It is summer so there must be a free movie series EVERY week in DC. Right? Right.
So while we eagerly await that time of the year when you and your blankets and your smuggled wine fight for a space on the national mall to watch “quality movies you already should have seen” at Screen on The Green, Hirshhorn (the DC museum equivalent of a scenester, if there ever was one) does what they do best and offers a series of B (or is it Z) quality movies, FOR FREE, every Thursday for the next three weeks.
The series is called “Barbarella-Q” and features 3 gems of scantily clad girl power, which not only are fantastically entertaining but also allow for some almost-forgotten pop-culture tripping.
The movies play at 8, at the Ring Auditorium, and picnicing beforehand is encouraged
(even if today seems like Monsoon season may put a (literal) damper on things)
the schedule is as follows:
Queen of Outer Space, 1958
Thursday, June 14, 8 pm
Before Zsa-Zsa was a cop-assaulting old lady married to some German prince half her age who claimed to be the father of Anna Nicole’s baby, her and her Hungarian sisters (Eva and Martha?) were the blonde, buxomy, campy deeeeeelight of all of Hollywood. Zsa-Zsa was the biggest star of all (naturally, with a name like that!) and pioneered the whole “small-dog, big hair” look so popular with socialites these days.
This is considered one of her better “acting” jobs.
for the synopsis
Edward Bernds directed this sci-fi camp gem in which Captain Patterson (Eric Fleming) and his spaceship crash land on Venus. They are captured by a troop of ray gun-toting, miniskirted “space babes” who speak English. One, however, has a pronounced Hungarian inflection, Talleah (Zsa Zsa!), a scientist on the planet who is trying to overthrow the Queen.
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, 1958
Thursday, June 21, 8 pm
Daryl Hannah dated John-John Kennedy when she starred in the remake of this in the 90s but in all honesty, the 1950s setting, without power suits and shoulder pads serves as a better backdrop for this emancipation/exploitation epic (funny how the clothes turn smaller when you get taller, huh?)
for the synopsis
After an encounter with aliens, a wealthy woman (played by Allison Hayes, who was also the 1949 DC Miss America Pageant representative) grows to fifty-feet tall and wreaks vengeance on all those who have annoyed her in Nathan Juran’s killer B-movie.
Barbarella, Queen of the Galaxy, 1968
Thursday, June 28, 8 pm
Once upon a time Roger Vadim was the luckiest man in all of universe, dating and marrying not only Briggite Bardot but also Catherine Daneuve AND Jane Fonda, and somehow persuading them to star in movies that a. he directed and b. they were naked in (”Look, my wife is HOT!”) and c. sort of sucked. But usually in an awesome way.
for the synopsis:
The year is AD 40,000. Floating buff and blissful in zero gravity, Barbarella (Jane Fonda, with more hair and outfits that Madonna freely borrowed from decades later) is suddenly interrupted by a call from the president of Earth (Claude Dauphin). Duran Duran (!) (Milo O’Shea) is threatening the ancient universal peace, and Barbarella must find him and save the world. The Great Tyrant (Anita Pallenberg aka the Rolling Stone groupie of choice), Dildano (David Hemmings), and Professor Ping (Marcel Marceau) also figure in Roger Vadim’s racy space period piece shot by Claude Renoir.
what is not to love?
if you are a “I need more details” kind of a person go here: http://hirshhorn.si.edu
