A Few Words About A few words about...™ Barbarella -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

A hyperbolic myth. If a film shows a head getting blown off it's going to get an R-rating, at least. Talk to Paul Verhoeven and David Lynch about that.

Then there's something like Clerks where a scene of characters talking about sex resulted in the MPAA giving the movie an NC-17 (though that was overturned on appeal).
You have a much better chance of showing an act of graphic violence than a graphic sexual act in an R rated movie. When was the last time that you saw an erect penis in an R rated movie? I'm sure it's happened but I can't think of any example. I can think of alot of really violent R rated movies though.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by Ransom Stoddard /t/321593/a-few-words-about-barbarella-in-blu-ray/30#post_3954945
A hyperbolic myth. If a film shows a head getting blown off it's going to get an R-rating, at least. Talk to Paul Verhoeven and David Lynch about that.
Back to Barbarella, I'd be much more concerned with the impression left by the "Excessive Machine" scene than the rather tame and innocent opening scene.

Not a myth at all, show some full frontal nudity with sex involved and if the buttocks move more than once its an NC-17, show someones head being blown off in graphic style and it's an R, that to me is puritanical with regards the sex act but its saying violence is fine.

 

[Mark Oates]

When was the last time that you saw an erect penis in an R rated movie?

That's a mandatory cut from the BBFC (and I don't mean circumcision) or an outright rejection for the whole movie, AFAIK.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by Mark Oates /t/321593/a-few-words-about-barbarella-in-blu-ray/60#post_3955086
That's a mandatory cut from the BBFC (and I don't mean circumcision) or an outright rejection for the whole movie, AFAIK.

Not anymore, during the James Ferman era for sure but not now, it also depends on the context, you know that 9 Songs was released in the UK and uncut on the video formats and features plenty of erections and hardcore sex, other films passed by the BBFC with erections include Red Road and AntiChrist, their policy has changed these days.

P.S. 9 Songs was originally more explicit, the distributors wanted to put the highly explicit hardcore deleted sex scenes on the DVD as deleted scenes but the BBFC rejected them outright, that's a context situation.

Oh and AntiChrist's sex scene is all body doubles, indeed Red Road could well be clever editing and a body double for the erection scene which is brief.

 

[Cary P]

I'm looking forward to this Blu-Ray - always have lots of fun watching this one every 10 years or so. Great visuals and an excellent musical soundtrack, to boot.
Bring on Diabolik on Blu-Ray, I say - I've always thought of these movies as a groovy pair.

 

[Mark Oates]

Not anymore, during the James Ferman era for sure but not now, it also depends on the context, you know that 9 Songs was released in the UK and uncut on the video formats and features plenty of erections and hardcore sex, other films passed by the BBFC with erections include Red Road and AntiChrist, their policy has changed these days.
P.S. 9 Songs was originally more explicit, the distributors wanted to put the highly explicit hardcore deleted sex scenes on the DVD as deleted scenes but the BBFC rejected them outright, that's a context situation.
Oh and AntiChrist's sex scene is all body doubles, indeed Red Road could well be clever editing and a body double for the erection scene which is brief.

I lead too sheltered a life...

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

I don't believe anyone ever thought of Barbarella as "borderline porn."  There are simply shots that parents may not wish children to see.  Totally dependent upon the children and the parents.  Nothing out of line here, or for that matter, nothing that a child cannot see simply by going to the beach.  The only problem is that parents have the right to determine what their children see, and at what age, and the mislabeling countermands those rights.

There's no problem whatsoever; you're making no sense here. There are plenty of films from the '70s rated and marked on video jackets as PG that have more nudity than BARBARELLA (try LOGAN'S RUN, for starters), and I seriously doubt any outraged parents are gonna google BARBARELLA, find out this print wasn't ACTUALLY rated PG originally, and cry foul, but after googling LOGAN'S RUN, they'd be ok with that because it was actually rated PG originally. Of course there may be shots parents may not wish their children to see; that's what Parental Guidance means. Your silliness is making me chuckle, Mr. Harris. PG-rated films once contained nudity, and people will just need to deal with that inescapable fact.
That said, I agree with your thoughts on the A/V quality of this excellent release. I just don't understand the hatred I often see expressed for this film; I think it's a lovely piece of psychedelic eye-candy, and the cast is perfection. Jane and David in particular are hilarious in their roles. And both the title song and the ending song ("An Angel Is Love") are two of my all-time faves.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Originally Posted by Mark Oates /t/321593/a-few-words-about-barbarella-in-blu-ray/30#post_3939427
I'd also love to see Jane and the Lost City on Blu (a British Brenda Starr style WWII adventure)

YES! I have the DVD and that is one of those films I have to put in once a year. Pardon the pan'n scan:

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

There are plenty of films from the '70s rated and marked on video jackets as PG that have more nudity than BARBARELLA (try LOGAN'S RUN, for starters)

After viewing Barbarella recently, I would have to argue that it does contain lot more nudity than Logan's Run. Regardless, parents do have the right to decide what, and in what context their children are exposed to various thing depicted in film, nudity being one of them.

 

[Mark Oates]

Well, the BBFC rating plate justifies the 15 rating as "contains moderate sexualised nudity", which I think is fair enough as its original certification was the full "X". I'd put it on the same level as the boob fests in Hammer movies of the same era (Vampire Lovers, Lust For A Vampire etc.) rather than the odd-quick-flash you got in the 1970s with pictures like Logan's Run. I'd like to reiterate that I do not and never have regarded Barbarella as "borderline pornography". I did, however, get the impression from a number of DVD and Blu-ray and other forums where discussion of the disc was relevant, that a lot of people who hadn't seen the movie before had higher expectations of exactly what the movie contained. This was compounded by the erroneous beliefs that there was a "ruder" European cut, and that the currently available DVD was in fact a bowdlerised PG cut.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Another film which is campy and in the tradition of Barbarella and Jane and The Lost City is Gwendoline aka The Perils Of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak.

 

[Mark Oates]

Would I be burned at the stake for nominating the Bo Derek version of Tarzan The Ape Man as part of this happy sub-genre? I've always felt it was to the Burroughs Estate's shame they insisted on the Tarzan title rather than the working Me, Jane.
BTW, have you ever come across encountered Brooke Shields' Brenda Starr? There was an awful DVD release with the picture open matte on one side and letterboxed down on the other.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by Mark Oates /t/321593/a-few-words-about-barbarella-in-blu-ray/60#post_3957771
Would I be burned at the stake for nominating the Bo Derek version of Tarzan The Ape Man as part of this happy sub-genre? I've always felt it was to the Burroughs Estate's shame they insisted on the Tarzan title rather than the working Me, Jane.

It's amazing they got an actor with the status of Richard Harris to appear in that film.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Not that I'm a prude, but the nudity in Logan's Run is close to being on par with Barbarella, with two scenes that consist of more than "quick flashes" and a third skinny dipping scene that would definitely qualify as being in the "quick flash" category. The Michael Anderson Commentary indicates that further nudity during the Pleasure Dome sequence had to be cut to avoid an R rating, and that the footage is now lost. Just FYI.

 

[RickER]

Would I be burned at the stake for nominating the Bo Derek version of Tarzan The Ape Man as part of this happy sub-genre? I've always felt it was to the Burroughs Estate's shame they insisted on the Tarzan title rather than the working Me, Jane.
BTW, have you ever come across encountered Brooke Shields' Brenda Starr? There was an awful DVD release with the picture open matte on one side and letterboxed down on the other.

Oh i get it...

 

[JoshZ]

Not that I'm a prude, but the nudity in Logan's Run is close to being on par with Barbarella, with two scenes that consist of more than "quick flashes" and a third skinny dipping scene that would definitely qualify as being in the "quick flash" category. The Michael Anderson Commentary indicates that further nudity during the Pleasure Dome sequence had to be cut to avoid an R rating, and that the footage is now lost. Just FYI.

Even in the existing cut, Logan's Run has a full-on orgy in the middle of the film, as well as Jenny Agutter's on-camera disrobing. There is zero chance that movie would get a PG if rated today, unless those two scenes were cut.
As for Barbarella, even if the amount of actual nudity is low, the film is nothing but a string of lewd sex gags. Her spaceship is shaped like a sex toy, ferchrissakes. I don't consider myself a prude (and I'm not even a parent), but I would not consider this movie appropriate for children, parental guidance or not.

 

[Mark Oates]

I have really got to dig out my copy of Logan's Run. I don't remember any orgy. I remember a vague profile of boob in the ice caves from Ms. Agutter, and a naked corpse frozen behind ice in the same sequence, and vague bodies in water in the skinny-dipping scene. Or maybe the batteries in my outrageometer are flat.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by JoshZ /t/321593/a-few-words-about-barbarella-in-blu-ray/60#post_3958106
Even in the existing cut, Logan's Run has a full-on orgy in the middle of the film, as well as Jenny Agutter's on-camera disrobing. There is zero chance that movie would get a PG if rated today, unless those two scenes were cut.
As for Barbarella, even if the amount of actual nudity is low, the film is nothing but a string of lewd sex gags. Her spaceship is shaped like a sex toy, ferchrissakes. I don't consider myself a prude (and I'm not even a parent), but I would not consider this movie appropriate for children, parental guidance or not.

I would suggest children wouldn't view it as adults would, they wouldn't get the sex gags or the fact the spaceship is shaped like a sex toy, i feel adults are the ones who put this sort of thing into a child's head and sometimes adults pass their insecurities onto their children, children are born innocent ( serial killers and paedophiles not withstanding but that's a whole different science argument although i believe some of the science is now understanding they are born that way) and its only as they grow up that fear, morals or lack off and religious indoctrination and other things are put into their heads.

 

[Mark Oates]

I think the primary British reaction to nudity is simple embarrassment above and beyond any sexual inference, and that's what children pick up on. If British kids see somebody with no clothes on, they think it's hysterically funny. I think even when the British mature we think of nudity as funny first and sexually afterwards (in appropriate context of course). Look at so much of our humour - McGill postcards, Carry On, Jane of the Daily Mirror, Benny Hill, Allo Allo, Are You Being Served - it all keys into Comedy of Embarrassment and our love of euphemism and double-entendre which are both crucially about embarrassment.

 

[iDarren]

children are born innocent ( serial killers and paedophiles not withstanding but that's a whole different science argument although i believe some of the science is now understanding they are born that way) and its only as they grow up that fear, morals or lack off and religious indoctrination and other things are put into their heads.

I think that is a really over simplistic, fanciful view. The genetic makeup for ALL THINGS is there at childhood, and what ever society suggests or enforces on them as they mature is nonetheless processed and adapted to by their own INDIVIDUAL minds - the same minds that go on to formulate the values or lack of that are passed on in turn to their children.