- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.; 1st Edition edition (22 July 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 081095897X
- ISBN-13: 978-0810958975
- Product Dimensions: 31 x 23.2 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 571,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
With her astounding beauty and enigmatic persona, Greta Garbo is the ultimate Hollywood icon. Critic Kenneth Tynan once declared, "What, when drunk, one sees in other women, one sees in Garbo sober." Though many books have tried to unlock the mystique of the "Swedish Sphinx" by focusing primarily on her personal life, Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy is the first book to pay serious attention to what made her an icon - her twenty-four Hollywood films. As MGM's highest-paid star, Garbo had approval over story, co-star, director, and cinematographer, wielding power that few others could match - yet she was often at odds with the system that made her such a phenomenon. Lavishly illustrated with luminous portraits, film stills, and behind-the-scenes photographs - many previously unpublished - and drawing extensively on interviews, letters, and studio production files, the book chronicles Garbo's stellar, yet turbulent, career. One hundred years after her birth, Garbo's captivating legend endures.
About the Author
Mark A. Vieira is a photographer, a film historian, and the author of Abrams' acclaimed Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits, Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, and Hollywood Horror: From Gothic to Cosmic. He lives in Los Angeles.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is one of the better books that have been written about Garbo's work, and it follows the progress of her cinema career with admirable thoroughness. It is full of fascinating background detail which is all delivered in the most interesting way. The private circumstances of the actress at different moments of her professional life are also considered - when one impinges on the other - and the author's conclusions are, in the main, judicious (although certain matters will always remain mysterious). This book is one of the best that has appeared about the film-by-film career of any Hollywood star.
In the course of the narrative the author offers an intriguing view of the influence on Garbo's career of her friend Salka Viertel. The author feels that Viertel's influence was not entirely positive, and suggests that Garbo's career was derailed in 1941 when Viertel advised Garbo not to work again with Ernst Lubitsch, who had directed 'Ninotchka', and she never made another film.
As an actress, Greta Garbo clearly took a romantic view of her art. Hollywood has always been a flawed setting in which to practise any art, but despite the regrettable quality of some of the films in which she appears it is evident that, in her chosen metier, Garbo was an artist. Throughout all her roles on screen, in every glance and every spoken line, there is a consistent attempt to create something which is not only true, but beautiful. The passage of time has not dated or diminished her performances, which have remarkable emotional truth.
Garbo's unusual persona is seen to advantage in this sympathetic appraisal, yet the last word on this fascinating performer will probably never be said, for the simple reason that Garbo is, in the end, elusive and her magic inexplicable. She escapes us. But Garbo continues to cast a spell, and for as long as people watch movies Garbo will enthrall.
This book's illustrations are superbly printed (on exceptionally good paper), and some of the marvellously-restored photographs of the star by C.S.Bull are breathtaking in their freshness.
In the course of the narrative the author offers an intriguing view of the influence on Garbo's career of her friend Salka Viertel. The author feels that Viertel's influence was not entirely positive, and suggests that Garbo's career was derailed in 1941 when Viertel advised Garbo not to work again with Ernst Lubitsch, who had directed 'Ninotchka', and she never made another film.
As an actress, Greta Garbo clearly took a romantic view of her art. Hollywood has always been a flawed setting in which to practise any art, but despite the regrettable quality of some of the films in which she appears it is evident that, in her chosen metier, Garbo was an artist. Throughout all her roles on screen, in every glance and every spoken line, there is a consistent attempt to create something which is not only true, but beautiful. The passage of time has not dated or diminished her performances, which have remarkable emotional truth.
Garbo's unusual persona is seen to advantage in this sympathetic appraisal, yet the last word on this fascinating performer will probably never be said, for the simple reason that Garbo is, in the end, elusive and her magic inexplicable. She escapes us. But Garbo continues to cast a spell, and for as long as people watch movies Garbo will enthrall.
This book's illustrations are superbly printed (on exceptionally good paper), and some of the marvellously-restored photographs of the star by C.S.Bull are breathtaking in their freshness.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A rare combination, a lovely photo book, a photo journal of one of cinema's most beautiful women and a detailed biography. Garbo still remains enigmatic, she started in movies in 1923 starring in the Swedish film The Saga Of Gosta Berling ending her career in 1941 after the release of Two Faced Woman, she never returned to the screen. Her face was made for the camera both movie and stills camera. She went through many styles for MGM from her emergence as a young Swedish film star, her preferred style was simple styles, slacks more often than not and something to cover her face as she hated being photographed in her private life. If only all of our favourite film stars could have a book about them like this.
Format:Hardcover
Stunning book.The most comprehensive and detailed book about the film career of Miss Garbo.Meticulously reasearched with many unpublished pictures.A must for any fan,well worth the money,perfect condition ,prompt service.
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