Barbie Prep: Letterboxd, Watchlists, Oh My!
Saturday, July 15, 2023 at 7:00PM 
We're in the home stretch, less than a week until Barbie arrives in theaters like a shock-pink supernova. The promotion has been near manic in intensity, with the cast showing off their best Mattel cosplay worldwide and Warner Bros. pulling no punches. However, it's not all red-carpet glamour and real-life dream houses, with writer-director Greta Gerwig doing much to excite the global cinephilia by hinting at her Barbie's debt to great cinema of yore. She's been very vocal about the cast and crew watch parties, studying the hyper-artifice of studio classics, and even getting on the phone with Peter Weir to get some tips relating to The Truman Show.
In a recent Letterboxd interview, Gerwig went into a personal watchlist she curated, starting with 29 titles that eventually expanded to 33 during the conversation. It's a vast collection of titles, from 1930s screwball to modern Almodóvar…
Curiously enough, one title conspicuously absent from the talk was Puberty Blues, Bruce Beresford's coming-of-age dramedy about teen girls discovering themselves in early 1980s' Australia. When Margot Robbie's Letterboxd account was found over a year ago (it has since been deleted), people quickly screenshot two of her watchlists, one pertaining to Babylon and the other to Barbie. The Chazelle program proved indicative of what real-life basis inspired Robbie's character, with lots of Clara Bow in the mix. Moreover, all the other movies listed for the Gerwig project are in the director's selection, so it's odd to note the Aussie teen flick's absence.
Another annoyance is that Letterboxd and other publications shared the list without being kind enough to pinpoint where viewers may find Gerwig's recommended titles. Here, at The Film Experience, we are kind enough. So, let's go over this mountain of Barbie prep with some added comments to guild the lily.
SCREWBALL AND THE 1930S
First up, one must consider how much the legacy of screwball has been looming over Barbie, with the director comparing her leads to Carole Lombard and John Barrymore in the genesis of the genre, Hawks' Twentieth Century. I somewhat doubt that the borderline hysteria of that classic will translate to the new movie, but it's an enticing reference. Then there's the spectacle of Busby Berkeley musicals, the sentimentality crossed with formal ingenuity in Chaplin's Modern Times and The Wizard of Oz, which may represent an inverted mirror to Barbie's journey from fantasy into reality. It's also the only movie on the list playing in Barbie Land's plastic movie palace.
TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934) Howard Hawks
Available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, and VUDU.
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 (1935) Busby Berkeley
Available to rent and purchase on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, the Microsoft Store, and DirecTV.
MODERN TIMES (1936) Charlie Chaplin
Currently streaming on Max, the Criterion Channel, and Kanopy. You can also rent it on Apple TV and Amazon Video.
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) Victor Fleming
Currently streaming on Max, DirecTV, TNT, and TBS. You can also find it, available to rent and purchase, on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, Spectrum, and the Microsoft Store.
The legacy of screwball and sophisticated Golden Age comedies continues as Gerwig's list moves from the 30s to the 40s. Cary Grant is a point of interest for all his fast-talking charm, but so is Hepburn's Oscar-nominated-should-be-Oscar-winning turn as Tracy Lord. Will Robbie rise to such heights?
HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) Howard Hawks
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, MGM+, Paramount Plus, VUDU, Tubi, Kanopy, Redbox, Crackle, Popcornflix, Dove Channel, Classix, Pluto TV, and the Roku Channel.
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) George Cukor
Available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, Redbox, DirecTV, VUDU, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
MUSICALS AND COLOR!
Abandoning black-and-white for the full blush of color, the cinema of Powell and Pressburger is a conspicuous landmark, with Gerwig taking cues from their dreamiest 40s classics to better figure out how to light Barbie. Apparently, The Red Shoes even influenced the costuming for Gosling's Ken, while its dream ballet was another favorite reference. That extends to the Hollywood movies inspired by that sequence in The Red Shoes, be it something as clear as Gene Kelly's many attempts at replicating its magic or Oklahoma's best sequence falling backward into sunset abstraction.
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946) Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Currently streaming on Classix.
THE RED SHOES (1948) Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Streaming on Max, Shout! Factory TV, Plex, and the Criterion Channel. You can rent it on Google Play, Apple TV, Youtube, and Amazon Video.
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) Vincente Minnelli
Available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
Currently streaming on Max. It's also available to rent on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
MID-CENTURY INNOVATIONS
For the 50s, it's all about technical marvels serving to inspire the new movie's formal language, from Ophüls' elegant roving cameras to how Hitchcock's monumental set design for Rear Window helped unify studio space into a better mirror of (un)reality.
THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE… (1953) Max Ophüls
Currently streaming on Max and the Criterion Channel. You can also find it on Apple Tv and Amazon Video, available to rent and purchase.
REAR WINDOW (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
Available to rent and purchase on Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, Apple TV, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, and the Microsoft Store.
OKLAHOMA! (1955) Fred Zinnemann
At the moment, Oklahoma isn't streaming anywhere. However, there are various physical editions of the movie readily available.
Hollywood history aside, there isn't a more significant aesthetic influence on Gerwig's conception of Barbie than French midcentury cinema, specifically the works of Demy and Tati. While the quality of one's influences doesn't mean anything to the finished film's actual quality, it's heartening to see a modern director so happy to share her love for these masters of the past, their candy-colored confections and willful denial of realism when celluloid reverie is an option. Also, styling Barbie's hair like Deneuve's gold coiffure in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a stroke of genius.
MON ONCLE (1958) Jacques Tati
Streaming on Max and the Criterion Channel. You can also rent and purchase it on Amazon Video and Apple TV.
THE LADIES MAN (1961) Jerry Lewis
It's streaming on Pluto TV. You can also find the movie on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, and the Microsoft Store.
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964) Jacques Demy
Currently streaming on Max, Kanopy, and the Criterion Channel. You can also find it, available to rent and purchase, on Amazon Video, Google Play, Apple TV, and Youtube.
THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (1967) Jacques Demy
Currently streaming on Max and the Criterion Channel. It's also available to rent and purchase on Amazon, VUDU, and Apple TV.
PLAYTIME (1967) Jacques Tati
Streaming on Kanopy and the Criterion Channel. You can also find it on Amazon Video and Apple TV, available to rent and purchase.
The teaser trailer gag made it obvious what Barbie owes to 2001, but even Gerwig's interview failed to shed much light on how The Godfather relates to her pink confection. One would expect Coppola's One from the Heart would be a more Barbie-core title. Spielberg's 1977 movie gets by on its depiction of belief on the verge of mania, faith falling into lunacy that's perhaps closer to Barbie than we might realize from its ads.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) Stanley Kubrick
Streaming exclusively on Max. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
MODEL SHOP (1969) Jacques Demy
It's available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Youtube, VUDU, and the Microsoft Store.
THE GODFATHER (1972) Francis Ford Coppola
Streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. You can also rent and purchase it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) Steven Spielberg
Streaming on Tubi and Pluto TV. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, and the Microsoft Store.
Let's go for a John Travolta double feature! You get the dark existentialism covered in disco glitz with Saturday Night Fever and the mindless teen nostalgia of Grease – that mugshot meme of Barbie and Ken in New Hollywood form.
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977) John Badham
Currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Fubo TV, MGM+, and Paramount Plus. It's also available to rent and buy on Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon Video, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
GREASE (1978) Randal Kleiser
Currently streaming on Max and DirecTV. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, Alamo On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
EXISTENCE ITSELF
Speaking of existential dread, Barbie thinks about death, as do Heaven Can Wait and All That Jazz. The afterlife as a studio sky ruled by James Mason or a backstage spectacular, ennui galore articulated through two distinct design mentalities.
HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1978) Warren Beatty & Buck Henry
Currently streaming on Pluto TV. You can find it to rent or purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, and the Microsoft Store.
ALL THAT JAZZ (1979) Bob Fosse
Sadly, the Oscar-winning musical isn't streaming anywhere at the moment. However, you can find it on physical media, including as part of the Criterion Collection.
PUBERTY BLUES (1981) Bruce Beresford
Streaming on Kanopy. You can also rent and buy it on Google Play and Youtube.
DESIGN & 80'S DETAILING
Speaking of design, Gerwig pointed directly to Fellini's stunning And the Ship Sails On as a reference to Barbie Land's rigid waves. One could also guess that the film's meta-cinematic finale could have influenced the director. In any case, the remaining 80s titles are a collection of small details, beyond Splash's central concept and character, of course. There's Pee-Wee's cartoon sensibilities, the kiss of an angel in Wings of Desire, the color stories of Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
AND THE SHIP SAILS ON (1983) Federico Fellini
Streaming exclusively on the Criterion Channel.
SPLASH (1984) Ron Howard
Currently streaming on Disney+, Fubo TV, MGM+, and Paramount Plus. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, DirecTV, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985) Tim Burton
Available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) Wim Wenders
Streaming on Max and the Criterion Channel. You can also rent and buy it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play, and Youtube.
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1988) Pedro Almodóvar
Currently streaming on Freevee. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, VUDU, AMC On Demand, and DirecTV.
"REALITY"
Judging by Gerwig's interviews, with Letterboxd and otherwise, The Truman Show is maybe the most essential reference point for Barbie. Personally, I'm very curious to see how that manifests in the final movie.
THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) Peter Weir
Streaming on Paramount Plus, AMC, and DirecTV. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, Flix Fling, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
THE BEE GEES: HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART (2020) Frank Marshall
Streaming on Max and DirecTV. It's also available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, and VUDU.
And so, the list ends at 34 titles. It would be possible to expand it even further if one were to include the movies whose songs feature in the official Barbie Spotify Playlist, including Xanadu, Charlie’s Angels, Footloose, and others. In any case, have you seen Greta Gerwig's recommended movies? If so, which flick makes you most excited to see Barbie?
Reader Comments (3)
So excited for Barbie! Thank you for chronicling Greta's reference points, Cláudio. Excited to give a few blind spots a watch before the movie.
I've seen most of these. No one ever seems to talk about And The Ship Sails On, so I suppose I'm most curious to see its influence on the film.
I've seen 27 films out of the 33 films in the list. The ones I haven't seen are: An American in Paris, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, Gold Diggers of 1935, Twentieth Century, and Ladies Man. I'd like to see those films.
And the Ship Sails On in my opinion is an underrated film by Fellini. In fact, I feel like the films Fellini made from Orchestra Rehearsal to Ginger and Fred are among his most underrated works. I haven't seen the last films he had done but I really like those films from the latter part of his career as I feel it's him using his scope to say a few things about himself and nostalgia.