Barbie and Bella

It’s interesting that two of the most prominent films in the same year carry themes as ‘similar as ‘Barbie’ and ‘Poor Things’, while offering radically different and original approaches. Both are comedic fairytales that confront our common fantasies about female autonomy, while being directed toward different audiences and leaving us in different places.

Both films center on the theme of following a single character from a more or less one-dimensional state to the development of a self possessed personality. Both Bella and Barbie begin their journeys by learning how to walk. By the end one has achieved a state of dominance and autonomy, while the other is left more or less still at the beginning of the path.

‘Poor Things’ centers itself in the remarkable performances of its cast. (I was thrilled to see Hanna Schygulla as the elderly dowager that Bella encounters on the ship. I confess that she was my greatest screen crush in my younger years, and I’d recognize her smile anywhere.) This film dwells in an imaginary Victorian dreamworld, while dealing more forthrightly with intimate issues of control through sexual dominance and submission. The denouement is definitive and satisfying, while being entirely fanciful.

The central characters in ‘Barbie’ are actually the contemporary images and fantasies to which we’re exposed in consumer culture. Every scene saturates us with references to movies and television and advertising. Homages abound, from old MGM musicals to ‘The Matrix’. We move back and forth from imaginary ‘Barbieland’ to corporate and middle class Los Angeles, ensuring that even the most obtuse viewer is aware that it’s our own world being challenged. At the end of this movie the central character has only begun to face the real world, and we the audience are left exactly where we are.

It’s an opportunity to watch two stylistically different and excellent films approaching similar themes in the same year. ‘Poor Things’ reminds me of Terry Gillian’s ‘Brazil’, while ‘Barbie’ dwells more in the realm of Jean Luc Godard (if he were capable of doing a popular musical comedy).