As much as we may insist that cinema is an art, the fact remains that it is an expensive art and that, even when it seems to us that it was created with limited means, it is in any case the result of an entrepreneurial activity. where many people work. This means that films, apart from the legitimate aspirations of those who make them famous, must be watched for profit.
It is not always easy to work without losing artistic value: however, public taste remains supreme. That we can always hope to educate the public itself to try something new, more demanding, is evidenced by the fact that the films of the great masters of cinema often won awards at the box office, and not only from critics. The quality of expression is not always determined by commercial criteria: in this sense, while retaining the possibility of experimentation (which remains the great soul of the artistic proposal), cinema has been a popular art since its inception. The task of a cinematographic work is also to provoke a discussion, to raise questions at a social level. If a film with such potential reaches the general public, the discussion will be more effective.
The first information about the film that I want to tell you about. Arriving at the box office for the performance at 19:00 on a weekday, I managed to get the last two tickets. The show was already at 21.15. sold out with online booking. The room is packed, mostly with women of all ages, from grandparents to granddaughters.
Interest in the Greta Gerwig film, which was reported by the world media for some time, was huge. Movie based on doll character Barbie, since 1959 in the games of entire generations of very young women, this is certainly an interesting idea. Marketing seems safe. We are talking about one of the best-selling toys in the world, which over the years has given rise not only to a series of characters embodied according to different professions and social typologies, but also a real universe populated by occupations, houses, accessories of various kinds. Having a male character, Ken always supports Barbie and is never the protagonist of some kind of alternative world in which girls determine the conditions of social assertion.
There is nothing in Mattel’s look system that a woman can’t do. Who, in the early 70s, proposed an articulated doll intended for the male world, Big Jim: with a symbolic effect, however, of a different, less significant sign. Thus, it is an intriguing topic: but with a very strong uncertainty about the end result of the project. And also because the stated intention was to make this product suitable for adults, not just girls. The film’s promotional campaigns spoke openly about the feminist film: Greta Gerwig has two directorial credits under her belt that should be read from that perspective: Lady Bird2017 and remake Small woman2019.
Barbie this is a popular movie that is certainly based on the nostalgia and curiosity of girls and women about their present or past games. But this is also true for the ability to deal with such a topical topic as female identity, which causes non-trivial questions and reflections. There Stereotypical Barbie she leaves her Barbieland, populated by characters played by flesh-and-blood actresses/actors anthropologizing toys, to enter the real world, where a little girl playing with her simulacrum causes her anxiety, thoughts of death, physical changes. Her search for who this little girl is, who, by changing her attitude, could regain her calmness and restore things to their original harmony, will involve events of various kinds. What may interest the reader of Patria Indipendente is the talk, often very clever, about feminism, patriarchy, and how the world of women is in any case more interesting than one dominated by men. Barbie is a toy that promotes female autonomy: girls could (and can) think that when they grow up they will do whatever they want, they should not set limits. In addition, the Mattel universe is marked by political correctness: Barbie has friends of every ethnic group and living conditions, and various characters around her also experience a state of disability, non-stereotypical physical forms (this also follows from the controversy of whether the doll contributed to anorexia, since the physical ideal is too far from various physical conditions of real women), occupations were usually considered only by men.
However, the film’s young character, a girl who threw away her Barbie dolls and renounced her childhood past with them, defines the protagonist without hesitation. fascist. I confess that without this script excerpt, I might not have dared to offer this review. It is also true that the film revolves around an important issue of anti-fascism, namely the anchoring of Nazi fascism on the principles of male chauvinism and a patriarchal society. In fact, there is a risk in the film that Ken, outside of his supporting role, could bring Barbieland back under the rule of a patriarchy that forces women into submission to various Kens (all have the same name for both them and Barbie: among the script’s many subtexts there is certainly a trace of an identity search).
Is this toy really capable of giving women a tool for their self-promotion, or was it just a semblance of autonomy (all of Mattel’s top executives in the film are male) that carried with it the poisoned lure of consumer capitalism, an economic model for educating girls? Is this supposed independence really effective in getting girls out of a subservient and purely aesthetic mentality, in any case subservient to the male? Is it really a product conceived in the West that allows it to free itself from the logic of dominance imposed on what is culturally different from the United States? It is this accusation that costs Barbie the accusation that she is a fascist (and she suffers greatly from this). Of course, the political subtext of the film matters. In the male chauvinism – even a little grotesque – of various Kens, we can read a non-automotive reference to Trumpism, which, unfortunately, still prevails. It is no coincidence that many US conservatives have been highly critical of the film, accusing it of (apparently) self-praise feminism and the inclusion of many LGBT+ actors in the cast. Moreover, at one time a number of Islamic countries banned the sale of the doll, accusing it of being a sign and a dangerous model of Western decline.
As sometimes it’s not just songs, so it’s not just toys. Gerwig writes scripts with Noah Baumbach (his life partner), who is a director himself and is often able to create original and inspiring films. If there had been a clearer goal in the second part of the film, we would have really got a great film. The spectacle predominates in creating an impressive visual universe, and of course the cast – most notably Margot Robbie, who also produced the film – does a great job. Thus, the ways of reading multiply, without focusing with the necessary clarity, from the topic of identity erasing consumerism to the political one. If it opens with a parody reading of the first scenes. from 2001 “Space Odyssey”, with a Barbie\monolith that makes girls develop from dolls that only give them the role of mothers, so the ending, always of Kubrick origin, puts Barbie at the root of her personality. For those who know the mechanics of the script, the trick is not entirely original.
You may like it or not. This is a film directed by a woman (who is on her way to becoming the highest-grossing film director of a female auteur), genuinely aimed at women first and foremost. To make them think with joy about the many realities, cultures and potentials they represent and express. Without touching on the theme of violence, which remains an absent theme (along with sex) in the film, very relevant in our real world.
If popular cinema is still capable of raising such questions, so be it. And also to make people think about why a toy can be called fascist, it seems to me a non-trivial matter.
Andrea Bigalli, professor of cinema and theology at the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of Tuscany, contact person for Libera per la Toscana
Published on Saturday, August 26, 2023
Printed on 08/27/2023 by user independent homeland to URL https://www.patriaindipendente.it/terza-paagina/red-carpet/antifascista-come-fossi-una-bambola/