Greta Gerwig On bringing little women to big screens

 

Greta Gerwig

Greta
Gerwig

On bringing little women to big screens

Text by Seb Emina
Portraits by Jody Rogac

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Issue nº 27, Spring and Summer 2023

After winning us over with her naturalistic performances in offbeat independent films, Greta Gerwig stepped behind the camera to write and direct the wholehearted, female-forward favourites Lady Bird and Little Women. In the process, the Sacramento-born star became a multiple Oscar contender — one of only five women to be nominated for best director — and a cinematic force to be reckoned with. Now, at 39, she’s set to tackle her biggest subject yet: a doll called Barbie. And none of us can wait.

 

Starring Florence Welch; Directed by Greta Gerwig;
Photographs by Tina Barney; Styled by Sara Moonves

Birds Nest: Greta Gerwig and Florence Welch Make Their Private Domestic Fashion Fantasy Come Alive

“It’s like Safe meets Grey Gardens meets Rosemary’s Baby.”

by Alix Browne
Feb. 20, 2018

We are in a house. A ramshackle Victorian pile, not far from the ocean. Flocked wallpaper in faded silver and gold. Ceilings cracked and peeling where the rain has found its way in. The house is all doors and secret corners. One room is strewn with empty violin cases and countless unframed oil paintings depicting tumultuous seascapes. Another, inexplicably, teems with butterflies. In the kitchen, among jars of pickles and stacks of canned goods, jugs of cheap juice and boxes of dried pasta, a store-bought birthday cake sits on the Formica table, its pink candles melting onto the soft white icing.

 

A Barbie digital billboard in New York City.ANADOLU AGENCY (ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Pink is political: How ‘Barbie’ blends activism, entertainment, and business as usual

Greta Gerwig’s feminist fantasy-comedy is taking the box office by storm, but the film’s success is also its politics, which go only so far as the Mattel corporation will allow: ‘A movie that ridiculed Barbie would have been disastrous for the brand’

Noah Benalal

July 17, 2023

For some time now, and until further notice, pink means Barbie, whether it’s really about Barbie or not. Ever since the movie about Mattel’s most iconic toy doll began its impressive advertising campaign, the world has been flooded in waves of pink — a tide that has managed to swamp more than just the land of cinema. In the span of merely a few months, we have witnessed the #Barbiecore trend on Tik-Tok, with users creating their own Barbie-inspired outfits and pink-themed aesthetics, and pink-carpet photoshoots taking place around the world with celebrities ransacking the vintage archives of major fashion houses to dress in the spirit of the famous doll. Scores of adoring fans have dug up their most chic and beloved garments from childhood — pink outfits abandoned in adolescence and rediscovered thanks to Barbie — eagerly consuming the advertisements and products launched by Mattel and collaborators, like Barbie lipstick and Ken underwear. And on top of all the pop culture hullabaloo, Barbie has entered the world of politics too: while the right criticizes her for promoting a “woke agenda,” liberals and leftists like Spain’s Second Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz are flocking to the film and sharing their enthusiasm for Barbie’s feminist agenda on social media.