2023-07-31 13:54:14
by Barbara Visentin
At 39, she is one of the most popular directors in Hollywood. A Californian, she started out as an actress before writing and directing films
«I had two thoughts: I love this project and I can’t tolerate anyone else doing it. And: they will never let us make this film». Greta Gerwig thus told the Guardian of her approach to «Barbie», before filming began. The director of the moment managed not only to make the film but also to break a series of records: “Barbie” is currently breaking the box office and was the best debut ever for a female director.
If the world has turned pink it is thanks to her ironic and intelligent gaze. At 39 (she will turn 40 on August 4) Greta Gerwig is one of the most popular directors in Hollywood and “Barbie”, her first real blockbuster, confirmed the success of her light-hearted and “pop” feminism.
The protagonists of your films, so far, have always been women: it all started with “Lady Bird”, the first film she wrote and directed, not without autobiographical references, immediately nominated for five Academy Awards including best director and best screenplay. She portrays an 18-year-old impatient with her mother (Saoirse Ronan) who wants to leave Sacramento, California, to study at a prestigious college on the East Coast.
Gerwig was also born in Sacramento and “ran away” to college in New York. She made her debut as an actress, but she doesn’t have a happy memory of those years: more than acting she wanted to write. He began to participate in film writing making himself noticed in the independent sphere, in the so-called mumblecore movement, and in 2010 he starred in Noah Baumbach’s «The extravagant world of Greenberg»: with the New York director, who also became his partner and father of his two children, immediately began a fruitful artistic collaboration.
«Lady Bird» arrived in 2017, then in 2019 it was the turn of «Little Women», (yet another) adaptation of the novel, with a stellar cast, critically acclaimed and nominated for six Oscars.
Finally, to write «Barbie», Gerwig worked during the pandemic, and involved Baumbach in the project initially without his knowledge (“He says to me, ‘Did you hire us to write a film about Barbie?’ And I replied ‘Yes. Noah, start celebrating!”, he told the Guardian again). Theaters were closed at the time and the future of films was uncertain: «Well, if we ever go back to the cinema, let’s do something totally crazy», was the motto they gave themselves.
July 31, 2023 (change July 31, 2023 | 1:54 pm)
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