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Tribute to Greta Garbo

While the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé presents a cycle of silent films starring the Swedish icon in February, we are screening two of her most memorable talking films.
Drawing with a black pencil of Greta Garbo's face with a touch of yellow color.
Greta Garbo by Stina Wirsén

Greta Garbo (1905-1990) was one of the greatest icons of 20th-century film. From a modest background in Stockholm, Greta Gustafsson was spotted while she was working as a sales assistant in a department store. After appearing in a few advertisements, she made her first big-screen appearance in 1924 in a secondary role that shot her to stardom (Story of Gösta Berling by Mauritz Stiller). She then starred in a number of Hollywood productions. But Garbo grew tired of the cinema and ended her film career in 1945. She lived in New York for the rest of her life.

All the directors who worked with Greta Garbo agreed that she had a magnetic presence and a mysterious ability to express her thoughts on screen. Her silent films demonstrate the evolution of her melancholic and sensual acting style and the sense of freedom she brought to her roles. She welcomed the advent of talking cinema, hoping it would make her roles more natural and expressive.

A tribute at two venues