How Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ was influenced by her Catholic school roots
“Barbie” has been blessed.
Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated pink-filled comedy “Barbie” has finally driven its magenta-colored convertible into theaters.
The movie is chock-full of religious motifs and allusions — thanks to the filmmaker’s past experiences at St. Francis High School, an all-girls Catholic school in Sacramento, California.
“In the movie, like, when it starts, she’s in a world where there’s no aging or death or pain or shame or self-consciousness, and then she suddenly becomes self-conscious — that’s a really old story,” Gerwig recently told the Associated Press about the parallels between “Barbie” and the Bible. “And we know that story.
“I think I always go back to those older story forms because I went to Catholic school and I resonate with them,” the 39-year-old “Lady Bird” director explained, referring to the ancient biblical tales of Christianity.
There are other divine metaphors that Gerwig uses in her new flick — including a shot that references a famous mural painted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
The mother of two told USA Today about a moment in the feature where Ruth Handler — the creator of the plastic doll — hands Margot Robbie’s Barbie a cup of tea.
The scene is reminiscent of the “exact way that God is touching Adam on the Sistine Chapel,” Gerwig said, noting the fresco that depicts the creation of Adam and is inspired by the verse written in the Bible’s Genesis: “God created man in his own image.”
Robbie, 33, and the “Little Women” screenwriter previously spoke to Vogue and pointed out how the creation story of Adam and Eve is similar to Barbie and her boyfriend, Ken, played by Ryan Gosling in the film.
“Barbie was invented first,” Gerwig dished to the fashion publication. “Ken was invented after Barbie, to burnish Barbie’s position in our eyes and in the world. That kind of creation myth is the opposite of the creation myth in Genesis.”
“The Wolf of Wall Street” star Robbie noted how Gerwig penned “an abstract poem about Barbie” that was akin to the Apostles’ Creed sonnet and helped create the tone for the Mattel Films flick.
The film’s main premise focuses on how an innocent Barbie lives in her dream world, Barbieland, where everything is perfect and untouched.
However, things begin to change in her frothy utopian society — and she must figure out why.
Barbieland is similar to the Bible’s Garden of Eden — a lush paradise that was once perfect but is then ruined by the introduction of sin.
“Barbie” opened in theaters on Friday, July 21, and is already sprouting some bizarre fandom.
A filmmaker has “Barbiefied” celebrities like President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, Princess of Wales Kate Middleton and late UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by using artificial intelligence to morph their faces onto the characters’ pink-adorned bodies.
