It was the second click that did it. The first click, so to speak, came when I started following the careful marketing of this summer’s “Barbie” movie, which premieres next Friday. The adult journalist in me appreciated the winks of understanding from director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig. In the trailer, we could see how Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, stands on her toes even after she steps out of her high-heeled shoes. She is apparently unable to put her heel on the ground. Such things make women all over the world, who both played with barbie dolls and are well aware of the criticism that they represent an old-fashioned type of femininity, giggle. MY CHILDHOOD DOLL: Margot Robbie in clothes that are a replica of the “Day-to-Night-Barbie” outfit. Photo: AP But then Margot Robbie appeared on the red carpet in a pink suit, with white and pink shoes and a white hat with dotted pink ribbons around it. And then it tickled the stomach and not the brain. Robbie’s outfit was a faithful copy of the so-called Day-to-Night Barbie, which came out in the mid-eighties. This doll was a true daughter of the eighties. The suit was suitable for the boardroom, but could also be easily converted into a party dress with a large skirt. And I had that barbie doll. The image of Robbie sent me back to the girls’ room with a bang. I remembered the white plastic hat that was lying around. The shoes that I never found more than one of when it mattered. The small suitcase slammed when I closed it. That was the second click. Suddenly, both the five-year-old and the 42-year-old were deeply involved in the Barbie film. RADAR COUPLES: Ryan Gosling plays Ken and Margot Robbie plays Barbie in the new film. Photo: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures So far everything indicates that “Barbie” is able to move on two tracks at the same time. It is therefore absolutely necessary that it achieves that. A movie about Barbie that would be child’s play, unironic and promotional, would just be silly. There is too much relevant context around the phenomenon of Barbie that needs to be included, there has been too much debate and controversy, too many opinions, for a filmmaker to pretend that this does not exist. At the same time, Gerwig also couldn’t make a film that was too detached, without the child’s gaze, without the girlish longing for different outfits and effects for the barbie doll, without the joy of getting them for Christmas. SPEAKING TO SOMETHING DEEP: Greta Gerwig, Oscar-nominated director and screenwriter, found she could make a “Barbie” movie personal. Photo: AP Ridiculing Barbie, with her saucer-sized eyes and reed-thin waist, is just silly. It’s stupid because it’s too easy. It’s not interesting. At the same time, a serious filmmaker must be able to incorporate into his concept that the ridicule has been there, and that “barbie doll” has been a swear word for almost as long as it has been a toy. The first Barbie doll came on the market in 1959. The woman behind it, Ruth Handler, had founded the toy company Mattel with her husband, and named the new doll after her own daughter. What was new, and controversial, was that it was a grown-up doll for little girls. The first commercial encouraged girls to imagine themselves as Barbie until the day they became adults. THE VERY FIRST: When Barbie was launched in 1959, it was controversial that little girls should play with dolls that had adult forms. Photo: AFP Barbie had breasts and hips, and was immediately criticized for being too sexualised. But little girls loved her. Unlike other dolls, which represented babies or children, longings and dreams of adulthood could be projected into Barbie. Mattel saw early on the need to let Barbie live out many different dreams. Astronaut Barbie, for example, came out as early as 1965. But even though Barbie entered professional life early on, it was different clothes and styles that attracted the greatest interest, and which primarily drove sales. Over the years, the Barbie phenomenon has been accused of being consumerist and superficial. Many have believed that the dolls have been destructive to girls’ self-image, because they represent an unattainable ideal of beauty. OUT IN SPACE EARLY: Barbie became an astronaut as early as 1965, and received astronaut editions in both the eighties and nineties. Photo: Ap All this was a nut for Mattel, which holds tight to its Barbie rights, when there was talk of making a Barbie movie. It was Margot Robbie who was first linked to the project, and it was she who approached Gerwig, the Oscar-nominated director behind “Lady Bird” and “Little Women.” Gerwig was the prodigy who emerged from the indie film and mumblecore trend of the mid-2000s. Together with her current husband, Noah Baumbach, another distinctive and critically acclaimed indie director, she was behind the bittersweet drama-comedy “Frances Ha”. She agreed to the Barbie project because she realized it spoke to something deep within her, and had Baumbach join the script side. First, Mattel demanded to see the script the couple were working on. Then the toy giant’s representative, Robbie Brenner, received a sharp message from the director couple’s agent. “Are you crazy?”, he is said to have said. “You should have come into this office and thanked me when Greta and Noah agreed to write a damn Barbie movie.” WANTED COUPLE: Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach were behind the bittersweet drama-comedy “Frances Ha”, which was a success in 2012. Now they have collaborated on the script for “Barbie”. Photo: Ap The result has been a film in which Barbie, while partying with a group of other living Barbie dolls, can suddenly stop and say: “Do you ever think about death?” Children become adults. People grow old and die. But Barbie is always young. And because she is, she has been able to capture the hopes and frustrations of girls for decades after decades. And therefore the reactions to what little girls do, what they are concerned with and what the adults think they should rather be concerned with, can emerge through the Barbie phenomenon. All that was missing was for it to become a film.
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Then it tickled the stomach and not the brain – Ytring
