There’s no movie quite like Barbarella, the delicious sci-fi allegory about sex and war, based on the Jean-Claude Forest comic book of the same name. If you’ve seen it, you surely remember it.
“Barbarella Does Her Thing” is a 6-minute behind-the-scenes promotional featurette on the making of Roger Vadim’s masterpiece. We get to see some footage of Jane Fonda and Vadim pantomiming connubial bliss, as well as a goodly amount of on-set action, including Fonda and David Hemmings rehearsing the scene in which Barbarella and Dildano experience mind-obliterating sex merely by placing their palms against one another.
They also show the filming of the revolution in the Labyrinth as well as some footage of John Philip Law as Pygar flying around carrying Barbarella in his arms.
“Barbarella Does Her Thing” features the kind of hyperbolic voiceover that could only appear in an advertisement of this type, like: “Barbarella is a five-star double-rated astro-navigatrix whose specialty is love—40,000 A.D. style.”
Barbarella is such a mesmerizingly funny movie, it’s easy to forget what an ambitious production it was. This short clip is a useful reminder.
Watch “Barbarella Does Her Thing” after the jump…