Line #43 Film/Barbarella


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_barbarella_movie_poster.png]]
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3	''Barbarella'' was originally [[ComicBook/{{Barbarella}} a French erotic science fiction comic book series]] by Jean-Claude Forest, but the title is better known, at least outside France, for the 1968 film adaptation produced by Dino De Laurentiis, directed by Roger Vadim, and starring his wife at the time, Creator/JaneFonda, in the titular role.
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5	The film is set in the distant future, estimated to about the 401st century. Planet Earth has been united under a Republic, wars have been abolished, and weapons exist only in museums. Sex has been replaced by a ritual involving pills. But Dr. Durand Durand (Milo O'Shea), a scientist, starts developing a new weapon.
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7	He and his spaceship vanish in the vicinity of an uncharted planet in the Tau Ceti system. Barbarella is sent to retrieve him. The local culture introduces her both to various horrors and to the joys of real sex. She has to face the evil Black Queen (Anita Pallenberg) of the city [=SoGo=], the so-called City of Night, with the help of a blind angel (John Phillip Law).
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9	On October 11, 2022, it was announced that Creator/SydneySweeney was set to star in and executive produce a remake of the film.
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12	!!Contains examples of:
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14	* AllThereInTheManual: The planet the movie takes place in is only identified as Planet 16 of the Tau Ceti system. The comics do give it a proper name, which is sometimes noted in summaries of the movie: Lythion. As well as naming the planet, the [=DVD=] case says the movie's set in the year 40,000.
15	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Sogoites, who are led to do evil and all kinds of depravities by the Mathmos, which feeds on evil. There are good Sogoites as proven by Professor Ping and Dildano, but those get expelled from the city and dealt horrible fates.
16	* AndThatsTerrible: Durand Durand explains that his positronic ray causes targets to be "deminimalized to the fourth dimension". Barbarella says "But that's monstrous!" This is a necessary use of the trope, because [[{{Technobabble}} who knows what "deminimalized to the fourth dimension" entails]].
17	* AngelicAliens: Pygar is a simple WingedHumanoid who is referred to as an angel several times.
18	* AnimatedArmor: The Black Guards of Sogo are empty suits of armor, as shown when Pygar shoots one into pieces.
19	* ApocalypseHow: The Black Queen causes one by siccing the Mathmos on Durand Durand, which results in the destruction of the city of Sogo and everyone living in it.
20	* ArtificialGravity: Barbarella switches it on after her zero-gravity striptease.
21	* BettyAndVeronica: Barbarella's four suitors; the angel Pygar and the rebel Dildano are safe, harmless and have values similar to her own (as in, Pygar is the perfect pacifist and Dildano wants to reform Sogo to be like Earth), while Mark Hand the catchman and the Black Queen are more rough and dangerous, expose Barbarella to new things and don't subscribe to or understand Earthling views.
22	* BigElectricSwitch: In the revolutionary headquarters in the city of Sogo, several pieces of equipment are activated by electric knife switches, including a secret door.
23	* BlackComedyRape: Durand Durand forces Barbarella into the Excessive Machine, which would count as rape given it's a sex machine. What's worse is that the machine is supposed to kill, so she was going to be raped to death. Lovely. However, Barbarella proves to be TooKinkyToTorture and exhausts the machine.
24	* BoldlyComing: Barbarella, the pretty blonde envoy of an Earth that left behind such outdated concepts like violence or physical sex, gets used to both rather quickly after being introduced to them on a more... uhm, barbaric planet.
25	* {{Bowdlerize}}: After the success of ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' in 1977, Paramount edited the film in order to obtain a PG rating and re-released it. U.S. home video releases are uncut but still sport a PG rating.
26	* CallARabbitASmeerp: In the evil doll kid's hangout (the remains of Durand Durand's crashed space ship), there's a bunch of blue bunnies. Not seen in the film but in promotional photos are some blue goats & an anteater).
27	* ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction: Justified/played straight with Barbarella. She doesn't only spend the movie going through an UnlimitedWardrobe, but gets put into dozens of situations that justify the wardrobe change.
28	* ChariotPulledByCats: Barbarella is rescued from the feral children of Planet 16, and gets a ride to the city of [=SoGo=] on a sled pulled by something like a stingray. The ground is presumed to be dry ice, as there's a constant mist six inches deep. How this critter gets traction enough to pull Barbarella around, and see where it's going amid the fog [[BellisariosMaxim goes unexplained]].
29	* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: The Excessive Machine is a subversion. While getting strapped to an orgasm-inducing machine sounds awesome, this machine's real purpose is to orgasm the person ''to death''.
30	* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Barbarella as she appears in the comics was drawn with Creator/BrigitteBardot in mind.
31	* CoversAlwaysLie: There are lots of things wrong with the film's poster. No moons are visible from Lythion in the movie, Barbarella never wears [[ChainmailBikini that particular outfit]], that rocket-like spaceship is nowhere to be seen, ''Pygar is missing his wings'' and the Black Guards are '''black''', not that gold-ish color.
32	* CreepyDoll: In a scene, razor-toothed killer dolls attack Barbarella. They belong to a group of feral children, led by...
33	* CreepyTwins:
34	** The first people she meets on Tau Ceti. They knock her out with a loaded snowball, tie her up and take her away on a sled pulled by a stingray.
35	** The whole gaggle of feral kids is made up of pairs of twins.
36	* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: The rest of the universe apart from Lythion has been at peace for centuries.
37	* DarkerAndEdgier: The movie, in a way. In the comic, many of the good [=SoGo=] folks in the Labrynth (and Professor Ping) survive and succeed in escaping the Labrynth whereas in the movie they all get zapped to the Fourth Dimension by Durand Durand's positronic ray. In fact; The whole "Saving the Labrynth People" subplot is a huge failure and everyone is dead except for Barbarella, Pygar and The Black Queen.
38	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The Black Queen says to Barbarella: "You're very pretty, Pretty-Pretty."
39	* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Barbarella hums her eponymous theme song after having sex with Mark Hand and Pygar.
40	* DilatingDoor: PlayedForLaughs. At some point Barbarella is wearing (little more than) an animal-skin suit with a long tail. The tail gets trapped in the closing iris valve.
41	* DiscoTech: Dr. Durand Durand's [[{{Orgasmatron}} Excessive Machine]] resembles an organ and plays music.
42	* DiscOneFinalBoss: The Black Queen/Great Tyrant because [[spoiler:the real BigBad is the concierge, who's actually Durand Durand, and is also TheStarscream. If anything, the Black Queen is the real heroine, or at least an AntiHero with a PyrrhicVictory due to letting loose the Mathmos, which destroys the evil city, Durand Durand and saves the Queen, Barbarella and Pygar.]]
43	* DisintegratorRay: The reason Barbarella is looking for Durand Durand is that he invented a positronic ray, which could spell doom for the universe. Its effects are seen at the end of the movie, when he uses it to kill [[spoiler:Professor Ping and Dildano]].
44	* DistractedByTheSexy: Barbarella objects to sex because "it was proven to be distracting!" among other reasons. After experiencing it, she admits that they were certainly right about that part.
45	* DoYouWantToCopulate: Mark Hand flat out states that he wants to make love to the heroine, but she comes from a society where sex is more like a MindMeld, so her objections are based on the fact that their psycho-cardiograms aren't in confluence and he doesn't have the right pills. Hand isn't impressed and insists they do it the old fashioned way.
46	* DownTheRabbitHole: ''Barbarella'' feels a lot like a sexy sci-fi version of ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', considering it involves a naive young woman going on an adventure in a nonsensical (to her) realm full of strange sights and people. One can also draw parallels between the Tweedle twins and Stomoxys and Glossina, the White Rabbit and Durand Durand, and more obviously the Queen of Hearts and the Black Queen.
47	* EasyEvangelism: Despite never having sex before and firmly believing in the pill's practical applications, it does not take much probing for Barbarella to sleep with Hand. By the time she finds someone who ''wants'' to have future pill-sex over the old-fashioned type, she seems almost disappointed by it.
48	* EldritchAbomination: The Mathmos is a living, shapeless mass of energy inhabiting the lake below Sogo, and it demands that people commit evil deeds so it can feed on them.
49	* ElectricInstantGratification: The so-called "Excessive Machine", that can [[OutWithABang kill people with intense pleasure]].
50	* EnemyMine: Barbarella and her nemesis the Black Queen team up to take down Durand Durand after he locks them in the Chamber of Dreams and [[TheStarscream usurps Sogo's throne from the Queen]].
51	* EnfantTerrible: The weird kids with their killer dolls.
52	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Although getting to Tau Ceti takes about one week, the meat of the movie is Barbarella's adventures in Lythion, and those take place in two days tops.
53	* FantasticDrug: Barbarella runs into a group of women smoking from a giant hookah containing a guy who's either drowning or boiling. The redheaded one offers Barbarella a whiff and tells her it's called essence of man. We don't see the effects, though the women look pretty out of it.
54	* FeatheredFiend: The Black Queen tries to kill Barbarella by trapping her in a cage filled with vicious man-eating songbirds.
55	* FetishFuelFuture: While Earth has removed physical sex as the core foundation of propagation and has been replaced with a future psychic-sex pill, the [[NoNudityTaboo taboo of nudity is completely gone]] and Barbarella's official uniform has a partially-translucent top. The fact that the communication screen on Barbarella's ship takes the form of a half-naked statue of the Greek goddess Artemis probably counts also.
56	* ForcedOrgasm: Barbarella falls into the clutches of Durand Durand, who places her in his fiendish [[{{Orgasmatron}} Excessive Machine]], a device designed to orgasm the victim to death. However, Barbarella proves to be TooKinkyToTorture, [[SubvertedTrope overloading the machine and exhausting the villain]].
57	* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: As it happens, Barbarella's suitors are four. Mark Hand is the Apathetic, Pygar is the Realist, the Black Queen is the Cynic and Dildano is the Optimist.
58	* FreeLoveFuture: Their standard greeting is "Love", although they don't practice physical sex any more, considering it to be distracting and pointless. Mark Hand convinces the heroine otherwise.
59	* FreeRangeChildren: An extreme example. The custom of Sogo regarding raising kids is to [[TheSpartanWay dump them in an icy wasteland]] til they're of "a serviceable age", as Mark Hand explains to Barbarella after rescuing her from such children. Little wonder Sogoites are so messed up.
60	* FutureFoodIsArtificial: After waking up from artificial sleep, Barbarella drinks a purple liquid as nourishment. It tastes foul if her reaction is anything to go by.
61	* TheFutureWillBeBetter: Barbarella has to have the concept of "war" spelt out for her as the universe has been at peace for centuries, and is puzzled as to why Durand Durand would invent a weapon. As the inhabitants of Tau Ceti are in a primitive state of neurotic irresponsibility she's given a RayGun to defend herself, but the only one Dianthus could find for her [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece had to be borrowed from the Museum of Conflict]].
62	* GainaxEnding: Durand Durand is defeated, good. So Barbarella, Pygar and the Black Queen fly away to... somewhere... with no real hint at what they are planning to do after everything that went down. And when Barbarella asks Pygar [[EasilyForgiven why he saved the Black Queen]], he cryptically answers that angels have no memory. The end.
63	** It should be noted that that scene is an almost exact match to the last scene in the comic.
64	* AGoodNameForARockBand: ''Music/DuranDuran'' named themselves after Durand Durand (having begun their career playing in a club called Barbarella’s).
65	* GoodOldWays: Once Barbarella has experienced physical sex for the first time, she's quite enthusiastic for more, and is disappointed when Dildano insists on doing it the more advanced way.
66	* HaveAGayOldTime: As the Excessive Machine breaks down and catches on fire, having proven itself inadequate to keep up with Barbarella's sex drive: "Look! Energy cables are shrinking! You've turned them into faggots!"
67	* HighAltitudeBattle: Barbarella and Pygar's mid-air battle with the Black Guards air patrol. She's a pretty good shot for someone who's never handled a weapon before.
68	* {{Homage}}: The (in)famous opening scene was the basis for Music/KylieMinogue's music video for "Put Yourself in My Place" and re-created in Music/ArianaGrande's music video for "Break Free".
69	* HumanAliens: The aliens that Barbarella meets in the uncharted Planet 16 of Tau Ceti look remarkably human.
70	* IncorruptiblePurePureness: When the city starts to sink into a pit of sentient, liquid evil at the end of the movie, said liquid evil specifically protects Barbarella because her purity and innocence would hurt it.
71	* InnocentFanserviceGirl: After removing her spacesuit in the opening scene, our heroine gets a call on her VideoPhone from the President of Earth which she answers while still naked. She does offer to put something on but he tells her not to bother as he has an urgent matter of state to discuss. Yeah, [[CovertPervert right.]]
72	* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: In a subtle way, Sogo, because it's supposed to be a reference to the biblical sin cities of '''So'''dom and '''Go'''morrah. The Chamber of Ultimate Solution, being a suicide booth, is also this, as lampshaded by Barbarella.
73	* InstantCostumeChange: After her naked conversation with the President, our heroine steps into a chamber and instantly emerges in tight-fitting SpaceClothes.
74	* IntimatePsychotherapy: Pygar has lost his ability to fly, but after Barbarella spends a night with him, he's flying around the next day.
75	* KillerRabbit: Early in the film, Barbarella is menaced by a group of dolls whose mouths show very pointy teeth. The scene ruins her clothes and leaves her bleeding. Later in the movie, she is nearly killed by vicious killer budgies (parakeets) with similar bloody effects.
76	* KissOfLife: The Black Queen (the perv!) suggests that Barbarella reanimate Pygar with a mouth-to-mouth when they find him after being vomited up by the Mathmos. It's subverted as Barbarella tries something completely different and much more platonic: move his wings up and down. It works.
77	* {{Ladyella}}: Barbarella herself.
78	* LampshadeHanging: "What's that screaming? (pensively) A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming." This leads to her finding Pygar being tormented by the Sogoites, who cheer and laugh at him in turn. Though given all of the other stuff that goes on in [=SoGo=], it would probably be more surprising if somebody in it ''wasn't'' screaming at any given time.
79	* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: Barbarella and the Black Queen; with Barbarella being naive, innocent and kind, and the Black Queen being evil to the core and debauched.
80	* LockedInARoom: Barbarella and the Black Queen get stuck in the latter's Chamber of Dreams by Durand Durand, resulting in their most positive interactions in the movie. They'd have [[FoeRomanceSubtext "bonded"]] even more if a certain deleted scene had been retained.
81	* MentalAffair: The "Earth Way" of having sex. You take an Exaltation Transference Pill and touch hands for one minute until [[SexualEuphemism "full rapport is achieved"]]. Demonstrated by Barbarella and Dildano, leader of the Resistance.
82	* {{Mooks}}: The Black Queen has the Black Guards, spooky, robot-like Stormtrooper figures that are nothing but leather AnimatedArmor. Also involves a bit of DoubleEntendre in that they are described as "Leathermen" and have whips for hands.
83	* MrFanservice: John Phillip Law as the angel Pygar, a handsome, tall, blond, blue-eyed shirtless ornithanthrope.
84	* MsFanservice:
85	** Most of the film, but most famously the scene where Barbarella takes off her spacesuit in zero gravity. Vadim was quoted as explaining why he put this under the opening credits: "Lots of men will only watch the film to see Jane Fonda naked, so I put that at the start so they don't have to sit through a load of science fiction."
86	** Essentially, the entire plot consists of a string of ridiculous situations contrived to provide thinly-veiled excuses for Jane Fonda to take all her clothes off (or have them forcibly removed). However, when you have a leading lady with a body like Jane Fonda, you really don't need much of a plot.
87	** Also, the Black Queen and many extras in very sexy clothing (or none at all).
88	* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailer shows Durand Durand playing "Ode to Joy" while torturing Barbarella in the Excessive Machine. In the movie, the music he plays is an original composition (and at the start of the scene you can hear the first bars of "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor").
89	* NoSexAllowed: Downplayed. In Barbarella's time, physical sex has mostly been replaced with a ritual involving so-called 'Exaltation Transference Pills'. Sex isn't banned so much as highly discouraged by scientific findings, as she mentions in an aside that the very poor who can't afford the pills still practice physical sex. When she tries the old style though, she's quite pleased.
90	* NowOrNeverKiss: When Barbarella and Pygar are trapped in the Chamber of Ultimate Solution, Barbarella decides to try her luck with one of the three doors. Knowing they may die, she kisses Pygar. It's the only kiss in this entire sex-laden movie.
91	* TheNudifier: The Excessive Machine removes the victim's clothes first.
92	* OminousMusicBoxTune: When the biting dolls are edging in on Barbarella, the BGM sounds like a music box version of the movie's eponymous song for a few beats.
93	* OminousPipeOrgan: The [[{{Orgasmatron}} Excessive Machine]], with Durand-Durand playing it.
94	* OneWorldOrder: Dianthus is the President of Earth and the Rotating Premier of the Solar System (whatever that means).
95	* TheOnlyOne: Parodied when Dianthus has to send Barbarella on the mission because the universe has been at peace for so long they no longer have armies or police, "and I can't spare the Presidential band!"
96	* OnlyOneName: Everybody, except Durand Durand, and the Black Queen, who just plain has no name.
97	* {{Orgasmatron}}: The Excessive Machine is designed to [[ForcedOrgasm cause orgasm after orgasm in the victim]].
98	* OutWithABang: The Excessive Machine causes its victims to [[ForcedOrgasm die of pleasure]].
99	* OverlyLongName: A RunningGag [[OverlyLongGag involving]] a secret password in Dildano and Barbarella's rebellion operation, involving the name of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll a certain town in Wales.]]
100	* ParrotExposition: Barbarella could give the '''entire''' ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series a run for its money.
101	* PerfectPacifistPeople: In Barbarella's time, the entire known universe will have been pacified for centuries and weapons are things seen only in museums. Barbarella and the president simply can't understand why anyone would want to invent a weapon.
102	* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: Subverted. Barbarella takes a videophone call from the President of Earth while she's naked. She says that she'll "slip something on", but the President (of course) tells her not to bother.
103	* PluckyComicRelief: Dildano and his secret base of operations. His "Earth Hand/Pill-Sex" scene with Babs could be counted in the film's funny moments.
104	* ProtagonistTitle: Barbarella is the heroine.
105	* PunnyName: A character is called Dildano.
106	* LaResistance: Dildano leads one in Sogo that seeks to overthrow the Black Queen and presumably start a regime that's more similar to Earth's (i.e. more peaceful and less evil).
107	* RepetitiveName: Durand Durand.
108	* RescueSex:
109	** With three different people over the course of the movie. Dildano explicitly states that he rescued Barbarella [[SexForServices just so he could get this]] (though, to her disappointment, he means the mental connection practiced on Earth).
110	** Subverted with the Black Queen, who saves Barbarella from two assailants and clearly wants to spend some sensual time with Barbarella in return, but Barbarella isn't as generous with her.
111	* RoleCalled:
112	** In the US, the film was marketed as ''Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy''.
113	** In Spain it's ''Barbarella, the Space Venus'' and in Finland it's ''Barbarella, Planetary Queen''.
114	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Just about everyone. Barbarella is always very polite and formal and spouts a lot of sci-fi babble, while Pygar and the Black Queen are flowery to the point of Shakespeareanism sometimes.
115	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: The Ice Forests of Weir.
116	* SpaceClothes: The heroine and her extensive wardrobe, which comes in handy as so many of her outfits--often made from perspex, plastic, fur, chainmail, or vinyl--get destroyed during the course of the movie. The citizens of Sogo favor [[BondageIsBad bondage-themed outfits]], featuring leather and chains.
117	* TapOnTheHead: Barbarella is knocked out by some kids with a crystal hidden inside a snowball. She's later knocked out again by some falling rocks.
118	* {{Teleportation}}: The "Atom Transmitter" that Dianthus uses to send Barbarella equipment.
119	* ThreesomeSubtext: Barbarella, Pygar and the Black Queen flying away together at the end, with the usually stoic Pygar having this huge smile on his face.
120	* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The city is swallowed by the Mathmos... except for Babs. The Black Queen (who gets saved by being — nudge nudge — [[LesbianSubtext close to her]]) explains that it can't stand the taste of her innocence.
121	* TorsoWithAView: A labyrinth prisoner that Professor Ping points out to Barbarella appears to have lost nearly all of his torso as punishment, yet he's still perfectly able to walk around.
122	* TortureIsIneffective: Due to an inept torturer in this case. Who knew women could actually ''survive'' multiple orgasms? Durand Durand sure didn't.
123	* TortureTechnician: Dr. Durand Durand's hobby, and one shared by the majority of Sogoites, it seems.
124	* TranslatorMicrobes: Barbarella's wrist-mounted [[DoubleEntendre "Tongue Box"]].
125	* WakingUpElsewhere: At some point Barbarella wakes up after getting knocked out and thinks she's dead. Not surprisingly, since the first person she sees is Pygar the angel (or ornithanthrope).
126	* WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture: Barbarella wanders into a walk-in suicide booth, which offers world-weary beings a choice of ways to terminate their unendurable existence.
127	* WhamShot: After the Excessive Machine scene, the camera focuses on Barbarella's Durand Durand-detector on the floor. The concierge accidentally steps on it, activating it and it starts flashing, revealing that the concierge is Durand Durand.
128	* {{Yandere}}: The Black Queen, apparently. After Barbarella rejects her advances, she aims a knife at her, though she doesn't go through with it.
129	* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: Barbarella stripping off her spacesuit in zero-gravity constitutes the entire opening credits sequence.

Context Film / Barbarella