Anyone else think she's the most over rated actress ever?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Greta Garbo
aciolino — 9 years ago(April 10, 2016 08:34 PM)
I just don't see it. I mean, I DO see it. I've been watching her films for 40 years waiting to be moved by her. She's a complete myth. Perhaps her silent era films were great plus her early "retirement" made her a legend.
There's no "there" there. -
winonaforever2 — 9 years ago(April 12, 2016 05:18 PM)
I don't think she's overrated. She was a good actress, she was also very photogenic and had incredible beauty. That plus her mysterious personality and her efforts to avoid being recognized or photographed gave her that status. She retired suddenly and then she tried to escape the world that had made her so famous, so everyday people only had her movies to remember her. She was also a very big star back in the 30s. Perhaps if she had continued making films and we had seen her age as a normal celebrity she would not be that famous, but that's something we can only guess. Have you actually seen any films of hers?
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aciolino — 9 years ago(April 12, 2016 06:08 PM)
I find that question insulting.
And I didn't ask for a lecture concerning her public celebrity, either. I asked a simple question.
And, FYI:
Garbo is monumentally overrated. Her voice is deep., She has no humour, her figure is flat, her carriage is not graceful, her feet are big, her private life is a fog. Only her face is perfect. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
Garbo in Ninotchka gives no performance at all. For half an hour she is glum in the stereotyped Garbo fashion. And then she is supposed to laugh and doesn't. She opens her mouth wide and goes through the moti of laughing. But it is mirthless laughter, like the yawning of a horse. Look closely into this simulation and you will perceive that the simulator is not amused. Then she has a long and totally unfunny drunken scene, after which she spends the rest of th1354e time looking like Norma Shearer's mother! In my view this is the worst performance I have ever seen Garbo give, and it is made to seem all the worse by the brilliant acting of Ina Claire, who sounds all the notes of polished comedy. Garbo in this film has two notes, and two only; the resulting see-saw achieves a monotony which for me kills the performance stone dead. The film itself is in Lubitsch's best vein and extremely witty, which merely accentuates the poverty of the central performance. Instead of being the major plum in the pudding, Garbo's performance is the one piece of suet in an otherwise entirely delectable dish.
~ James Agate, Tatler}
Garbo is extremely pathetic. For all her beautiful head and appealingly awkward lankiness, Miss Garbo steadily loses her spell through the sound machines. Speaking our language badly, she must be cast always as a foreigner, mumbling but a few words at a time. As usual, she has the air of an aspirin addict; she still wears the perpetual headache which once seemed so intriguing in the deaf-and-dumb pictures. ~ Matthew Josephson, New Republic
There's lots more. -
antoniostreetcar — 9 years ago(April 16, 2016 03:44 PM)
What about this? NOW REAL LEGENDS SPEAKING.
Her instinct, her mastery over the machine, was pure witchcraft. I cannot analyze this woman's acting. I only know that no one else so effectively worked in front of a camera.
Bette Davis
"If you ask me my favorite actress of all time, I will tell you that it is Greta Garbo. She shared her emotions with the camera and the audience. They were very truthful emotions. To my mind, she was an early practitioner of the Method. She felt everything she did and had the intelligence to go with itand that is the key for the audience. If they believe it, then they've spent a couple of good hours at the cinema."
Gregory Peck
She had a talent that few actresses or actors possess. In close-ups she gave the impression, the illusion of great movement. She would move her head just a little bit and the whole screen would come alive, like a strong breeze that made itself felt.George Cukor
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antoniostreetcar — 9 years ago(April 16, 2016 03:59 PM)
Why you havent been moved by her could actually be that her acting was a bit ahead of its time. That kind of acting could be not seen in that movie era. If you expected her to scream, cry and have a lot of Oscar scenes, you were wrong, since her acting includes not over the top acting for which Hollywood is /was famous for and acting that 90% are used to. Since she came from Sweden, there she learned a bit different acting styles. That included more realistic, subtle, quieter acting, usually showing your emotions more with facial expressions. Which was pitch perfect for her, another big thing was that she had face born for camera. Thats the reason why she was so magical on screen. Sure she had some awful moments on screen (Grand Hotel), but she also had some amazing as well. To actually GET the Ninotchka thing, you need to be more informed about Garbo since its almost a parody of the connection between her and Hollywood and how people saw her threw years since that film. Her best performance was indeed in Camille for which she should have won an Oscar. It was a very realistic, unpredictable, un-cliched performance that actually was the reason why so many people had felt/could feel her what she/character was feeling, and why Camille is till this day considered not only a masterpiece by many but also like i said the movie that was ahead of its time(due to its director and Garbos performance). Again her acting was very modern and was closer to the performances we usually see nowdays in independet or foreign cinema, than to then popular perofermers like Mary Picford and others.
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floriangray — 9 years ago(August 23, 2016 05:44 PM)
She is a legend because of her mysterious personal life and early retirement.
However, I do think that she gave a few very emotional performances, even if they might seem a bit unpolished at times.
Who wants to live forever? -
JaneThree — 9 years ago(September 08, 2016 06:34 PM)
I don't see it either. And, of her era, she's not one of the stars who still endures today, not the way others have. There are partnerships that are still popular among old movie buffs - Powell/Loy, Rogers/Astaire. People still know a bit about Katharine Hepburn, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable. Garbo is one of those iconic names, still in the lexicon, yet her actual movies and persona and acting going undiscussed compared to the rest.
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BTW, Leslie Howard also extolled her remarkable natural acting. Don't see it. Awhile back, Christopher Plummer mentioned a 1930s actor, Robbie Williams, who presaged Brando and the others in his naturalism. He's not known today because he died young. He was Harlow's leading man in "Platinum Blonde." The only scene I found from that movie is just terrible, BUT, I can see where the idea that he's natural comes from. He's talented, and he uses his voice naturally, not theatrically. IMO another actor who was unbelievably modern/natural was Robert Donat. But Garbo? No. Even her beauty is, IMO, in dispute. She's beautiful, but not THE icon of beauty (lovely eyes, thin lips, a big androgyneous and asexual). -
cocobuttr72-311-53542 — 9 years ago(February 05, 2017 12:41 PM)
I don't see it either. I've always thought her acting trash. I watch Camille and I can't get how people say this is her finest performance. It's downright laughable. The scene where she see's Robert Taylor's character again and drops her fan. She appeared more2000 drunk than faint. She didn't deserve to win over Louise Ranier in The Good Earth nor Barbara Stanwyk in Stella Dallas. Both actresses ran circles around Garbo in these roles and later ones as well. She's a legend because she disappeared which was as good as dying young like Monroe and Dean.