Summary

• Proust Barbie is a fictional doll mentioned in the movie Barbie, adding humor and commentary on failed Barbie dolls and Kens.
• The reference to Proust Barbie connects to the real-life inspiration behind the movie Oppenheimer, linking the two films in an unexpected way.
• The clever and interesting mention of Proust Barbie is one of the standout references in Barbie and highlights the creativity of the film.

Of the dozens of retro and obscure versions of the titular doll referenced in Oppenheimer through its real-life inspiration. Directed by Greta Gerwig, Barbie took the famous Mattel doll and sent her on a journey of self-discovery, though not without some very real commentary on various real-life issues, such as patriarchy, gender inequality, and capitalism. The movie became the highest-grossing movie of 2023 and has now earned 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

In an exploration of the colorful and imaginative world of Barbieland, Barbie presents a variety of dolls and drops references to many others, some of them quite obscure and forgotten, but a specific one has made viewers question how far Mattel has gone with its Barbie dolls: the Proust Barbie, but unlike the rest, this isn’t a real version of the Barbie doll. However, the reference is made even more interesting in the way it connects to the true story behind Barbie's box office companion and fellow Best Picture nominee Oppenheimer.

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Mattel Has Never Made A Proust Barbie

The Movie Tackle Various Failed Barbie Ideas, But Proust Barbie Is Fictional

The Proust Barbie is only mentioned briefly in Barbie, but the joke was hilarious enough to become memorable and — especially given the fact that many borderline-unbelievable-but-still-real Barbies like Midge are included — many viewers wondered if there ever was a Proust Barbie. While Proust Barbie isn't real, the reference was more than just a throwaway joke between Margot Robbie and Will Ferrell.

The Proust Barbie moment comes after Barbie and Ken’s arrival in the real world puts Mattel executives on high alert, and they order their capture. Ken makes his way back to Barbieland by himself after exploring more of the real world and learning about patriarchy, while Barbie is found by Mattel’s agents and taken to the company’s headquarters. There she meets Mattel’s CEO (Will Ferrell), who’s waiting for her with a huge Barbie box. Barbie gets in the box and mentions that the smell is a Proustian memory, with the CEO mentioning how badly the Proust Barbie sold.

While Barbie features discontinued, controversial, and obscure Barbies and Kens, Mattel never made a Proust Barbie. Greta Gerwig spoke about this specific scene in Barbie with AP News, sharing why she added a reference to French novelist Marcel Proust. Gerwig explained that in Swann’s Way, the first volume of the novel In Search of Lost Time (first translated as Remembrance of Things Past), the Narrator is thrown back into his childhood through the taste of a madeleine dipped in tea.

Stereotypical Barbie had a similar experience of involuntary memory when she entered the box, which Gerwig seized to make a joke about the many failed Barbie dolls that have been made over the years as well as Ken dolls like Sugar Daddy Ken.

Proust Barbie Gives The Movie A Secret Oppenheimer Connection

The Shared Success Of Barbenheimer Has Entangled The Two Movies

In the above-mentioned interview, AP News shared with Gerwig that Marcel Proust was J. Robert Oppenheimer’s favorite, with Gerwig playfully saying that Oppenheimer “would have loved Proust Barbie”. Proust has now become an unexpected connection between Barbie and Nolan’s Oppenheimer, two of the biggest movies of the summer (and surely of 2023 as a whole), which were already linked as they share the same release date.

"Barbenheimer" has become a pop culture phenomenon, but one that has greatly benefited cinema as it has brought back the excitement and interest of watching movies in theaters. While Gerwig leaves the details of Proust Barbie and what she would be like up to the imagination of the audience, it’s definitely one of the cleverest and most interesting references in Barbie.

Source: AP News.