FILM · 1968 · FRANCE
Barbarella
52 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (52)
- #001
In the opening title sequence, the shots that make Barbarella appear to float around her spaceship were filmed by having Jane Fonda lie on a giant sheet of Plexiglas with a picture of the spaceship beneath her. It was shot from above, creating the illusion of zero gravity.
- #002
Dildano's password, "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch", is the name of a village in Wales in the United Kingdom. It is also the longest place name in the United Kingdom.
- #003
David Gilmour, later the guitarist of Pink Floyd, was one of the session musicians who performed the film's original score.
- #004
Writer Jean-Claude Forest based Barbarella on Brigitte Bardot. Bardot was asked to play the lead role, but she said she no longer wanted to take on sexy roles.
- #005
This film is part of the "sex kitten" period of Jane Fonda's screen career. It was the film that popularized that label for the actress.
- #006
The film's original European version contained a great deal of nudity intact when it first opened in cinemas.
- #007
Ian McKellen flew to Rome to audition for a role. Although he did not understand it, he told Empire magazine that Jane Fonda herself made him breakfast while she waited to read.
- #008
Jane Fonda dubbed herself for the French version.
- #009
Lobby card photos and set photos showing footage of the bed seduction scene between Barbarella and the Black Queen have survived. However, this footage does not appear in any release of the film.
- #010
"Stomoxys" and "Glossina", the nieces of the Great Tyrant, are actually names of flies. Stomoxys calcitrans is the stable fly, and glossina is the tsetse fly.
- #011
The person who played Professor Ping was the famous French mime Marcel Marceau, who was cast against type in a fatally talkative speaking role but was voiced by Robert Rietty.
- #012
Italian actor Antonio Sabato was replaced by British actor David Hemmings in the role of Dildano. Set photos exist of Sabato performing the famous "hand sex" scene with Jane Fonda. Sabato's performance was seen as too serious, and Hemmings was brought in to give it a more comedic tone.
- #013
At the time the film was shot and first released, American star Jane Fonda and French director Roger Vadim were married.
- #014
The film's main English trailer included the line: "We would like to thank the following planets for making this picture possible: Lythion, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Earth and many special guest stars!"
- #015
Some of the film's set pieces, visuals and set direction were inspired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's fantasy-adventure classic The Wizard of Oz (1939).
- #016
Barbarella's sexual encounter with the captured mole machine and with the dead rebel's robot does not appear in the film. The rest of the film is very faithful to the comic.
- #017
The film's co-writer and director, Roger Vadim, wanted to make a sequel while he was alive with Sherilyn Fenn or Drew Barrymore playing Barbarella, but this never happened.
- #018
The feathers on Pygar's wings were originally meant to be entirely white. John Phillip Law, a passionate comic book fan since childhood, wanted them to have a brownish tint so he could resemble the DC Comics character Hawkman.
- #019
In the comic, Barbarella was an outlaw. The film skips some of her adventures on Lythion, including an encounter with an earlier villain named Gorgon, whose face becomes a copy of the face of anyone who looks at him. Because the spaceship is not repaired, she is stranded on Lythion in the first comic album.
- #020
Cinematographer Claude Renoir was the son of actor Pierre Renoir, the nephew of director Jean Renoir, and the grandson of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
- #021
Terry Southern enjoyed writing the screenplay, especially the opening striptease and the scenes featuring the tiny robot toys that try to bite Barbarella. Southern considered the film his own Candy (1968) and enjoyed working with Roger Vadim and Jane Fonda, but he had problems with Dino De Laurentiis, whose priority was making a cheap film rather than a good one.
- #022
Terry Southern was surprised to find that the screenplay included not only his own work but also that of Roger Vadim and several Italian screenwriters.
- #023
In the labyrinth, Barbarella asks Pygar where she can find Professor Ping. At this point, the background sounds of the invisible monster leaving footprints as it approaches the space cruiser are taken from the score of Forbidden Planet (1956).
- #024
Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren turned down the lead role. Bardot did not want to play sexual roles, and Loren was pregnant.
- #025
The film was adapted from a comic strip serialized by artist Jean-Claude Forest in a French men's magazine in the early 1960s. When the collected strips were published as a standalone book in 1964, a scandal erupted over it being considered pornographic, even though it was at most slightly erotic.
- #026
Although the film's titles are attributed to Arcady, they were actually designed by original Bond title designer Maurice Binder. Binder's title sequence, along with the music credits, was part of the film's rough cut; the titles can be seen in the streaming version on Amazon Instant Video.
- #027
Jean-Claude Forest's original French science fiction comic first appeared as a serial in the French magazine V in the spring of 1962. "Barbarella" was later published as a series of four comics between 1962 and 1982. The film was made and released in 1968, about six years after the original serialization.
- #028
Some of the main set pieces outlined in the film's English main trailer were named: the Biting Bird Cage, the Deadly Doll's House, the Labyrinth of Love, the Chamber of Dreams, the Palace of Pleasure and the Wild Excess Machine.
- #029
This is Jane Fonda's only science fiction film. She was unsure about the film, but director Roger Vadim convinced her by saying that science fiction was a rapidly developing genre.
- #030
Terry Southern suggested Anita Pallenberg for the Black Queen, because he had become friends with her while working with The Rolling Stones (whose member Brian Jones was dating Pallenberg) in the early stages of the development of A Clockwork Orange (1971).
- #031
In an interview, Jane Fonda said that although she had filmed nude scenes in some of her earlier films, she had to get drunk to summon the courage to undress for the opening scene.
- #032
Jane Fonda has seven costume changes as Barbarella.
- #033
This feature film carried a huge eight writing credits, but counting the original comic book creator as well, there is a ninth writer billing.
- #034
Mike Myers based the character Felicity Shagwell somewhat on Barbarella, from the spy spoof Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999).
- #035
The film is set in the 401st century, in 40,000 AD, but this is stated only in promotional material. No year is mentioned in the film, so it can be set in any year.
- #036
The film was made before Jane Fonda's "politicization," her maturation and the development of her political persona. When asked to defend the film in the context of her feminist political views, she had no choice but to accept it. She could not rewrite history despite the obvious "sex symbol" nature of the Barbarella character, which feminists considered to be exploiting women.
- #037
In 1999 it was announced that a remake of the film was in development at Warner Bros. It had acquired the rights from Paramount Pictures, and it was said that Drew Barrymore would take on the role of Barbarella and that the remake would be more faithful to the original comic. As of October 2021, this remake had not yet been produced.
- #038
Jane Fonda recommended John Phillip Law to Roger Vadim because they had become friends during the filming of Hurry Sundown (1967).
- #039
When Dildano and Barbarella discuss the mission with Professor Ping, and when Dildano's broadcast ends, a soprano sings "Caro Nome," Giuseppe Verdi's famous aria from Rigoletto.
- #040
Pygar was the last of the "Ornithanthropes," the bird-man species.
- #041
During the opening title sequence, the letters forming the title and the cast names appear mixed in with the space suit Barbarella removes in the opening scene. Some of the cast credits are used to conceal some of Barbarella's nudity. Jane Fonda said: "Vadim promised that the letters in the film's credits would be cleverly placed to cover what needed to be covered — and so they were."
- #042
In the 2000s a new version of Barbarella was proposed, and director Robert Rodriguez was interested in developing one. Universal Pictures planned to produce the film with Rose McGowan playing Barbarella. Dino and Martha De Laurentiis signed on writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. When the film's budget exceeded 80 million dollars, Universal withdrew. According to Rodriguez, he sought alternative financing and found a studio in Germany that would provide a 70 million dollar budget. However, Rodriguez eventually left the project because using that studio would have required being away from his family for a long time. Joe Gazzam was later offered the chance to write a screenplay; Robert Luketic took on directing, and Dino and Martha De Laurentiis were still attached as producers. It was never produced.
- #043
Raquel Welch was also approached to play the role, but she took the lead in Myra Breckinridge (1970).
- #044
Charles Fox, who wrote the songs for this film, also wrote the theme song for another 1968 science fiction film, The Green Slime (1968).
- #045
Jackie Lee worked on the original film score written by Michel Magne, but the songs were removed before release.
- #046
At times, especially during the opening space suit striptease scene, the film is shot in the famous French director's "Vadim Tease" directing style.
- #047
This film is officially regarded as a "cult movie" and appears in Danny Peary's book "Cult Movies 2."
- #048
Various supporting roles are voiced by Tim Turner and Anton Rodgers.
- #049
It inspired the music video for Canadian singer-songwriter Lights's "Drive My Soul."
- #050
The film was given an R16 rating in New Zealand.
- #051
David Hemmings received a credit for a special guest appearance.
- #052
Talitha Pol's last film.
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