Barbarella
Recently, I started watching Altman’s “Pret-a-porter” and gave up after 20 minutes. It promised to be a disaster like his “Nashville”, even the buzz and the tone of the characters were exactly the same. (Think Woody Allen – throughout his 40-something films his characters have the same way of talking too.) I hate the vapid ranting of Altman characters with a passion, and that is unfortunate since I really liked “Short Cuts” and “Gosford Park”.
Luckily “Barbarella” was not like that. It was kind of vapid and extremely campy, but at least it was visually interesting. I would not blame anyone for watching the film solely for the pleasure of seeing young Jane Fonda changing outfits a million times in the film and be half-naked for the rest of it. Even though I would probably never have chosen to see the film by myself, it carried enough enjoyment for me to see it all the way to the end. So yeah, sure it’s a cult film that doesn’t make sense most of the time (that Pygar character! Oh my goodness!), but I am glad I saw this strange little thing. They talked about a sequel with Sherilyn Fenn, that would have been absolutely awesome.