jane fonda: barbarellicious
i’d long heard of Barbarella, but didn’t give it a spin until recently (on the heartfelt if somewhat melancholy recommendation of jay mohr’s character in the sadly ignored blitzkrieg sitcom Action, with illeana douglas). lord god almighty, what a spankfest. if you’d rather see a beautiful woman’s face than porn, this is the porn for you. fonda is indescribably sultry and perfect in this, and even were i some retarded vietnam warmonger brat, i’d be tempted to yell out an orgasmic, “all’s forgiven, lass! all’s forgiven.”
fonda’s sex nuke aside, what an artistic blast, from the sets and models to the special effects — very wizard of oz in its sidestepping of tech limitations with pizazz.
and through it all jane fonda presents what may be the ideal feminine form. jesus christ, the girl had an ass and everything else. sure it’s funny when after making it with a suave ice-dwelling traveler she answers her ship’s computer’s “please advise present situation” request with, “you wouldn’t understand”, but it was her body language that answered that one. find a better post-sex image in history and i’ll give you the deed to barbra streisand’s house.
i doubt whether many, if any, other actors could’ve presented this ideally weird mix of innocence and confidence fonda maintains from the start. she was good. if you like wacky free-spirited sci-fi (or just honest art in general), hand yourself over to barbarella for one try. she does it the old fashioned way.