I watched this film a while ago, but I forgot most of it. So I decided to watch it again, and perhaps I should have just left it alone. It was much hammier, much more depressing and melodramatic than I remembered. I also thought the casting was odd.
Greta Garbo was pretty good- make that very good, actually- in her most haunting silent film performance. Despite her being cast as free-spirited young woman (flapper), who happened to be British (well, it was a silent movie, but can you imagine if it were a sound film?), she made me respect her a bit more as an actress. For a while, when I closed my eyes, all I could see was her face behind my eyelids. The second time I watched it, she made me mad, because if she could act this well, why didn't she do it more often? Or was it just a one-off?
John Gilbert is given little more than to stand around to do in his role as Garbo's lover and the man that ultimately kills her (not kills her like murder, but if you see the film you'll understand what I mean). He makes it work, and he and Garbo still have very good chemistry, but what I find odd about their on-screen pairings is that despite them being lovers in real life, they never ended up together in their films (the happy-ending print of Love is the exception).
Douglas Fairbanks Jr is good as Garbo's character's brother Jeffry (or was it Jeffy?), the alcoholic crazy man with an obsessive friendship (crush) with a man Garbo later marries who later kills himself (I think it's Johnny Mack "The Board" Brown, actually).
But, boy, this is a depressing film. First Garbo and Gilbert are separated because Gilbert's father doesn't approve of their romance (she's too posh for him), then Garbo is forced into marrying Fairbanks' crush (I mean friend), but he kills himself, then she is blamed for his death and it becomes a scandal, then she becomes a loose woman (not a prostitute, but a slutty woman of the world)- but she runs into Gilbert one day. They have a one-night stand, and she falls ill (she is very strongly implied to have miscarried, but they don't say so). And somewhere in there, her brother dies after becoming a complete lunatic.
Bye the end, Gilbert tries to get her to run away with him, but she can't, because he is married. She lies to him and says that his wife is pregnant (she turned out not to be), then runs her car into a tree and kills herself. They also figure out that she didn't kill her husband after all (and that he killed himself, because he was an imbezzler and didn't want to go to jail).
Like I said, it is depressing, and the amount of characters they killed off was too many. The amount of suffering Garbo had to go through was too much.
The best, and most heartbreaking, scene is when Garbo has fallen ill, and Gilbert comes to visit her (but brings his new wife). She still loves him, and is in sort of a delirious state. They took her flowers away (if you see the movie, you'll understand) When she sees him, she throws her arms around his neck and tells him how much she still loves him, but then she sees his wife and retracts her statement quickly. He seems to have cured her, but she ends up more troubled than before.
The cinematography is very good, adding to the mood of the film.
The film itself gets a 5/10, due to how uneven it is, but I'm adding an extra star for Garbo's haunting performance.
And I'll even excuse some of of ham, due to it being a silent film. Not that I care how hammy silent films are, because they had a different style of acting.
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Greta Garbo was pretty good- make that very good, actually- in her most haunting silent film performance. Despite her being cast as free-spirited young woman (flapper), who happened to be British (well, it was a silent movie, but can you imagine if it were a sound film?), she made me respect her a bit more as an actress. For a while, when I closed my eyes, all I could see was her face behind my eyelids. The second time I watched it, she made me mad, because if she could act this well, why didn't she do it more often? Or was it just a one-off?
John Gilbert is given little more than to stand around to do in his role as Garbo's lover and the man that ultimately kills her (not kills her like murder, but if you see the film you'll understand what I mean). He makes it work, and he and Garbo still have very good chemistry, but what I find odd about their on-screen pairings is that despite them being lovers in real life, they never ended up together in their films (the happy-ending print of Love is the exception).
Douglas Fairbanks Jr is good as Garbo's character's brother Jeffry (or was it Jeffy?), the alcoholic crazy man with an obsessive friendship (crush) with a man Garbo later marries who later kills himself (I think it's Johnny Mack "The Board" Brown, actually).
But, boy, this is a depressing film. First Garbo and Gilbert are separated because Gilbert's father doesn't approve of their romance (she's too posh for him), then Garbo is forced into marrying Fairbanks' crush (I mean friend), but he kills himself, then she is blamed for his death and it becomes a scandal, then she becomes a loose woman (not a prostitute, but a slutty woman of the world)- but she runs into Gilbert one day. They have a one-night stand, and she falls ill (she is very strongly implied to have miscarried, but they don't say so). And somewhere in there, her brother dies after becoming a complete lunatic.
Bye the end, Gilbert tries to get her to run away with him, but she can't, because he is married. She lies to him and says that his wife is pregnant (she turned out not to be), then runs her car into a tree and kills herself. They also figure out that she didn't kill her husband after all (and that he killed himself, because he was an imbezzler and didn't want to go to jail).
Like I said, it is depressing, and the amount of characters they killed off was too many. The amount of suffering Garbo had to go through was too much.
The best, and most heartbreaking, scene is when Garbo has fallen ill, and Gilbert comes to visit her (but brings his new wife). She still loves him, and is in sort of a delirious state. They took her flowers away (if you see the movie, you'll understand) When she sees him, she throws her arms around his neck and tells him how much she still loves him, but then she sees his wife and retracts her statement quickly. He seems to have cured her, but she ends up more troubled than before.
The cinematography is very good, adding to the mood of the film.
The film itself gets a 5/10, due to how uneven it is, but I'm adding an extra star for Garbo's haunting performance.
And I'll even excuse some of of ham, due to it being a silent film. Not that I care how hammy silent films are, because they had a different style of acting.
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