Camille
My first Greta Garbo. I was surprised to see that the silver screen legend was not as beautiful as I had thought (ie the famous Edward Steichen photograph). It may be that she was a little older by then. Still, 31 isn't faded, and I think a little more fat on the lady would have made her just as breathtaking as ever.
I always surprise myself when I say that someone should be fatter.
I recently read in a NY Times article about how the temperamental Swedish director Mauritz Stiller was responsible for forging the Greta Garbo as we know her. He insisted on importing her with him when MGM first discovered him, and he was the one who dyed her blonde and made her lose weight. I don't know how big-boned Garbo was before she crossed the Atlantic, but I do know that bone-skinny is not a good look for her, and I know that she's far more glamorous as a brunette than a blonde. It just goes to show that you shouldn't tinker too much with nature, even if you think you know what you're doing.
Oh wait, but I was supposed to talk about Camille.
Robert Taylor was very dashing as Marguerite's young lover. He looks like how Jimmy Stewart would have looked if Jimmy Stewart were good-looking. Then unknown, they say that everyone laughed when Robert Taylor was announced as the male lead. (I know, that last sentence was grammatically incorrect.) But he played his part dazzlingly.
That's just the thing about Camille: it's so predictable and hackneyed that I thought I'd hate it, but each moment of the hackneyed sequence is rendered with such care and delicacy and romance that the movie turned out to be very poignant. I knew exactly what was coming next, but I couldn't wait to see what would happen. I guess that's the magic of early Hollywood.
I always surprise myself when I say that someone should be fatter.
I recently read in a NY Times article about how the temperamental Swedish director Mauritz Stiller was responsible for forging the Greta Garbo as we know her. He insisted on importing her with him when MGM first discovered him, and he was the one who dyed her blonde and made her lose weight. I don't know how big-boned Garbo was before she crossed the Atlantic, but I do know that bone-skinny is not a good look for her, and I know that she's far more glamorous as a brunette than a blonde. It just goes to show that you shouldn't tinker too much with nature, even if you think you know what you're doing.
Oh wait, but I was supposed to talk about Camille.
Robert Taylor was very dashing as Marguerite's young lover. He looks like how Jimmy Stewart would have looked if Jimmy Stewart were good-looking. Then unknown, they say that everyone laughed when Robert Taylor was announced as the male lead. (I know, that last sentence was grammatically incorrect.) But he played his part dazzlingly.
That's just the thing about Camille: it's so predictable and hackneyed that I thought I'd hate it, but each moment of the hackneyed sequence is rendered with such care and delicacy and romance that the movie turned out to be very poignant. I knew exactly what was coming next, but I couldn't wait to see what would happen. I guess that's the magic of early Hollywood.
posted by Rex at 1:40 AM
2 Comments:
Your post got me thinking about Garbo, and I realized that although she's the protypical femme fatale of her era, I've never really found her all that attractive, and I don't know why. A Google image search on her is diagnostic. She almost never smiled in any of her photos. She had beautiful, striking features but she seemed very distant and cold.
That probably says as much about me as her, but there you have it.
Some imdb trivia: "She disliked Clark Gable, a feeling that was mutual. She thought his acting was wooden while he considered her a snob."
My guess is that they both must have been right. Clark Gable's acting sure does stink!
Post a Comment
<< Home