Posts tonen met het label barbarella. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label barbarella. Alle posts tonen

dinsdag 21 januari 2014

Today's Double News: Amazon wants Barbarella, we want Game of Thrones



A few more items I collected for MS these past few days:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/153167/set_visit_video_game_of_thrones_seizoen_4

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/153191/amazon_wil_barbarella_serie

Good television series continue to be made due to ever growing public demand, and so the search for potentially profitable properties also drones on. While Game of Thrones is currently at the height of its popularity - despite its fabulous quality, you know in terms of success it can only go down at a certain point, and I think that's not far off, as there's little new audiences to be reached (except for paying ones instead of them dirty freeloadin' downloaders!) - rival studios won't sit still, looking for that next piece of audiovisual entertainment that grips spectators by the eyeballs and won't let go until the season is over, at which point it has proven so addictive that stopping the show would be nothing less than a crime against humanity. I doubt Barbarella will be that next hit. That is, if they stick to the campy, Sixties' tone of love and permissiveness established by both the original comics and the 1968 movie, which just seems to outdated. It's basically soft-erotic Sci-Fi escapism with a touch of surreal comedy mixed in. There's nothing wrong with that (far from it!), but would audiences be waiting for such fare in these darker, grittier times of crisis and misery, where serious and bloody shows like Game of Thrones reign supreme? Maybe I'm wrong and Barbarella will prove popular amongst mature audiences (certainly won't be a kids' show!) just because it's so cheerful and positive and silly, so it will be a great addition to the existing fantasy shows due to its different style. That is, if they indeed stick to the Barbarella of old instead of needlessly adapting her to the present times, which I hope they won't. With someone like Nicolas Winding Refn, a connoisseur of classic (or less so) movies if ever I saw one, at the helm, I doubt Barbarella will undergo many changes to her promiscuous personality, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Nor would the HBO-saturated audience that expects a fair amount of bare skin these days. But Amazon is not HBO, and would do well not to gratuitously copy HBO. Better the studio develops its own distinct personality, just like Barbarella has. If you want HBO, stick to Game of Thrones. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm as pumped for Season 4 as the next man, and I have already scoured this seductive little video for any new revelations it might insidiously offer. Not much of those, except for a first glimpse at Mace Tyrell, and the continuing promise of a badass Red Viper. Just ten more weeks until Season 4 premieres, sit tight! And HBO, please keep these videos coming to help us get over any signs of withdrawal...


vrijdag 9 maart 2012

Barbarella




Rating: ***/*****, or 7/10


Extremely campy sixties' Sci-Fi film, almost unique in its own right as a countercultural hippie science fiction flick. In the distant future, astro-navigatrice Barbarella (Jane Fonda in her younger days, when she obviously wasn't very experienced in the art of acting) is ordered by the President of Earth to track down missing scientist Durand Durand, who is rumoured to have invented a terrible weapon, on the uncharted planet of Tau Ceti. Upon arrival, Barbarella falls from one crazy, saucy situation into another, as she is confronted by psychopath kids with murderous biting dolls, a blind angel who lost the will to fly and a city of evil ruled by a wicked bisexual dominatrix. To get out of such pickles she constantly loses her outfit, only to be dressed in an even skimpier one than before, plus she makes love to anyone she comes across and frequently runs into various hallucinatory substances. They sure don't make them like this anymore (though a remake has been planned for years) and it's no secret why. Still, if you know what you're in for, this can be a very fun movie.


Starring: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg


Directed by Roger Vadim


France/Italy: Dino De Laurentiis Cinematographica, 1968