In the far future, a highly sexual woman is tasked with finding and stopping the evil Durand-Durand. Along the way she encounters various unusual people.
16 May Barbarella (1968)
Which Skin?
There are only a few films that can be called roots. 1968 generated two of them, “2001” and this.
“2001” is about the ambiguities of who is narrating. This is about the ambiguities of where the skin is. From the very beginning, the prurient peeling of the spacesuit, to the marvellous suits she wears, even to the orgasmic organ, and the psychic sex.
Identity is all about skin, here depicted as sex. Because it is cinematic. This is Jane Fonda’s first project in layered acting. She would never reach the level of Brando, Penn, and the three women we have now. But she wasn’t the ding bat she portrays, something you can tell from the very odd controlled inflections.
Incidentally, this was a thirty year old woman, newly pregnant and bulimic.
If you wish to understand science fiction, this is one of the movies you must see.
Posted in 2004
Ted’s Evaluation — 3 of 3: Worth watching.
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