Showing posts with label Greta Garbo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greta Garbo. Show all posts

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Around the World with Louise Brooks, MORE trimmings from the cutting room floor

A continuation of yesterday's post.... Here are a couple more odds 'n ends which I can't make use of or don't have room for in Around the World with Louise Brooks. Both come from the December 1930 issue of Vita Cinematografica, an Italian film magazine. This first piece, an article titled "Greta Garbo donna d'affari," seems to be an article about the mysterious allure of the Swedish actress. It starts by describing three other mysterious and alluring stars, the Russian actress Vera Baranovskaya,
Louise Brooks, and the German actress Brigitte Helm. Then briefly mentioned are Lya de Putti,
Bessie Love, and Anita Page. Perhaps an Italian reader could offer a better explanation, but I would guess that these other actresses are evoked in an article about Garbo in comparison to the renowned actress and elusive beautiful.

The paragraph on Brooks reads thus, in translation: "Louise Brooks, with bright black eyes, an impassive face and a supple body, has blossomed in a heavy atmosphere of contented passion, anguish, unsatisfied desires, feverish voluptuousness. She is, at times, cold and ardent, deadly and quivering: one would say the sign of vice." 




The above article was, I believe, authored by Paul Rejac and originally appeared in Cinemonde, an French magazine. I will have to try and track that down. Brooks appeared on the cover of Cinemonde four times, and those four covers appear in Around the World with Louise Brooks.

The next clipping, which also depicts Louise Brooks and a few other actresses, also appeared in the December 1930 issue of Vita Cinematografica. The piece is a holiday greeting.




Sunday, April 15, 2007

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo died 7 years ago on April 15, 2000. The long obituary which appeared in the New York Times the following day can be found online. The article is titled "Greta Garbo, 84, Screen Icon Who Fled Her Stardom, Dies."

There is also a rather interesting article in the Sunday New York Times about the influence of the cinema on the art of Picasso and Braque. The article by Randy Kennedy, "When Picasso and Braque Went to the Movies," appears in the art section. It disccusses an exhibition which seeks cinematic clues to the roots of Cubism.

Friday, October 3, 2003

Greta Garbo biography by Barry Paris

Finished reading Barry Paris' excellent biography of the Swedish-born actress Greta Garbo. In many ways, she is as elusive a personality as Louise Brooks. But, her mystery - her appeal - comes from somewhere else. After having read Barry Paris' biographies of both film stars, I am certain there was more going on in Brooks' head (as well as deeper motivations) than in Garbo's. 

Reading Garbo got me onto a Garbo jag. I am wanting to read more. Scouring the bibliography in the back of Paris' book led me to track down and purchase over the internet two early books on the actress, The Private Life of Greta Garbo by Rilla Page Palmborg (published in softcover in London in 1931), and Greta Garbo: The Story of a Specialist by E. E. Laing (published in London in hardcover in 1946). I am looking forward to receiving each of these books.

p.s. When I saw Barry Paris a few years ago, he gave me a special Garbo bookmark which was made by a friend of his. I keep it in my copy of his book. It measures approximately 2.5 inches wide by 8 inches tall, and is reproduced below. 
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