- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
- Messages
- 63,812
- Real Name
- Ronald Epstein
Agreed as far as talkies are concerned. My favorite silent Garbo performance is in A Woman of Affairs.Garbo's greatest performance!
I remember MOMA had a gorgeous print of CAMILLE during the Cukor retro, but that might have been '69 or '70, before you arrived in the city. When I first moved to New York, not yet realizing that to be a true New Yorker, you couldn't ever meet anyone's glance, I noticed Garbo walking towards me on Park Avenue and as she passed, I smiled. She immediately bolted across the street, weaving between oncoming cars and then leaping across the parkway. Never have I gotten such a strong reaction to a smile, either before or since.Last watched during MGM retro (1974) at MoMA with Rex O'Malley in attendance. Very dapper. Alas, no Garbo in sight.
...was it your deodorent??I remember MOMA had a gorgeous print of CAMILLE during the Cukor retro, but that might have been '69 or '70, before you arrived in the city. When I first moved to New York, not yet realizing that to be a true New Yorker, you couldn't ever meet anyone's glance, I noticed Garbo walking towards me on Park Avenue and as she passed, I smiled. She immediately bolted across the street, weaving between oncoming cars and then leaping across the parkway. Never have I gotten such a strong reaction to a smile, either before or since.
If it's not, I'm certainly holding on to the DVD!I do wonder if the Nazimova version will be included as it was on the DVD.
Wow! That's quite a story!I remember MOMA had a gorgeous print of CAMILLE during the Cukor retro, but that might have been '69 or '70, before you arrived in the city. When I first moved to New York, not yet realizing that to be a true New Yorker, you couldn't ever meet anyone's glance, I noticed Garbo walking towards me on Park Avenue and as she passed, I smiled. She immediately bolted across the street, weaving between oncoming cars and then leaping across the parkway. Never have I gotten such a strong reaction to a smile, either before or since.
The thing is, I'm very shy, and also respectful of others' privacy. I would never even consider talking to her. But all it took was a spark of recognition in my eyes, even from a quarter of a block away, and she bolted. Since then, of course, I've become quite adept at using my peripheral vision to look at people on the streets rather than directly. It's not only more polite, but safer.Wow! That's quite a story!
When I was in New York in 1975, I went to Garbo's apartment building and rang her up on the house phone as there was no doorman to stop me. I spoke to an elderly woman with an accent for a few minutes who said Miss Garbo wasn't home. I'm not sure if it was her maid or it was Garbo herself, which makes it all the more tantalizing. What an adventure! And how great to finally have "Camille" on Blu-ray!
Maybe she vanted to be alone.The thing is, I'm very shy, and also respectful of others' privacy. I would never even consider talking to her. But all it took was a spark of recognition in my eyes, even from a quarter of a block away, and she bolted.
Maybe she vanted to be alone.
I've lived in New York now for most of my adult life and you get used to seeing famous people and treating them just like anyone else. Many can be quite neighborly. I'd probably passed by Garbo dozens of times before without really seeing her, for New Yorkers, myself included, are always late, like Lewis Carroll's White Rabbit. But that time, for some reason, there was something about her cheekbones that struck me, the way the late afternoon light, ebbing but still luminous, washed over her face, making her appear like something out of a painting, a flurry of symmetry and stark beauty, the eyes, mouth and chin perfectly poised, reminiscent of mysteries I couldn't begin to fathom, and then I realized it was Garbo, and I started to look away, respecting her privacy, but she noticed me noticing her, so she ran into the street dodging cars, more like a lark or wisp of cloud than someone human, the facade of the Ritz Hotel a mute witness. It was extraordinary, that swiftness and precision, for she must have been close to eighty.You're absolutely right in respecting Garbo's privacy. I was a college student at the time and had a little more moxie then. I don't think I would ever call her on her house phone if I was to be in New York now and she were there. How exciting, though, that you actually saw her! I'm so envious.
Thanks so much for telling us more about your Garbo encounter with your vivid description. It's as if we were there with you.I've lived in New York now for most of my adult life and you get used to seeing famous people and treating them just like anyone else. Many can be quite neighborly. I'd probably passed by Garbo dozens of times before without really seeing her, for New Yorkers, myself included, are always late, like Lewis Carroll's White Rabbit. But that time, for some reason, there was something about her cheekbones that struck me, the way the late afternoon light, ebbing but still luminous, washed over her face, making her appear like something out of a painting, a flurry of symmetry and stark beauty, the eyes, mouth and chin perfectly poised, reminiscent of mysteries I couldn't begin to fathom, and then I realized it was Garbo, and I started to look away, respecting her privacy, but she noticed me noticing her, so she ran into the street dodging cars, more like a lark or wisp of cloud than someone human, the facade of the Ritz Hotel a mute witness. It was extraordinary, that swiftness and precision, for she must have been close to eighty.
You're welcome. You know, one forgets these things, they just seem like ordinary experiences after a while, part of the fabric of life, as quotidian as the aroma of the special sauce wafting from a Big Mac at the local mall, and it was only Jose mentioning that Garbo wasn't at MOMA that I remembered.Thanks so much for telling us more about your Garbo encounter with your vivid description. It's as if we were there with you.