Greta Garbo: A Lone Star

Greta Garbo was Swedish, so she wasn't naive about sex. But her movies are not about sex. They are about LOVE. (Remember LOVE?) Today's movies are like modern corporations. They are more interested in the profit (sex) than the product (love). Garbo knew the difference--even then. Every gesture, every emotion, every inflection in her voice, every expression in her beautiful face was a reflection of love. And that is why WE love HER.

In the film CAMILLE, the wealthy Baron de Varville grants Marguerite's request for money to pay her bills, cognizant that she actually wants it for a romantic interlude with another lover. When she gently kisses him on the cheek in gratitude, he slaps her harshly across the face for her deception, then brusquely leaves. Humiliated by his response, ashamed at her own actions, her head slowly drops, a look of scorn and pain crossing her lovely countenance. The she spies the money tightly clutched in her hand and she is reminded that she now has the resources to run away with her one true love. All of these emotions are expressed without any grand gestures or utterances. Just a subtle change of facial expressions.

To those who question her gigantic talent or her timeless beauty, I cite this scene as evidence that she was the greatest and most magnetic actress in film history.