.
01:10:52
Speaker
And she's sort of like, sorry, she does not even like, I gotta go ask like, she's just like, okay, bye. She's just like, all right, noted gotta get out of here. And this is where my attention granted started to wander. Yeah, fair. I think mine did a bit too. It was just sort of like,
01:11:09
Speaker
Okay, we've been doing this for like an hour. Yeah, and we've written we've encountered this man that we know is Durand Durand Yeah, I have not spent a lot of time talking about him because we don't really need to mean tell Honestly, I didn't really care that much I didn't care because like she was going around meeting rebels doing all this stuff Meeting the Queen flirting with the Queen a little bit going around meeting all these people.
01:11:32
Speaker
kind of ingratiating herself into these situations. And she's still sort of looking for Durand Durand. And then she keeps encountering this man who has like some sort of power and then like slowly puts together, you're Durand Durand. And he's like, so you recognized me. And she's like, I never would have. You're supposed to be 25 years old. You're so old. And he explains to us that this like evil lake lake, it takes a toll for the knowledge and the power that it gives you. Which I found kind of confusing because everybody else in the city is like very like young and hot. Yeah. but we're like I feel like maybe it's associated with this like crazy laser that he built. like Somehow it gave him more knowledge and everybody else who's using the lake powers isn't really looking for knowledge. They're looking for pleasure.
01:12:20
Speaker
True. Yeah, that makes sense. But then we get exposed. He's like, well, now you know who I am. So I gotta kill you. Just you got it, Barbarella. It was so nice to meet you. Now you're gonna die again. This is the second time that he's condemned her to death. The first time was by parakeet. Parakeet. And that failed. So this time he's condemned her to death by sex organ. Now let me explain. When I say sex organ, I'm not meeting an organic organ.
01:12:47
Speaker
I mean an organ, like a musical instrument. Like doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, take me out to the ballgame. Like this machine that he's he puts her inside and then he like there's like a panel, like a musical panel that he plays and it strips her of her clothing. It shoots it out the side, right? It shoots it out the side. And I think that there's like a pile of clothing on the floor from like a bunch of different people.
01:13:14
Speaker
There's some dead people in there too. There's dead people and there's all these clothes. So he's like, so it's going to be really nice watching you die while I play you to death because you're going to die by pleasure. this i hated this I hated this so much. I i too.
01:13:31
Speaker
hated it. I believe that the way it was described somewhere else was she outlasts the machine. I was trying to understand. Yeah. Yeah. He's basically trying to kill her by like sexual pleasure. And she's like, great, let's do it. Yeah.
01:13:47
Speaker
it the machine bursts into it really does and yeah that another scene that went on too long and way too long and then has an unnecessary unnecessary slur slur put into it because his reaction to how the machine fails is not a good one. So spoiler alert and warning in case you know you're going to watch this. You will be slapped real quick into what era this is. And yet it's like so camp that I feel like if this was on Trixie and Katya's we like to watch that they would just like flip a table and throw some macaroons and like walk around for a little bit. I don't know like it's so camp.
01:14:30
Speaker
But just a warning, there is a slur. Yeah, surprisingly, the views and outlooks of people in 1968 were not quite as liberated as they wanted to think they were. Not quite, somehow, shockingly. So weird. And so now they have a conversation, Durand, Durand, and Barbarella, where she's like, oh, could you hand me a garment?
01:14:50
Speaker
I love the way she said, could you hand me a garment? That phrase is stuck in my head because no person has ever said that. No person speaks like that ever. And so he hands her the most colorful costume that she has worn in the entire movie because it's from a pile of clothing of dead people. Of other people. Of other people. And it's this pretty great green and black number with like a green and black fringe at the bottom. Yeah, it's like a little bodysuit with like a little fringe skirt. Yeah, I don't know if it's like, if the main part of it is like a sequin, but it has these like plastic pieces that are like
01:15:37
Speaker
ah like attached but together with like jump rings that make like this sort of chest like or like kind of collar piece and then like it like comes down and then it's got like a little hip section and then the little skirt. And it feels like the first time that she's been like really visually unified with the people of SOGO. Yes, which makes sense because it's their clothes and not hers. Yeah, and so like in the story now she has her Her mission is cemented in like no longer just trying to find Duran Duran. She's realizing that he's actually a bad guy that she needs to deal with somehow. right And so she has kind of aligned herself with the people of Zogo and making sure that she can help rectify this situation.
01:16:26
Speaker
And so she, again, my attention really is hard to stay super focused on the drive right here. So I'm not quite sure how she did it, but she gets away from Durand Durand, who is wearing his Dalek costume of wonder. I can tell you that, thank I believe. So he She's, she says like, she's kind of like, you can kind of see her thinking like, how am I going to get out of this? And she's like, he wants to take out the queen and become the leader, the ruler. and Right. And she's like, I can get into the Queen's Chamber of Chamber.
01:17:03
Speaker
um with my invisible key that Dildano gave me. So he's like, oh, great, you're useful to me now. So he takes her up to the Chamber of Dreams and she uses her invisible key to open the invisible door. And then he kind of like bum rushes in.
01:17:25
Speaker
And there's another key inside that the queen uses to get in and out because the queen is in there asleep dreaming. He snatches both keys and then like runs back out and locks Jane Fonda inside with the queen. And then he's got both keys. So they're trapped. And that's right. And the queen has a moment of exposition after she wakes up, after she and Barbara will have a conversation where she says, Oh no, if there's more than one of us in here, that Lake will kill us.
01:17:54
Speaker
Yes, like it's gonna do whatever whatever evil like power and just like destroy things or something. And so that I think was something that Durand Durand knew and wanted to happen so that he could just go off into his coronation which is I think what he was doing because the next time we see him he's in his fabulously camp coronation outfit, which is in purple and is the most Jafar that we could get. But before we quite hit that, the Queen's night dress is so pretty fantastic because it's like as if somebody shaved very delicately Cousin It and took Cousin It's long hair
01:18:40
Speaker
and created this like front panel and back panel of the night down ah with a deep V and like it was kind of cool to see this.
01:18:52
Speaker
because this moment is a perfect example of styles coming back around because the haircut that the queen has is a haircut that people have right now. That's like a ah great like alternative haircut where there's like deep bangs. And then at the side, there's like short hair chopped that goes like an inch and a half deep, like longer than ear length.
01:19:15
Speaker
And then everything else is like super long hair. ah And I was just like, this is pretty fantastic. But aside from being in like this cousin, it hair dress, she also has long gloves that she sleeps in. And the bed that she's in is a woman's body. It's hollowed out on its back, like has hair, but no face. And the arms are up.
01:19:38
Speaker
but Yeah, like stretch like stretched up. She's like doing like a yoga pose. Yes on her back and that's the bed that the Queen sleeps in and it's also like a metallicy purple like handle it. This is amazing. This design is so crazy. And then these giant plastic discs that are like swinging from the ceiling. So it distorts like your visuals. And then these like dandelion puffs.
01:20:03
Speaker
on the floor. There's like these giant like four foot tall like dandelion and puff things just coming out. It truly like the human mind that created this set. I would love to talk to them. This is why it would be so great to have like a behind the scenes the making of kind of situation because it's like whatever whatever was being pumped into the air or the water or the weed or the cocaine of this time. cocaine is The The cocaine is something that is like pretty parallel to the Henson Company because there's like this same development of visuals when it comes to like fantastical spacey stuff that engages with like organic
01:20:48
Speaker
interacting with non-organic and the color palettes of like metallics and like these amazing gem tones and all these things like you can see that this period there was something happening that really sparked inspiration and a lot of people visually and I don't know exactly how to describe it but like you could see David Bowie in Labyrinth like being the next kingdom over from this kingdom based on this coronation outfit for Durand Durand, which is just thought of it it's phenomenal. like Picture that I have right now, I can't really see
01:21:29
Speaker
And I can't remember from watching like what it's made out of. I'm going to take a hazard, of just a wild guess and say probably something plastic based because plastic is a major influence yeah in this. But there's like a a massive collar that goes with this with black fur.
01:21:47
Speaker
Yeah and like the big old clothes or it's so amazing and it doesn't really get very many big shots like sucks but there's like this ridged shiny purple nature to it like it is so.
01:22:03
Speaker
over the top camp that I freaking love it. And so we see this coronation moment that fails. Durand Durand puts his hands on the the death ray laser that he had built that um we have to remember. Barbarella was coming after him to see if he had it, if it was real. And RIP to Dildono and Professor Ping taken by light of a death ray. ah The Queen figures out that like what's going on and Again, I don't remember exactly how this works out. We did skip a couple costumes of the queen, by the way. There's one where she has this like plastic cutout that's.
01:22:42
Speaker
pretty insane and I it's nuts it goes like from her pubic like area to her belly and must have I don't know how much of it is actually it's probably see-through and then she's got like a skin tone bodysuit underneath but it's like this wild thing there's zippers that are all over the place and then she has this ornate like fur dress with maybe like some feathers and some like rhinestones and a unicorn horn. yeah Which is her crown. It was sort of like if you took a Cher outfit to an extreme level, yeah I would say. If you took Cher to a henson level then yeah jim Henson level, then it would be, I feel like that would be it. Cause there's like this kind of like cut out area at her belly and like at her chest. And there's like everything that is black is kind of rimmed in these like silver e like glittery rhinestones. And it's, it's fabulous. Like the, the, the things that they made for these people to wear are pretty amazing.
01:23:53
Speaker
So after this coronation and the deaths of Dildonno and Professor Ping, Barbarella and the Queen somehow like escape by by bed. and like I think they like fall into the lake. Yeah, and the lake, like because Barbarella is innocent, I think, yeah makes like a bubble and protects her and the Queen. And so they get out and they get back to Pygar, piygar Pygar, Pygar.
01:24:21
Speaker
i who flies them to safety, I guess. Right. because Yes, that's right. Yes. Because you're like, why is the queen being saved? Like she's evil. And, and Barbarella asks, like, why did you save her? And he just has this very bland look on his face where he says, an angel has no memory.
01:24:46
Speaker
And then it's like credit. And then it's over. And the most incredible song kicks in. And I i recommend anybody who wants to to find whatever this song is because it is. I almost forgot about the song. Brilliant. So this movie is, I think, worth.
01:25:06
Speaker
worth the experience because yeah it is yes like design wise there is so much going on and there are so many costumes that we did not talk about like there's so many things going on with the extras it's it's wild absolutely it's something to behold And this is this is one of those where it feels like, OK, now we're starting to get into being very creative and being very creative with not just like five characters, but like everything has to have something going on so that we know we're in this world like Forbidden Planet. We had a very small cast and everything made sense. they Like there were very definitive choices, but with but it was limited by nature. Yeah. And this one is like
01:25:50
Speaker
big, very big, very different budget and like so camp and so experimental with like, what can we show that's like salacious and like what walks the line and all of that stuff. But it is very much kind of like a weird conversation observation on sex and sexual liberation, which makes sense for the era. But it's very much from a European man's point of view.
01:26:18
Speaker
And 1968 European man's point of view, which is not great. It's really not great. The messaging of it, whatever that may be, is like definitely something to spark conversation. But um there are some moments that are like laugh out loud bonkers and just wild, wild. So how do you feel after watching this? I feel insane.
01:26:46
Speaker
watching this to me. I love the fashion of the 1960s. It's one of my favorite um eras of like things that we still like have stuff from. I don't really get into the sort of psychedelic visuals as much as some people like I don't gravitate towards that and this movie was just all of that and so much more but in a sci-fi context I really enjoyed the way that they were using costumes and the way they were using new materials
01:27:27
Speaker
and just really going for it, being like, this is the world and we're just gonna go like 150% into it. I'm really glad that I saw it, but it's probably not a movie that I'm gonna wanna watch a bunch of times. Yeah, I don't think that I, I mean, there might be a point where I watch some of it again so that I can show it to Phil because it's like, yeah you need to see some of this. And I do think that it's one that's worth watching Even if, like I said on the other ones, you like put it on silent or whatever, just to see the design and see where design is headed and where imagination is at this time. And like, yeah, the introduction of all these new materials and how they're working and all these synthetic fabrics, all these things that we haven't quite had a chance to see yet are pretty exciting. And it's also, I think we're talking about like how crazy backwards the stories are.
01:28:26
Speaker
like the story and the perspective of it because even at the time, it was like, wait, what? Like it's such a weird cis male sexual fantasy that is like an exploitation kind of thing. It's it's just very, it's interesting.
01:28:45
Speaker
it's yeah And, you know, we didn't really talk that much about the costume designer for this film, ah even though we talked about ah their work a lot. So um this film is credited to the designer Jacques Fonteret, who's a French costume designer. um He seemed to do a lot of movies in France, but he also, um I think the one that most people would know ah that I saw on his IMDb is he was the costume designer for Moonraker, and which is part of the James Bond franchise. So I think he was designing primarily in Europe, but which is where this movie was made. um There's also ah some kind of
01:29:30
Speaker
unclear information. Sometimes places are crediting certain costumes to the designer Paco Rabanne, and sometimes ah some of the sources that I was looking at were just saying that some of the some of his designs inspired costumes in the movie. So I'm not totally sure if he actually made things that were used in the film, but I can understand the the influence even if it was just an influence because he was mostly a fashion designer. And if you look up his work from this time period, you will see a lot of metal, you will see a lot of plastic, you will see a lot of things being pieced together in interesting ways that really like particularly that green
01:30:23
Speaker
bodysuit that Barbarella wears near the end looks like something that could have walked off of a runway of his design. So it's it was kind of hard to tell like, did they actually commission some pieces from him? Did he they just kind of take some of his ideas and use them? I'm not totally sure. um There's also a credit. Some of the costumes were manufactured by Sartoria Farani.
01:30:51
Speaker
but I couldn't find any like and additional information about that. But I think it's worth shouting out the makers, not just the designers. 100%. So I'm going to throw that in there. um But yeah, a little bit unclear like who did what, which seems to be the ongoing theme of these movies. It's a trend and I cannot wait until we get to a decade where we can find out more consistent information and where we can see a slight change in that trend. It will be nice. We're seeing gradual changes. We are. But there's no like the fact that things are still amorphous.
01:31:28
Speaker
It's not great that we can't point just by doing regular research. That's the bare minimum that we can't just point and say, this was the team that did it. These are the people who comprise that team. That stinks. so i know It's nice that we're getting some more names and that we're starting to see like more conversation about the costumes. That's another reason why Barbarella's design is exciting, is that people were starting to get excited by design, more so than it being function. And so like it is function, but it's also, ooh, this is an exciting design that we can talk about, and then we can refer back to these people having designed it.
01:32:11
Speaker
it's being It's becoming more of the art of the movie than just a functional piece of the movie. Yeah. So that is a ah nice direction that we're going in, which is part of why I was excited to do this movie is because it really spells like a change in the the attitude of costume, I think. All right. For our next movie, we are going to be moving into the 70s. Thank you, Barbarella, for really setting the stage for Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Battlestar galactic ah that is what we will be watching next and i'm very excited about it i was a massive fan of the tv show.
01:32:47
Speaker
way after it finished airing on ah TV. And so I'm excited to see the original because I've never seen the original before. Did you ever watch any of it? I've never seen the movie. I watched I think at least half of the TV show um that also definitely after it was on. But I did go back and watch at least like two or three seasons of the TV show. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to kind of see where it all came from. Oh yeah, I'm so excited to see the original everything.
01:33:22
Speaker
This is going to be a lot of fun. Thanks for listening to us with this episode. Looking forward to the next. Yeah, we'll see you next time in the 70s. Bye. Bye.