How Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ inspired ‘Barbie’
The producer designer of Greta Gerwig’s recent movie Barbie, Sarah Greenwood, and the set decorator, Katie Spencer, have recently admitted that the wave of pink following the success of the film will be nowhere to be seen this time next year when the hype of the movie has died down.
In an interview with Variety, Greenwood admitted that she was given the free reigns by Mattel, Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley, saying, “That was great and scary because it was like, ‘Oh, right, now we’ve got to go and figure it out.’”
One of the most interesting designs in the Barbie movie is Barbie’s Dreamhouse, and Greenwood said that a lot of work went into creating it. “We looked at the Dreamhouse over the past 60 years, what was in the script, and how to get the toyness of it,” she said.
Greenwood also admitted that she was inspired by the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho, saying, “One of my early references is that you go up the stairs, and there’s the Psycho house, and we brought in other elements. Its design was deliberately skewed with everything pushed out of shape and out of order.”
In our recent review of Barbie, we wrote, “This is, believe it or not, a very complex film indeed. There’s no immediate remedy for our presently still-troubled sexual socio-political situation; if it were that easy, we might not need such a film, even if it’s one where the bright lights can occasionally detract from the vital conversation that’s taking place.”
The review continued, “This is certainly not merely a film to watch only once, to laugh and sing along to, and be done with. In fact, Barbie may just accomplish the greatest of all art’s tasks, and incite change. Don’t be fooled by her hype or her history; Barbie is an essential piece of cinema for the modern age.”
Check out the Barbie trailer below.
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