Garbo's character
Was her character supposed to be retarded? Garbo sure plays her as such. This is the first time I've found myself annoyed with one of her characters.
shareWas her character supposed to be retarded? Garbo sure plays her as such. This is the first time I've found myself annoyed with one of her characters.
shareI'm thinking severely depressive. Some kind of mental illness. Her performance annoyed me at first, but now I really like it. I've actually met people in real life who are as overly-dramatic as Garbo's bi-polar ballerina. Couple a theatrical personality with a mental imbalance, and this is what you get.
shareAs noted in the review that IMDb recommends for this film, Joan Crawford had the better performance compared to Garbo's. That is partly to Crawford's excellence here, but I think it also reflects that Garbo's performance is problematic.
At least as far as I am concerned, the question is not whether her overly dramatic behavior might be plausible in the sense that there are such people in the world. The question is instead whether her behavior makes sense in the context of this film. While her character is under stress, and is after all a performer by occupation, I can't help thinking that an effective dramatization of her character would have been better served without the extent of her theatrics shown. A somewhat toned down approach would have worked better.
I'm thinking severely depressive. Some kind of mental illness. Her performance annoyed me at first, but now I really like it. I've actually met people in real life who are as overly-dramatic as Garbo's bi-polar ballerina. Couple a theatrical personality with a mental imbalance, and this is what you get.
starved for love and attention...from one man, not an audience which cannot be depended upon to appreciate her dancing.
E pluribus unum
I think that it worked. It might have worked differently if toned down somewhat, but hey, this is 1932 MGM, more stars than in heaven, so why not let Garbo go at it?
People hungry for the voice of god
Hear lunatics and liars
I wasn't annoyed with the character. I just wish she had played it differently. I actually saw a lot of her usual tricks in there. Her instincts were just off in this one and the material didn't really warrant the performance she gave.
shareShe is the weak link here. Everyone else is superb! I've seen other films & she's very good. Here, she's giving a silent performance. Director's fault maybe?
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