Greta Garbo
The wonderful Greta Garbo is one of old Hollywood’s greatest jewels. Beautiful, talented, and synonymous with drama.. glorious drama!
That’s one of the reasons I love these particular screencaps from Anna Christie (1930) so much – they capture her her perfectly – being her most deliciously dramatic self.
I love these quotes by director Clarence Brown, who directed the legendary Garbo in Anna Christie, Conquest, Romance, Flesh and the Devil, and Anna Karenina:
“She has this great appeal to the world because she expresses her emotions by thinking them. Garbo does not need gestures and movements to convey happiness, despair, hope and disappointment, joy or tragedy. She registers her feelings literally by radiating her thoughts to you.” ~ Clarence Brown
“Working with Garbo was easy because she trusted me. I never directed her in anything above a whisper. She was very shy, so we’d go through the changes I wanted in a little quiet whisper off in the corner, without letting others know what I was telling her. I learned through experience that Garbo had something behind the eyes that told the whole story that I couldn’t see from my distance. Sometimes I would be dissatisfied with a take, but would go ahead and print it anyway. On the screen Garbo multiplied the effect of the scene I had taken. It was something that no one else ever had.” ~ Clarence Brown
Greta Garbo
You can find Anna Christie on dvd on Amazon (for less than $6!) or watch the movie on Prime Video (Amazon link). This was Greta Garbo’s first sound film and it’s one of her finest hours.