'Barbie' director Greta Gerwig shares love for Pee-Wee's big adventure

Greta Gerwig, the director of Barbie movie, has called Pee-Wee's Big Adventure a "stone cold classic" at a recent AFI Fest screening of the 1985 film.

“It’s such a committed, incredibly short joke that takes so much effort and I think that that has embedded somewhere deep inside me,” Greta Gerwig provided an explanation on Thursday night during the AFI Fest screening of Tim Burton's 1985 film, which took place from the podium inside the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. 

In a scene from the Paul Reubens film Pee-wee's Big Adventure, the title character embarks on a wandering journey. He boards a train and sits next to Hobo Jack, a weathered and toothless man. 

Together, they sing camp songs until Pee-Wee abruptly loses interest in the situation. His expression is filled with disgust, and he decides to jump off the rushing train and land in the dirt below. There are exactly 53 seconds in this scene.

The popular Barbie director made an appearance as part of her guest-directing responsibilities for the Los Angeles-based festival, which invited her to choose a lineup of films to be shown this year.

Tonight, Gerwig made the premieres of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and A Matter of Life and Death. Wearing a monochromatic jacquard print red devoré velvet outfit from Gucci, Gerwig praised the train scene as “brilliant” before disclosing that her connection to the movie is personal.

“As a writer and director, when you go back and look at the things that you loved and then you realize that it was always great. It’s so funny, special and inventive that it makes you believe in comedy and cinema and how profound this kind of silliness is.”