Barbie: How director Greta Gerwig brought the famous doll to life in cinema

Ladybird. Daughters of Dr. Marty. And now Barbie. If the idea of ​​signing Greta Gerwig on behalf of a big studio (Warner) to a Greta Gerwig film on behalf of the famous doll surprised more than one, the first images calmed many viewers.

After establishing her unique talents as an actress and screenwriter, Greta Gerwig continues to do the same as a director. And Barbie, joining her previous films with her character determined to break out of the box we literally want to put her in, goes even further.

From the humor to the colorful cinematography, to the actors having a great time (Margot Robbie and the hilarious Ryan Gosling in the lead role), everything fits this crazy, colorful and very cinematic story that the filmmaker is back to. we. The time for the short interview, which he wanted to extend, given that he was disappointed to see our slot with him, passed. So are we, Greta.

AlloCiné: When watching the film, we get the impression of witnessing the dialogue between two versions of you: the child who played Barbie and the adult today. Was that the idea behind this project, a modern and feminist look at your childhood?

Greta Gerwig : absolutely ! The movie was a lot about building a bridge between my childhood and me as an adult. Noah Baumbach, who I wrote with, doesn’t have much experience with Barbie. (laughs) But he used this idea of ​​child’s play, and this crazy and anarchic result, where anything can happen, partly comes from there.

I felt like we were playing when we were writing together. We’re like two kids building something crazy that we’re enabling with our own lives. The staging then aimed to ensure that these two points of view were always present.

The movie was a lot about building a bridge between my childhood and me as an adult.

Comedy takes very different forms here. What was your influence on this registry?

There were so many… When it came to Barbie’s look and feel, I was heavily influenced by musicals from the 40s and 50s. I had An American in Paris or A Song in the Rain, which were very formative for me.

Vincent Minnelli’s musicals too, with these colors and these interiors. The Wizard of Oz, of course. Dream Ballet in Oklahoma! With Agnes de Mille’s choreography that gets surreal but doesn’t lose you. We never get the impression that this is happening because we are in the logic of the musical and we don’t question it.

In terms of rhythm, fun and absurdity, there were the comedies of Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges. Or the crescendo flirtation of L’Impossible Monsieur Bébé or Madame et ses: this idea that the starting point is simple, while it gets crazier and crazier and the plot builds on itself.

When it comes to mechanical tricks and everything that is done in front of the camera, the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were a big influence on me. A matter of life or death, Les Chaussons rouges. They are very theatrical but give the impression of having their own cinematic language.

And they are smart directors. We see them and immediately understand what they wanted to do. There is a scene in “A Matter of Life or Death” where the image freezes while they are playing ping pong: the balls are attached to very thin strings and we see that the actors are not moving, but c is clever. It is handmade and very satisfying. Again we return to the idea of ​​seeing children play.

In addition to being cinematic, will “Barbie” be a film about cinema? With Barbie Land, who would what we see on screen and the real world behind the scenes not always brilliant?

Yes! Yes! I always saw Barbie Land as Cinema Land. It was even more obvious in the version we didn’t shoot: when the world of Barbie was created, there were stagehands who brought everything. Because I wanted us to see the boundaries, to show that it was a studio set.

But I thought maybe we were going a little too far. We need to get involved in the interior of the decor, frame in frame without frame. But that’s the idea behind this world.

Interview by Maximilien Pierret in London, 12 July 2023