M. Beisenherz: Sorry, I’m here privately
Pink doesn’t stink: How the “Barbie” film made the tills ring
Actress Margot Robbie stars in the “Barbie” movie
© Imago Images
Our columnist marvels at the applause for “Barbie.” Because what seems emancipatory actually only fills the coffers of a toy company.
If the Hulk had any fashion sense, he wouldn’t be turning green these days. Pink would probably be his color of choice.
For a few weeks, an intellectually lightweight blonde from the USA a triumphal procession through the world. We get barbiefied and we don’t even feel bad about it.
It’s safe to assume that David Beckham, as a trend truffle pig, knew his club Inter Miami’s season would start almost simultaneously with that of the film. Why wasn’t it silly to use some as the home kit color? Yep: pink. The fact that with Messi an icon resembling a cult doll would appear in this shirt puts the whole thing on top of the tiara.
One has to congratulate the Mattel company on the coup of having created a memorial with the film, of all things, to the toy that for decades stood for the stultification of (predominantly female) youth. Through the film, it now becomes a manifestation of emancipation. That’s great. And clever. Yes, we Ken!
Because entertainment like “Transformers” has been working extremely well in cinemas for years, it was clear that Mattel would not refrain from transferring its streaked figurehead to the multiplexes as well. Of course, in 2023 there has to be a message behind it if you want to celebrate a premiere without angry hashtags and cardboard signs in front of the theater. With Greta Gerwig, a renowned indie director was engaged. Et voilà! We’ve got a goofy pink “Truman Show” clone, raving feature articles about the subversive power of radical feminist disruption – and the doll is selling well too! The director didn’t screw up the company and turn the film into a kind of Trojan mare – it was the people at Mattel who followed the zeitgeist.
Something that many of us know from everyday life (or from Twitter): We reflect on our behavior with a wink without any real interest in ever changing it.
changing zeitgeist
From pin-up girl to child star: the evolution of the Barbie doll in over 60 years
After “Barbie” comes “Polly Pocket” to the cinema
The blockbuster has long since cracked the billion mark. The modern age of the Barbocene has heralded, a continuation can only be a matter of form. Further films are in preparation: “Polly Pocket” (with the progressively woken Lena Dunham in the director’s chair), “Hot Wheels”, and even the card game “Uno” is to be adapted into a film. One is literally waiting for the filming of “Käsekästchen” and “Malefiz”.
It will be interesting to see how such commercials (they remain so) are so cleverly broken up or politically ambitious that nobody notices that the companies primarily want to make money. And when the brightest minds are taken away from indie and art house cinema by means of a check book in order to stage the products of some large corporations elsewhere in a millennial-compliant manner, that is significantly less honorable than it appears on the surface.
Either way, I’m looking forward to the adaptation of the “Masters of the Universe” when He-Man turns away from the exaggerated body cult of his McFit planet, frees himself sexually as the formerly mocked Prince Adam and opens a literary café in Venice with his boyfriend Skeletor .
I’d be happy to buy a ticket for that.