The Greta Garbo Signature Collection

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dx23
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#26 Post by dx23 » Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:25 pm

I just saw a comercial for the Garbo documentary included in the set, which is going to air September 6th on TCM, followed by a marathon of her films. It will be a good viewing for people that are still undecided about this set.

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Lino
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#27 Post by Lino » Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:56 am

Does anyone know what the name of the film is where Garbo is standing at the front of an old ship and the camera zooms in on her face and she is standing absolutely statuesque-like, frozen almost but gobsmackingly gorgeous at the same time? It's that I saw that clip yesterday on TV and it completely hypnotized me. What a face!

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godardslave
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#28 Post by godardslave » Fri Sep 02, 2005 4:09 am

Annie Mall wrote:Does anyone know what the name of the film is where Garbo is standing at the front of an old ship and the camera zooms in on her face and she is standing absolutely statuesque-like, frozen almost but gobsmackingly gorgeous at the same time? It's that I saw that clip yesterday on TV and it completely hypnotized me. What a face!
Queen christina? im kind of guessing.

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Lino
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#29 Post by Lino » Fri Sep 02, 2005 4:44 am

Thank you both! It's going to play this month on one of my country's channells and I guess I have to book that day on my calendar. In fact, they're playing a bunch of her films to celebrate her 100th anniversary or something and I might just watch them all.

Eclisse
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#30 Post by Eclisse » Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:19 am

TCM will show a lot of her stuff this month.

http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/This ... ||,00.html

There is an extraordinary moment at the end of the excellent new documentary Garbo, which we're premiering on TCM this month (Sept. 6 at 8 pm Eastern, with a repeat at 11:30 pm), that is going to stun you: it's our Star of the Month, the great Greta Garbo in 122 seconds of a screen test she made in May 1949 - eight years after she'd faced movie cameras for the final time in October 1941. In the test footage, she is, at age 43, as luminous and beautiful as she ever was on film in her heyday, a sad reminder of what we all lost when she decided to stop making movies at the early age of 36. But she had her reasons. Her final film, 1941's Two-Faced Woman, had been a blatant attempt to turn her into a combination of Claudette Colbert and/or Irene Dunne to make her more appealing to the average American moviegoer.

For years the public had loved to read about the comings and goings of Garbo, but John Q. Public didn't rush to see her films; Garbo suffering in Tolstoy didn't have the box-offce allure of Joan Crawford dancing in her scanties. But, from all reports, Garbo didn't intend for that 1941 outing to be her permanent swan song. True, she'd often toyed with the idea of stepping off the filmmaking merry-go-round, something that became more and more appealing to her as she noticed the tiny lines that began appearing near her upper lip. "I am old!," she said gloomily to George Cukor one day. "Those lines will get deeper. I must quit." But, actually, she'd been threatening to stop, for one reason or another, ever since she made her first Hollywood film at the age of 19 back in 1925. But in 1941, she decided she would take a hiatus, primarily because she knew the major profits from her films came from the European market which was being cut off because of the war overseas. She also knew that if she was to be able to make the kind of films she wanted to do (including a project about Joan of Arc) that overseas revenue was essential.

Her plan was to resume her acting, at least on a limited basis, after the war ended. And the offers were always plentiful. There was talk she might do The Paradine Case for producer David O. Selznick and a biography of George Sand; the numerous other possibilities included Mourning Becomes Electra and I Remember Mama. But the closest she came to working again was doing The Duchess of Langeais for producer Walter Wanger, costarring James Mason and based on the novel by Balzac. That's the reason she did those awesome 1949 photographic tests. It was to prove that, even after nearly a decade, she was still highly photogenic and a commanding screen presence, something which Wanger hoped would help him secure backing for the Duchess project. Unfortunately the financing never materialized. That was such a crushing blow to Garbo she never seriously considered any further film offers. It was one thing for her to not want to work - it was another to not have people care if she did or didn't return.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of her birth; since we have all of the American films of Greta Garbo in our extensive TCM library, we're delighted to be able to bring you the most comprehensive retrospective of this great star that's ever been shown in one place before. When you watch her films, and the fascinating new documentary by Kevin Brownlow, you'll readily see why it's a such a loss that G.G. chucked it all and disappeared from the screen at such an early age. But it also gives us another reason to thank heavens for film. The work she did do so matchlessly over a 17-year period does still exist, and you can wallow in it all month long on TCM - presented in striking prints which look as if the films were made last week.

by Robert Osborne

Eclisse
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#31 Post by Eclisse » Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:44 am

:-k I'm intrigued ...

http://dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=57115
Ninotchka (1939)

DVD Special Features include:
1967 BBC Show Garbo – hosted by Joan Crawford
Theatrical Trailer of this Film and Its Musical Remake Silk Stockings
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish
:-k

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.a ... _id=690514

from dvdbeaver:

The DVD quality is up to Warner's other standards, perhaps exceeding considering the age of the film, - some grain, excellent contrast, well-appointed subtitles, understandable audio drop-outs (very minor). Sharp image considering age and relatively bright with some usual flickering contrast in the beginning. The only extras is the trailer and I suspect the boxset itself packs a little more punch in the extra department.

:roll: Ok...Where the hell is the "1967 BBC Show Garbo – hosted by Joan Crawford". Somewhere else in the box perhaps? Not there at all?(I haven't received mine yet)

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souvenir
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#32 Post by souvenir » Thu Sep 08, 2005 10:26 pm

Eclisse wrote: :roll: Ok...Where the hell is the "1967 BBC Show Garbo – hosted by Joan Crawford". Somewhere else in the box perhaps? Not there at all?(I haven't received mine yet)
seems like the BBC doc isn't included

I checked the Ninotchka disc and it's not there, nor is it listed on any of the other discs.

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#33 Post by emcflat » Thu Sep 15, 2005 2:20 pm

Anyone else watched the german version of Anna Christie yet? The picture quality is lousy. You can't see a damned thing in any of the night scenes. Also, it's crooked. It's that, or this movie was lit using dinner candles. I know it's basically an extra feature, but still.

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Arn777
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#34 Post by Arn777 » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:14 pm

Just received the box today and watched Mata-Hari. Big disappointment, very corny dialogues, Garbo actually not acting very well, Ramon Novarro playing a Russian pilot (!), and overall cinematically very poor. Please tell me some of the other films are much better than this one or I am going to regret this purchase.

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swimminghorses
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#35 Post by swimminghorses » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:48 pm

I would hope that you would not dislike "Queen Christina"!

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#36 Post by Eclisse » Sat Sep 24, 2005 10:27 am

Last Tuesday TCM showed a 2-part-documentary on Garbo made for Swedish Television.(It was narrated by Bibi Anderson)And IF I'm not mistaken there was a clip there from Victor Sjöström's "The Divine Woman" and this clip does not match the so-called "surviving 9-minute excerpt of this lost 1928 silent". That means what? That the American Film Institute doesn't have the film but the Swedish Film Institute has it? Maybe I'm wrong...maybe the documentary is wrong.Bibi Anderson clearly talks about this particular movie at some point,and they show a (different)clip of this movie (I suppose).
Last edited by Eclisse on Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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tryavna
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#37 Post by tryavna » Sat Sep 24, 2005 12:43 pm

Arn777 wrote:Just received the box today and watched Mata-Hari. Big disappointment, very corny dialogues, Garbo actually not acting very well, Ramon Novarro playing a Russian pilot (!), and overall cinematically very poor. Please tell me some of the other films are much better than this one or I am going to regret this purchase.
Well, in some ways, that's the dirty little secret about Garbo, isn't it? For all her talent, she was in a lot of mediocre movies. Still, Queen Christina and Ninotchka are outstanding movies on all counts.

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subliminac
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#38 Post by subliminac » Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:42 pm

Anyone notice Mata Hari and Queen Christina running with some scenes in a slightly green tint? I ask because I just recently purchased a television and I'm trying to determine if there is some color banding issues at play here. These are the only disks I've noticed this problem on so I'm hoping they're at fault. If not it may be the first sign of bad things to come. Thanks.

Eclisse
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#39 Post by Eclisse » Sat Oct 15, 2005 3:11 pm

I would like to recommend the new Book "Greta Garbo : A Cinematic Legacy" by Mark A.Vieira for everyone.To be honest,so far I only read 20 pages of it.It's a stunning looking book.The book doesn't seem to be about Garbo-the human being-or her films.But about the artist and how and why she made her films.And how and what she experienced on and out of the movie set while she was making them. How she made co-stars and crew members work with her.






[/quote]From Booklist
Only Marlene Dietrich rivaled Garbo as a beauty, a movie star, and a photographic subject, and one of the most amusing motifs in Vieira's film-by-film account of her career consists of regarding Dietrich's changes in image, style, and choice of film "vehicle" as reactions to those of Garbo. The critical consensus is that Garbo was the better actress but that Dietrich appeared in many more important films than Garbo did. Vieira doesn't dispute this but claims that Garbo's oeuvre is more significant than is commonly acknowledged. Unfortunately, he never argues the merits of any of the films enough to begin to prove his point. No lover of Hollywood history will mind, though, since his detailed, impressively well-written accounts of Garbo's 24 completed Hollywood features and one aborted project are entertaining as well as informative. And the accompanying 300 black-and-white photos are--need it be said?--ravishing. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved




[/quote]

Garbo and Dietrich are my favorites.But in my personal and humble opinion Garbo did all right for someone who only made 15 talking pictures her entire life (among them Queen Christina,Grand Hotel,Camille and Ninotchka.) I think it's easier to judge Garbo because her filmography is so "out there".Opposite someone like Joan Crawford who made 96 films.Does anyone here have the courage to say that they are all good?NO "Mata-Haris" for Crawford,uh? (or Davis,or anyone else) Yeah,right...there's probably,like,20 of them.We didn't even watch most of them...maybe we never will.Because Garbo made only 15 talking pictures every single little thing she ever did matter and it's criticized.I think this Garbo-cliche-is much too old in my opinion.So I guess what I'm trying to say is that Garbo doesn't have any "dirty little secrets" at all.They're maybe "dirty" but they are not a secret.
http://www.thestarlightstudio.com/garbopage.htm

Buy it.You won't regret it.
Last edited by Eclisse on Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Jean-Luc Garbo
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#40 Post by Jean-Luc Garbo » Sat Oct 15, 2005 8:17 pm

Well, we have Garbo on DVD in one place to get the goods so where can we go to see the brilliance that is Dietrich? Any suggestions for the best DVDs?

Narshty
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#41 Post by Narshty » Sat Oct 22, 2005 3:53 am

I was hugely excited by the prospect of Ninotchka, but, sad to say, it's a massive let-down. Everyone in it's very good, but where are all the gags? Lubitsch creates one premise then expects that alone to provide all the laughs (the communist frowns at everything). Aside from a couple of major chuckles (the waiter inadvertently calling Douglas's bluff, the final shot), it's all so bland and wishy-washy and, most shocking of all, totally anonymous. Even in something like Design for Living, the Lubitsch touch is still very much in evidence, even if much of the movie doesn't really get off the ground. I can't understand why Ninotchka has the reputation of one of Lubitsch's greatest - it's a Lubitsch picture for people who don't like Lubitsch.

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Michael Kerpan
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#42 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:11 pm

There were nice moments scattered throughout "Ninotchka", but I found the lackluster visual sense even flatter than the humor. A real disappointment.

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tryavna
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#43 Post by tryavna » Sun Oct 23, 2005 11:05 am

I'm surprised that so many people dislike Ninotchka. While I agree that it's certainly not Lubitsch's best film, I always find it an agreeable and charming little romantic comedy. In many ways, it can be regarded as the sister film of Shop Around the Corner: not particularly edgy, but well-crafted and deriving its entertainment from the slow, inevitable thawing of the relationship between two people you know are going to end up together. Then again, I also derive a lot of enjoyment from watching Lubitsch's Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, whose charm seems to escape a lot of people. So I guess it depends on how much you like Lubitsch's more traditional romantic comedies.

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#44 Post by Michael Strangeways » Mon Oct 24, 2005 1:35 pm

Shocked, annoyed and irritated that there are some people that don't adore Ninotchka, but then again I have to remember that I don't really care for The Third Man, so different strokes for different folks.....

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#45 Post by hamsterburger » Mon Dec 05, 2005 1:23 am

So I was finally able to see Ninotchka at a screening at my local Cinemateque tonight.

Although I can see where some of you guys are coming from, calling it a letdown in some ways, I found my self dazzled all the way through. While I agree that the film may be easily over-praised because of its 'event' status (Garb+Lubitsch+Wilder, “see Garbo laugh for the first time!â€

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htdm
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#46 Post by htdm » Mon Dec 05, 2005 3:15 pm

davidhare wrote:But then again a lot of folks are unmoved by Shop Around the Corner.
Who?! Line them up against the wall...

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Rufus T. Firefly
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#47 Post by Rufus T. Firefly » Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:43 pm

I had to look that up to find out what it meant and, frankly, I wish I hadn't. And didn't. :shock:

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Gregory
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#48 Post by Gregory » Sun Apr 30, 2006 4:24 pm

I never got around to seeing Anna Christie before now. Is it the general consensus now that the German film is preferable, or are there any objections to this conclusion? It was Garbo's judgment, and is suggested in the text on the back of the DVD.

Anonymous

#49 Post by Anonymous » Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:38 pm

I've just had the pleasure of watching "Grand Hotel" (1932), starring Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and John and Lionel Barrymore. What a constellation! You say it's hot outside? Why, I'd forgotten.

Although my daughter is named after her, I've only recently truly discovered Greta Garbo for myself. And I'm so glad. Strangely, I've never seen a Joan Crawford picture either. I've seen Faye Dunawaye's hamfisted portrayal of her ("No wire hangers!!). Oh, I've seen your Lauren Bacalls, your Claudette Colberts, your Rita Hayworths, all appealing in their own way, but this is something else entirely.

Garbo is cool, guttural, and silky. She hides away from the camera a good portion of the time, as if it would burn her, she is lunar. She has the dusky, mineral loneliness of a planet. In her walk, she leans forward with her shoulder, throwing around her lanky bones like a cadaver. But when she falls in love onscreen, you believe it-- her laugh is like a child's, musical, vulnerable and awkward. She changes from glum to excitable in an instant. Somehow you stare at this screen goddess, completely made of silver, and notice that her hair is frizzy, and that by turns she is ugly. She seems lost in a hazy world of her own, not quite able to focus, but turning guilelessly toward love. Today, such qualities are not thought of as sexy. They may even be seen as "un-American"! And Garbo, like my Norwegian grandmother or aunts, possesses a Scandinavian femininity. She was a Swede. The modest masculinity required to do farm chores, coupled with a quiet, poetical pastoralism that relishes white gloves and full dinner service. A serious scowl broken by deep enjoyment of a bawdy joke. A clean earthiness with a metallic aftertaste. The ability, perversely like that of Julie Andrews, to make sentimental cliches new again, like when you are in love.

Joan Crawford could only prove fascinating but shrill in comparison. Undoubtably very pretty, but not beautiful, she seems to avariciously seek the camera. Every take begins with her adjusting her facial expression, as if she is preparing to be seen. From what I've heard of her early life, she had a very hard way to go, and the look of hard ebullience on her face is lovely but desperate. Kind of like when you look at Britney Spears and see that pit of desperation in her eyes, smile as she might. Crawford is brassily American, though she comports herself in the "Continental" way. I would so badly like to have seen her in a quiet moment, smoking a cigarette and chewing gum, her face fallen into a sullen stupor. I can't help but think that her legendary abuse of her adopted daughter came out this desperation, for things to be ideal for a change. She seems like the kind of woman who would affectedly say, "Who? Me?" when told she was pretty. Like the kind of woman who would deftly manipulate men's eyes and pocketbooks, but go home alone because real intimacy would be impossible. In this movie, she cannot manufacture a believable grief response to the death of the man she loves. Dunawaye's portrayal, though artful, foxy, and hard, does seem to be missing this vulnerability.

John Barrymore gives a delightful turn as the admittedly oily thief-slash-Baron, with both women pining for him. Gene Wilder seems to borrow his genteel, bemused air, mascaraed lashes, and weaselly moustache. He professes his love for his only constant companion, a...wait for it... weiner dog. This dog was so adorable, I could see his eyes yearning for Mandy Henderson, circa 2006. He seemed to opine, "If only time's cruel hand had not parted us...".

There is a phenomenon that takes place in movies like these, love at first sight. It could be perceived as incredibly sexist and counter-progressive. But I love it. The man comes along and recognizes some vulnerability in the woman. And something unique. He throws himself in defense of her honor, in exchange for her utmost trust and fidelity. So crazy, it just might work!!

The other thing about movies like these: those doors. I'm talking about inlaid wood-veneer parquet doors, with crazy Cubist patterns. Remember when all rooms had doors between them? Not like your subdivisions with naked drywall portals. And these doors are not your American farmhouse doors: these doors say, "America is the new Paris". These doors come from a time when the Empire State Building would be the terrorist's locus of attention. From a time when people who drove cars everywhere were called "automobile enthusiasts" and wore goggles to do so.

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devlinnn
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#50 Post by devlinnn » Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:50 pm

David, where do you keep the cigarettes? Thanks mandyrose - beautiful, just beautiful.

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