"Barbie" The inner girl's way of living in a frenzied contradiction

gaze = gaze

"There are many other filmmakers I could give examples of, but the one that came to mind was Wes Anderson's built worlds. In Wes' case, objects and sets have emotions. There are emotions of the characters, and there are emotions of the objects.I wanted to capture that.'' (Greta Gerwig)*2

In an interview with Letterboxd, Greta Gerwig happily lists the countless movies that influenced Barbie. The office of Mattel, which manufactures Barbie dolls, is based on Jacques Tati's `` Playtime '' (67), and the design of the Hidden Figures House is Jerry Lewis's `` Falling Out '' (61), played by Margot Robbie. Barbie's typical (stereotypical) hairstyle is reminiscent of Catherine Deneuve in `` The Umbrellas of Cherbourg '' (64). Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie reportedly held a screening of the reference film. Margot Robbie, who is also the producer of this film, had a ``Pink Day'' once a week where everyone wore pink. Like the crazy party scene held at the Hidden Figures House, the fun atmosphere during filming is directly reflected on screen.

Personally, I find it interesting that Greta Gerwig's list of movie references includes Tim Burton's Pee-wee's Adventures (1985). Pee-wee, played by the recently deceased Paul Reubens, was also a character loved by children who was commercialized as a toy. Pee-wee's existence is far removed from the "masculinity" presented by Hollywood and the advertising industry. Pee-wee's bicycle looks extremely small compared to his body. Pee-wee always rode his bicycle in a cramped manner.

“Barbie” ©2023 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved.

The car that Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, drives is also smaller than her body. The design is amazing because it recreates the "cramped feeling" that children get when playing with a Barbie doll in a car. Barbie doesn't use the stairs in the Hidden Figures House. I walk out of the room as if I'm flying straight out of the room. It recreates the feeling of a child grabbing a Barbie doll from the Hidden Figures House. Childhood memories are summoned from the "thing" called Barbie. Greta Gerwig summons the audience's memory of toys, a kind of collective memory.

In this sense, the interview in which Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken, compares this film to Andy Warhol's soup cans is very thought-provoking. It felt like something that seemed so ordinary was given a different value. “Femininity” and “masculinity” have been mass-produced by Hollywood and the advertising industry. To take a more familiar example, what lies between the cut-out world of Instagram and real life. A look that doubts the effects of such "image" is applied throughout "Barbie." Barbie exists without the need for the male gaze. However, Ken cannot exist without the Barbie-female gaze.

barbie and ken