Barbarella – Arrow Video (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: France/Italy, 1968
Director: Roger Vadim
Writers: Terry Southern, Roger Vadim, Claude Brulé, Vittorio Bonicelli, Clement Biddle Wood, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates, Jean-Claude Forest, Charles B. Griffith
Cast: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O'Shea, Marcel Marceau, Claude Dauphin, Véronique Vendell, David Hemmings, Ugo Tognazzi, Antonio Sabato, Jean Saudray, Kitty Swan, Fabio Testi, Romolo Valli, Silvana Venturelli

Release Date: November 28th, 2023
Approximate Running Time: 98 Minutes 2 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: LPCM Mono English, LPCM Mono French, Dolby Atmos English
Subtitles: English SDH, English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $59.95

"It is the year 40,000AD. When evil scientist Durand Durand (Milo O’Shea) creates a deadly weapon with the potential to cause mass devastation, the President of Earth dispatches Barbarella (Fonda) to hunt him down. Crash-landing in an icy wilderness somewhere within the Tau Ceti planetary system, Barbarella is rescued by Mark Hand (Ugo Tognazzi, La Cage Aux Folles) and guided by the blind angel Pygar (John Phillip Law, Danger: Diabolik) to Durand's lair in Sogo, a city of corruption and debauchery, where an encounter with the Great Tyrant Black Queen (Anita Pallenberg, Performance) and her minions throws her mission into jeopardy." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4k 16 bit at Fotokem, Burbank. Sections of an original 35mm interpositive were also scanned in 4k 16 bit to replace sections in poor condition on the original negative. The film was restored and graded in 4K SDR, HDR10 and Dolby Vision by Silver Salt Restoration, London."

Barbarella comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 86.8 GB

Feature: 75.8 GB

Though there are moments in Barbarella that are not going to look flawless, notably the opening and closing credits sequences and special effects moments, the bulk of this transfer looks excellent, and it has a solid encode from Fidelity in Motion. This new transfer from Arrow Video will come as a revelation to most fans of Barbarella; it is easily the best this film has ever looked on home video. Flesh tones look healthy, colors are nicely saturated, image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic.

Audio: 5/5 (LPCM Mono English, LPCM Mono French, Dolby Atmos English)

This release comes with three audio options, a LPCM mono mix in English, a LPCM mono mix in French, and a Dolby Atmos mix in English. All of the audio mixes sound excellent; you can’t go wrong with any of these tracks. Dialog comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced. Range-wise ambient sounds and the score sound appropriately robust. That said, the newly created Dolby Atmos track sounds amazing. Also, when compared to previous home video releases, the LPCM English and LPCM French tracks have never sounded better. Included are removable English SDH for the English language tracks and removable English subtitles for the French language track.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include alternative opening credits (2 minutes 21 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), alternative closing credits (1 minute 16 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), an option to listen to the isolated score, and an audio commentary with film critic Tim Lucas. 

It should be noted that these three songs, Barbarella (Main Theme), Love, Love, Love Drags Me Down, and An Angel Is Love, are silent when listening to the isolated score track. Also, another song, I Love All the Love in You, is an instrumental version, where the version in the film has vocals.

Extras on a second disc, a single-layer Blu-ray include an image gallery (83 images - stills/lobby cards), a theatrical trailer (3 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), US TV spot (55 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), three US radio spots (2 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a video essay titled Dino and Barbarella by Eugenio Ercolani on producer Dino De Laurentiis (14 minutes 27 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actor Fabio Testi discusses his early career as a stuntman and body double for John Phillip Law on Barbarella titled An Angel’s Body Double (24 minutes 26 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actor/director Ricky Tognazzi discusses the life and work of his father and Barbarella star Ugo Tognazzi titled Tognazzi on Tognazzi (21 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with camera operator Roberto Girometti titled Framing for Claude (17 minutes 12 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with film fashion scholar Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén on Jacques Fonteray’s world-changing costume designs titled Dress to Kill (31 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an in-depth discussion between film and cultural historians Tim Lucas & Steve Bissette on the impact and legacy of Barbarella titled Love (113 minutes 20 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), Paul Joyce’s behind the scenes featurette titled Barbarella Forever! (14 minutes 54 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), and an appreciation of Barbarella by film critic Glenn Kenny titled Another Girl, Another Planet (23 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles).

Other extras include reversible cover art, six double-sided collector’s postcards, a double-sided fold-out poster, and a 120-page booklet with cast & crew information, an essay titled Barbarella Psychedela written by Anne Billson, an essay titled Jean-Claude Forest’s Barbarella written by Paul Gravett, an essay titled Barbarella, Ambassador of Peace and Love written by Véronique Bergen, an essay titled Barbarella, the Unintentional Beacon of Retrofuturism written by Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén, Barbarella 1968 British Press Book, and information about the restoration.

Summary:

In the year 40,000, Barbarella (Jane Fonda) is given the assignment of tracking down a scientist named Durand Durand, who was last seen on the planet Lythion. Barbarella’s mission starts off badly when her spaceship crashes. Along the way, when she isn’t battling robots, monsters, and children, she rewards the men who help her. Will Barbarella be able to find Durand Durand and stop him from using the deadly weapon he has created, or will she lose herself in her new-found pleasures?

They don’t make films like Barbarella anymore. Its free love message and psychedelic style are both products of the late 1960s. Director Roger Vadim (Pretty Maids All in a Row) has worked with and been married to some of cinema’s most beautiful women. While making Barbarella, he was married to its star, Jane Fonda (Spirits of the Dead), and Barbarella would also serve as the last time they worked together, though they remained married for another five years. Barbarella oozes with style, as Roger Vadim creates a world that defies logic as it resembles Barbarella’s comic book source material more than real life.

Barbarella is filled with a copious amount of eye candy, and most of it comes from its leading lady, Jane Fonda, whose entrance into the opening credits is without a doubt the most erotic to grace any film opening ever. The fun doesn’t end there, as Roger Vadim concocts several scenes that are specifically designed to showcase Jane Fonda’s undeniable sex appeal. The two scenes that immediately spring to mind are when Barbarella has sex the old-fashioned way and not via a pill for the first time. And the scene where Durand Durand tortures her, and she destroys his torturing machine with her sexual desire

The cast is a who’s who of late 1960’s cinema. The entire cast is a delight to watch. David Hemmings (Deep Red) is delightfully bizarre in the role of Dildano, who is part of a secret underground movement to overthrow The Great Tyrant. Anita Pallenberg (Performance) is diabolically evil and alluring in the role of The Great Tyrant. Marcel Marceau (Shanks) gives a deliriously witty performance in the role of Professor Ping, and Milo O’Shea (Theatre of Blood) in the role of Durand Durand perfectly captures the essence of a super villain. That said, the weakest performance is by John Phillip Law (Danger: Diabolik) in the role of Pygar, a blind angel who regains his ability to fly after some arousing encouragement from Barbarella.

Barbarella's wonderfully cheesy score includes the following songs: “Barbarella”, “Drag Me Down”, “Love Theme from Barbarella” and “An Angel is Love”. All of which were composed by Charles Fox, who would later rise to fame by writing music for classic television shows like Happy Days and The Love Boat. The look of Barbarella is one of its main reasons why it works so well as a film: because of cinematographer Claude Renoir’s (Blood and Roses) impeccable lighting and photography. Ultimately, Barbarella is one of those films that never gets dull, no matter how many times you watch it, and Jane Fonda takes her clothes off.

Barbarella gets an exceptional release from Arrow Video that comes with a stunning audio/video presentation and a wealth of insightful extras, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer