Garbo: Where Did You Go? (2024)

[bunniefuu]

What a waste

of the best years of my life.

Always alone.

It was so stupid

not be able to partake more.

No.

Now I'm just a gypsy.

Living a life apart.

- Hello.

- Hello, Claire.

- This is Mr Green.

- Mr Green. Yes.

- Is Ms Garbo there?

- No, I'm awfully sorry, she's out.

She won't be back,

er, not before 12:00.

- Not before 12:00?

- No.

All right. Well, I'll try her

a little after 12:00, then.

- Thank you very much. Goodbye.

- Bye-bye.

Greta Garbo...

Sounds kind of familiar, right?

A Hollywood icon.

A poster girl from

the Golden Age of Cinema.

But as the years pass,

her fanbase gets smaller.

And like all once greats,

she'll become just

an iconic image.

We all have our time here on Earth.

The greats today

will one day be forgotten.

Only a few will achieve success so great

they'll be remembered

long after they're gone.

But as time passes,

so does the truth.

And what we are left with

is a myth.

In her time,

Garbo was the most

famous woman in the world,

smashed all the glass ceilings

and became one of Hollywood's

most bankable stars,

the highest-earning actor of her time.

And the most extraordinary part

is that she came from nothing.

A real rags-to-riches story.

Overcoming childhood poverty,

lining up at food banks,

relying on handouts.

Garbo went on to be scouted to model

while working at a department store.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

No one came close

to commanding the power

that she held in Hollywood.

She could have done anything she wanted.

But at the absolute height of her fame,

she disappeared.

One day, the world's biggest star.

The next day... gone.

Why she stopped and where she went

have remained a mystery to this day.

When a queen gives up her throne,

she becomes a private person.

She frees herself from all the myths

and legends that burden majesty.

She gradually passes into history.

But a film star like Greta Garbo

finds that her stardom

will not let people forget her.

What is the Garbo legend?

Why would

one of the world's most famous

and most talented actresses

just stop like that?

She was a clever lady,

and she had decided

to withdraw from publicity

and from public life, and that was it.

Everybody else just wanted

to make more movies and stay on top,

and she just wanted to get out of there.

She never thinks

she's gonna be a big star like she became.

She wanted to be like anyone else.

She just wanted to act.

It was obvious

to everybody in the industry

that she was going to be transformative.

She is perfectly charming.

- Very humorous, very conscientious.

- Mmm.

Not very happy and genuinely shy.

- Were you competitors?

- No.

Nobody was ever a competitor.

- Is that true?

- Not with Garbo, no.

- Oh.

- No.

No, no.

She had a real mystique

and a real, real gift for movie acting.

You don't become

that famous for no reason.

Maybe to a young generation now,

who are into films,

Garbo is just a name.

When I went to Stockholm years ago,

they showed me in their...

in their film institute there,

two commercials for bread that

she made to be shown in movie theatres.

There was this great galumphing...

Swedish cow...

having a picnic.

There was nothing to show you

that you were looking at

the most divine creature

who would ever be on the screen.

And two years later, she was Greta Garbo.

Now, I have no explanation

whatsoever for that.

Act One, June 21st, 1925.

A small tearoom in Stockholm, Sweden.

Sat in the back of a busy caf,

a young Greta excitedly writes a letter

to her best friend, Mimi Pollak.

Darling, Mimi,

a few days ago Stiller called me

for the first time in months

and informed me about the trip to America.

How I would have loved

to talk to you before this.

If you knew how good

it feels to have a person

who's so sweet towards me.

You're the only one, darling,

that I have really talked to

about what hurts.

Thank you for everything

you've done and been for me.

Until we'll meet again.

Don't forget me.

My grandmother,

she was from a rich family,

but Greta, she was in a poor family.

They met when they were 12, 13 years old.

They were close, very, very close.

When they don't have school,

they go outside and...

They picked up cigarettes

from the ground and smoked.

Oh, my God.

They played like all children.

They were so tight.

More tight than

a brother and sister, maybe.

They were... twins.

Er, they talked about everything.

The Gustafssons

lived in a Stockholm slum.

Both parents were

from rural farming communities

and moved to Stockholm looking for work.

Her father worked multiple jobs

to keep food on the table.

And at six years old,

Greta started working

as a newspaper seller.

I spent a lot

of time with the Gustafsson family.

Greta and her sister, Alva,

slept in the kitchen,

while their parents slept

in the living room.

Greta's father worked nights

and slept during the day,

so we had to be quiet

and mostly kept to the kitchen.

She grew up in part during World w*r I,

which was very difficult,

economically, in Sweden.

She had not had the chance

to go on to high school

because she was a working-class woman.

And that's when school ended,

unless your family had resources

for you to go to high school.

She worked in a number of barbershops.

Young women would lather up the guys

who were gonna get shaved,

and that was basically the job.

"They've written

a lot about me working

as a child at a barbershop,

lathering the faces of men to be shaved."

"But I didn't just work at one, but three,

mostly where they had the most customers."

"No one forced me to work."

"I gave all my earnings to my mother."

Greta was

obsessed with the theatre.

And from as young as six,

spent hours hanging outside

of stage doors in Stockholm,

desperate to get a glimpse

of the actors inside.

She and her friends

would put on their own plays

whenever they had the chance.

And at 13, they formed their

own theatre company called the Attic.

Her father became

very sick with a kidney disease,

and he died when she was

in her early teens.

"God, God, what a feeling."

"Someone you love is here,

then he's gone."

"Gone where you can't see him."

"Can't talk with him."

"Same flesh, same blood."

"Yet he's... he's gone...

never to return."

She was 14 when her father died.

Her sister, Alva, said she cried

herself to sleep every night

and had to stop herself

returning to his grave to check

he hadn't been buried alive.

So, it was just

her and the mother

and her sister,

whom she loved dearly, and the brother.

So, it's Alva was the sister,

and Sven was the brother.

They had dreams, both she and Alva,

of being actresses.

She was very charismatic,

and she got a job

when she was like, I don't know,

14, 15 working at PUB,

which was a department store

in Stockholm, and she was selling hats.

Can you imagine me

as a shop girl?

But don't worry,

I haven't given up

my dreams about the theatre.

I'm just as faithful as before.

Working for a department store

was considered a really

prestigious working-class job,

because it wasn't as physically

rigorous as working in a factory.

"It was only a few days

from my 15th birthday

when I started the job at PUB,

and my mama said it was

the best birthday present I could get."

"My future would be assured."

"I would be able to work at PUB

for the rest of my life,

mmm, which might have been just as well."

"Ms Gustafsson was very ambitious,

quiet, self-restrained."

"Starting to dress herself

more ladylike," okay.

"Even lost some weight."

Of course.

"The 14-year-old helped

her family with her salary,

all while never giving up

her dreams of the theatre."

Okay.

She had only been there

for a couple of months,

and she ended up as the hat model.

Almost immediately after that,

she ended up cast in a film

that Ragnar Ring was making

for the store as a promotional film.

That's when

she got her first job acting,

if you want to put it like that.

She got a great

opportunity, and she seized it.

And then a director comes by,

and just sees her and picks

her out for her first feature.

At 15,

director Erik Petschler saw Greta

looking through the window of a shoe store

and offered her a small part

in his film, Peter the tr*mp.

But her boss refused to let her

take the two weeks off for the sh**t.

The director even went in and asked

the head of the company personally,

but they still refused.

"Miss Gustafsson, in spite of her youth,

is one of the best saleswomen

in my entire company."

She asked her mum what she thought,

and with her blessing,

she left her job at the department store.

"After we'd finished,

with no other filming prospects,

she was broke and unsure of what to do,

so I took her out to lunch and told her

that she should audition for a scholarship

to the Royal Dramatic Theatre."

"She was only 16

and not from a theatrical family

but was so anxious to succeed,

we all wanted to help her,

so we picked out

the parts for the audition

and spent hours in rehearsal together."

"It didn't matter

that she had no training."

"What really counts

in an actress is an ability

to feel and understand everyday life."

"In that sense, Greta Gustafsson

was extremely well-equipped."

She managed,

with the connection she got in the film,

to get into the theatre school,

which was a big, big deal.

This is

a book about the theatre school

at the Royal Drama House.

And on this book,

we have the picture

of Garbo and Mimi Pollak,

but here is the picture

of the whole class of 1922.

And it's a wonderful book, really,

which gives you all the information

about the theatre school.

And here you see Mimi Pollak,

there she is there, with the black hair.

And if I see it now,

upside down correctly,

I think that's Garbo over there.

And I think that's her.

My grandmother

gave Greta self-confidence,

and she always go to my grandmother

when she was feeling sad, or...

Maybe she wanted some help.

And they have those letters,

and they talk on the phone,

and then she feels safer.

"She was very quiet in the classroom."

"I remember that now and again,

she seemed very depressed."

"So when we were discussing

things she didn't understand,

which wasn't down to her intelligence,

but the fact that

her schooling had been meagre,

she was really self-conscious of that."

They think it was so fun.

It was so fun to act.

Greta and Mimi,

they were like all the other people,

like us.

But they have this passion

and created something big.

Acting, they love it.

And she has herself

said that this was probably

the happiest time in her life.

She never thinks she's gonna

be a big star like she became.

She wanted to be with other people

in the same Dramaten

and, you know, playful.

But then someone told her,

you have to be bigger than that,

and you can't be that in Sweden.

When she started,

she had a different view of...

The outsider's view of what acting was,

or what the career was,

or what her interests

in the field would be.

Those clearly evolved,

and a lot of that goes to Stiller.

In the summer of 1923,

Stiller was gonna film

the Tales of Gsta Berling.

And Stiller asked Gustaf Molander

at the acting school

if he had any actresses that he could use.

One actress that was

called Mona Mrtenson,

and then there was the other

actress called Greta Garbo,

but she was a little fat.

He's looking for someone

to play Elizabeth Dohna,

which is a critical supporting role,

because you're sort of the pivot

of the plot without being a star.

And you can see in his writing

to his co-author of the script

that he's considering using Garbo,

but he's worried, like,

is she gonna be able to do it?

Hmm.

"The school sent two students,

Mona Mrtenson,

the prettiest girl in the school,

and Greta, who although

wasn't considered pretty,

apparently had a lovely figure."

"They both tested."

"Everyone in the studio raved

about Mona, all except Stiller."

"He fell in love with Greta

and insisted on casting her

as the lead female

character in Gsta Berling."

"We nicknamed them 'Beauty and the Beast'

because she was really very attractive,

especially her figure."

"That's what attracted people in Sweden."

"Not her face."

"I can still see Stiller

and that young girl

forever pacing up and down

outside the studio."

"Stiller was always

teaching and preaching."

"Greta listening and learning."

"I never saw anyone more

earnest and eager to learn."

"With that hypnotic power

he seemed to have over her,

he could make her do extraordinary things,

but we had little idea

that right there and then,

he was making over her very soul."

Stiller was a... He was a really,

in a way, mean old b*stard.

He was a sort of

dicta-tyrannical kind of director.

And he picked her up

for Gsta Berlings Saga.

And he tortured her, you know,

but he saw her potential.

But the potential of what? I mean,

what she had was she had beauty,

and she had terrific charisma.

One day during

a break from filming,

Stiller asked Greta to think

about changing her name.

He wanted something shorter, more modern,

something that could be

pronounced easily in any language.

On November 9th,

Anna Gustafsson signed a petition

to allow her daughter

to change her name to Greta Garbo.

You couldn't ask for a better mentor

in the sense that, you know,

she is clearly the younger,

less experienced person.

He's been successful,

he has a vision

of not just what he can do,

but what she can do.

She trusts him.

I don't want to say

anything bad about him,

but he was not good for her.

No, not at all.

She want his comfort.

"Take care of me.

I'm so lonely. I need a father figure."

That's why.

But he didn't see it like that.

He was older than her,

and she was a young girl.

And he wanted to make money off her,

of course,

because he'd say, see, he's a director,

he can see, "Wow,

I can make you a movie star."

And she's young,

"Oh, of course," she said.

But he was no good for her.

No.

The Gsta Berlings Saga

premiered on

March 10th, 1924, in Stockholm.

And Stiller was

by her side at the premiere.

At 22 years her senior,

their relationship became

the talk of the town.

He bought her a new fur coat

and helped her build

a more refined, glamorous wardrobe.

He drove her around in his sports car,

escorted her to social events,

and introduced her

to his large circle of friends

from the film and art world.

It's there, as they're doing this,

that Stiller realises that

she has just more talent

than anybody has realised.

Garbo was the light, light in the dark.

It's a kind of magic,

which of course, Hollywood recognised

and was looking for.

Elizabeth is played by a young woman

who will be a serious rival to the claim

of world's most beautiful film actress.

Her name is Greta Garbo.

And in the film,

she shows herself to be an artist

of extraordinary talent.

I'm told that both Greta and Lars Hanson

have just been snapped up by Hollywood.

"One of the

happiest days in my life

was when I got my first real film pay for

my role in the story of Gsta Berling."

"The first thing I did was

to buy a pearl necklace

and a ring for my mother."

Well, they

clearly were lovers at times.

I think it was kind of an

off-again-on-again relationship.

Stiller was g*y.

I mean, he was g*y

as the day is long,

but he fell in love with her.

Maybe he was in love with her,

but maybe he also was g*y.

Maybe he was bi.

But you have to remember, in 1916,

he did the first movie about g*y people,

about men falling in love.

Louis B. Mayer shows up.

Stiller was a famous director,

and he wants to get into Hollywood.

He was also a very

narcissistic type of guy,

you know, he wanted

to make it big, big, big, big, big.

And here comes Louis B. Mayer,

serves everything on the platter.

And he said, "Well, on one condition,

that I can bring my muse with me."

And reluctantly, Mayer allowed that.

So, Stiller and Garbo go together

to Hollywood.

"It was strange,

a very strange feeling.

"I was looking forward to something

that I've never seen."

"I did not know how it would turn out."

"My mother didn't say very much."

"She reassured me that I would be happiest

pursuing my dreams, wherever it took me."

"Alva was so upset

that I was going without her,

but I told her that

I'd be back in a year."

I didn't know anything

when I arrived in America.

I couldn't speak any English.

Stiller didn't either.

We stayed for ages

at the Commodore Hotel in New York.

I was able to borrow a dictionary,

a Swedish-English one.

In the beginning, I found it difficult

dealing with even the simplest matters.

Act Two, September 12th, 1925.

Exterior Los Angeles.

A steam train arrives from New York to LA.

Enter Garbo and Stiller,

ready to make their American debut

in their first Hollywood

production together.

One star leaves, another arrives.

Greta Garbo comes to California in 1925,

as a protg of the great

Swedish director Mauritz Stiller.

Unknown in America at this time,

Garbo shows no evidence of shyness,

poses long and willingly, kisses babies.

This is Hollywood.

A place, an industry, a state of mind,

world capital and small town

all wrapped into one.

Hollywood is more than a trade name,

it is a symbol for magic,

entertainment and make-believe.

Here, magic carpets fly,

Rome is built in a day,

flowers bloom in profusion

throughout the seasons,

and romance is just around

the corner, any corner.

Let's have a good look

at the most publicised,

glamorised, criticised town on earth

where movies are made.

And of course, movies made Hollywood.

After months

of contract negotiations

and a new Garbo look in place,

it was now time to find her first project.

Stiller and Greta had been

hoping to work together

on her first American film.

But due to hold-ups with production,

MGM wanted her to take on the leading

role in Monta Bell's film, The Torrent.

Stiller persuaded her to accept,

and coached her daily

before filming began that November.

Garbo writes back to Sweden

that the American director

really doesn't have a conception

of her character's

internal thought process

the way Stiller would have,

and so she has to create it herself.

She's the one creating her character,

and all the nuances of her character

that so captured the women

who watched the film right from the start.

The Torrent premiered in both

New York and Los Angeles.

And for the first and last time,

Garbo attended the premiere

of one of her films.

The critics were blown away

and sure that she would become a big star.

"This girl has everything,"

one critic at Variety wrote.

Dearest Mimi,

I started my first film

with an American director.

Up at 6:00 and home at 6:00 or 7:00,

fall into bed and sometimes I can't sleep.

I never go out at night.

I'm just home at my dreary hotel.

If I only had

a little money, I'll go home.

But to come home without it,

then the old boring ball starts again.

The only thing that gives me happiness

is when I can wander down to the bank

and send something home to my family.

Oh, I've gotten a large

and elegant role, which is rare here.

I'm so... I'm so curious,

but... also anxious about it.

Little Lars,

you've been sweeter to me

than you can realise.

I think that fate sent you to be

my little guardian angel.

For what would I have done

if I'd not had Lars?

I tell you a simple but big, big thank you

for all the pleasure you've given me.

And thank you for all and everything.

I don't know if it's correct, but I think

we will see each other very soon.

My name is Anders Saxon.

I am the son of Lars.

I have a rather nice...

photo of my father.

This is... I just want to show

another picture of him here.

My grandfather was very nice

because he said to my father,

"Any time you want,

you can use my car, my Packard."

I have this card of the Packard.

I think he made a lot of acquaintances

because people like to be

driven around the city.

And I'm not certain

how he got to know Greta,

but that had something to do with the car.

She lived in the south of Stockholm

and he used to come along

with a car and fetch her.

They often went to the theatre

where she was practising.

And then he came and took her back home.

But sometimes also

they made trips around Stockholm,

and I think she was a bit

impressed about his car.

I heard that one of her first jobs

was that she was a soap girl,

and I wondered whether

maybe my father met her in that way.

That he wanted to, you know,

have his hair cut and he was shaved.

Maybe she was the one

who helped a bit with the soap.

It is so sweet of you

to remember me so often.

I'm not worth it.

I have so much,

and I'm so boundlessly unthankful.

Thank you, Lars,

for the letter and flowers.

It was so lovely, everything.

Even though you were

here such a short time,

there's an emptiness after you.

Think, Lars, for three years,

if they keep me,

I shall divide my time

between this work with film,

which is very difficult here,

and the hours I'm free to sit at home.

That is not a very happy prospect.

But... but when freedom comes,

it may make up for everything.

If you call my sister,

don't forget to tell her that

I'll be coming home very soon.

Tell her also that she can

be happy by living in Sweden,

and shouldn't think that

everywhere else is paradise.

I wondered a little about their relations,

if they were in love

with each other or not.

Saxon has been here,

as you must know.

He's very decent, and I always like him,

except for when he wants to marry me.

I have been, and continue to be,

unhappy regarding my heart.

I have humiliated myself,

been bitter, mean, mad.

But I will never escape

what fate has decreed for me.

I don't want to,

and I can't seek American company.

Therefore, it would be

an unbelievable improvement

to have someone love me.

I'd gladly bring over my sister

because you could probably never come.

But my mother will

certainly be sad and alone,

so I can't possibly do that.

I'm starting to work with Stiller soon.

I'm thankful and...

and afraid.

After delays, on March 24th,

Stiller began directing The Temptress.

On the first day of photography,

the director walked onto

the production stage

and was surprised to find

50 people awaiting his instructions,

and had no idea what most of them did.

For the first time in his life,

Stiller was not in control... of anything.

Thalberg tried to encourage him

to work within their studio structure.

He made the mistake

of thinking it was his film,

but it was their money and their film.

A huge and elaborate

Parisian circus set was built.

Hundreds of extras, colourful costumes,

trained trapeze artists performed

on whirling wheels of fire.

Suddenly, I saw a messenger boy

push through the crowd.

He handed his message to Stiller

who raised his arm to stop the action.

Garbo walked over, and silently

he handed her the message.

She sank into a chair crying,

his arm supporting her.

The message told her

that her sister, her beloved Alva,

only 23 years old,

was dead.

What Garbo will never know is that

Stiller held onto

that message for 24 hours

before delivering it to her.

Why he chose that moment,

only he will ever know.

They finished filming the scene,

and then she was allowed to go home.

She didn't come to work

for the next few days.

MGM sent her a message telling her

that they felt sorry for her

and for her loss,

but the show must go on,

and she would not be able

to travel to Sweden for the funeral.

I do want to try,

and I have promised myself

not to complain,

but... but I think that God has sent

all these sad, horrible

things that happened

over me simply because

I used to walk around unhappy

without a reason.

Suddenly, it feels as...

as if something has died inside of me.

After everything she did for me

to help me get where I am,

I was not even given the chance

to do something for her.

I was not given the chance

to be good to her, give her joy,

make her happy.

Eventually the show did go on,

but tensions on set

reached an expl*sive high.

Stiller's conception of The Temptress

was at odds with what Irving Thalberg

wanted the film to look like.

And by the time Stiller had filmed

about three-quarters of a film,

he and Irving Thalberg

had a long discussion

that ended in Stiller leaving MGM

and being replaced on the film.

And the film was shot again

from the beginning.

Mayer, you know, it takes,

I don't know how long it takes

before he even allows them to film.

And then they don't film together,

and he's separating them from each other.

And he discovers...

he discovers Garbo also, Mayer,

and he takes her from Stiller.

It's not so great that

Stiller went to another studio,

but it's probably best for him.

I would happily follow him

if I wasn't committed.

'Cause MGM is pretty rotten.

Many of the directors here

know nothing about emotional life.

It is not like when Stiller

was with and motivated me

to feel something.

In two days, I have to start

a new film with John Gilbert.

I'm swearing under my breath over it.

It is not the art I crave.

Louis B. Mayer sat behind his desk

and Greta looked up from her chair.

Mr Mayer,

I am tired.

I am sick.

I cannot take another picture right away.

I've had no time

to mourn my sister's death,

and I'm too nervous and anxious right now.

Also, I don't like the script,

and I do not want to play

another bad woman, or a...

vamp.

Mayer played the good guy

and acted as if he understood

how she was feeling,

then firmly told her

she should return to the studio

right away for costume fittings

or be considered in breach of contract.

Garbo walked out of his office

and went missing for two weeks.

When she finally returned,

she went straight

into rehearsals with Gilbert

without saying a word to anyone else.

Filming began without

any further problems.

When he and Garbo met

on the set of Flesh and the Devil,

it was really kind of true love.

I think they really resonated

with each other as personalities.

Their friendship would extend

far past their romance.

Sometimes their love

scenes were so intense,

they didn't even hear

the director shout "cut."

After a while, everyone knew

there was something going on between them.

And Brown thought he had made

the greatest love scenes in movie history.

By the fall,

Garbo and Gilbert were inseparable.

He showed her what life

was like as a Hollywood star,

with all its excess and glamour.

Gilbert said that at one point in time,

Garbo had said to him,

"You're in love with Garbo the star."

And he'd said,

"Yes, I'm in love with Garbo the star."

"That's who I'm in love with."

"I want to be in love with Garbo,

and she just wants to retire

to a farm and have 11 children,

and that's our problem."

You ask about Gilbert.

Yes, there's been a lot in the newspapers,

but I can't do what everyone expects.

I'm not suited to be married to him.

I'm too temperamental, too nervous.

And soon enough, the man who married me

will discover that I'm brainless

and we want different things out of life.

He has a very attractive home

with everything you can want.

Tennis, swimming pool, servants, cars,

everything to make life easier.

But I still return home

to my old ugly hotel room.

Stiller hasn't said anything to me

about everything

that's been in the newspapers.

He's a strange, sweet person,

and thank goodness he hasn't asked.

Oh, I have a great deal

to tell you when we meet, darling.

But I hope it's the last time

Garbo goes in search of a love affair.

I hope to keep Stiller as he is,

for if he would leave me,

I don't know what I would do.

I assume that you've seen in the newspaper

that a certain actor and I

are going to be married, but I am not.

But they are wild for news,

so they have pounced on me.

I long for home so wildly sometimes.

It is so childish to be this way

when you still can't go home,

and instead,

should be thankful for the place

that millions would thank God for.

The Temptress premiered

at the Capitol Theatre in New York

on October 10th, 1926.

In its opening weeks,

it broke all box office records.

The consensus of opinion

was that Greta Garbo

was in great measure responsible.

Everyone had thought

it would take years for Greta

to be known in the United States.

But within a year of arriving,

she had exceeded everyone's expectations.

Garbo had arrived.

There is no question

after Flesh and the Devil

that she is one of

the leading stars in Hollywood.

The problem comes in

at this point in that MGM

realised they really

didn't have her services

under contract for very much longer,

and they wanted her

to sign a new contract,

and she didn't really want

to sign a new contract.

They were at loggerheads.

I have now been forced

to work with an American director.

I was actually considering

running away from it all.

But now I'm thinking, you know,

if my movie's a success...

then I can bring

all my loved ones over here,

and then I could stay for two more years.

I do not earn much at the moment,

only enough to live all right.

But if it's a success, I might earn more,

and I'm hoping for a raise.

I do hope that I will get rich.

Garbo was not happy

with MGM at that point in time,

though she also really

understood that Hollywood

was where movies were made,

because in the end,

the compromise she would make

would be to sign a five-year deal.

It allowed for her to go back

to Sweden after a couple of movies.

She got paid well.

She only had to make three movies a year.

Everybody else was making

at least four movies a year.

So MGM really did a lot to keep her

as part of their stable of actors.

"Last night, Flesh

and the Devil premiered in New York City."

"Crowds were lining up Broadway and 51st."

"Even with a capacity

of 5,000 seats per show,

the Capitol was having

to turn away business."

"The leading contributor to this mania

is Hollywood's new sensation,

Greta Garbo."

My dear Greta,

I'm now leaving Hollywood.

You may, when I'm gone, bloom again.

The calm may return to your face.

Your eyes will not wrinkle so often.

Struck from your life, you are free.

I shall pray for you

that you may be protected from all evil,

and you should not think about me.

When they

went to the United States,

when they went in 1925,

with the Swedish American Line

from Gothenburg to New York,

there was like... Stiller was the head man

and Garbo was just a newcomer,

but during their stay

in Hollywood, it changed.

So, Stiller was in the eyes of Hollywood,

a difficult person,

but Garbo was the rising star.

So, Garbo's star was born then.

It was a tragedy for him

when he followed Greta Garbo to Hollywood,

and was not the big star any longer.

How awful this distance

and this longing for you are.

But why this letter to me?

Shouldn't everything be forgotten?

You know very well that you are free

and can act as you please.

But if you mean anything

by what you are writing to me,

I need to know.

What do you want?

I need to hear.

Because I wanted to leave you,

and this most of all for your sake.

But I will not do this, dear Greta,

not until I know how you feel,

what you are thinking.

If we should stay together,

we have to, which at first,

I was against, get married.

If not, there is no need

for you to explain why.

I will understand.

And I will keep you in my heart forever.

Farewell, Mauritz.

He was destroyed,

not by her, but by his love for her.

I mean, Mayer destroyed him.

And he was a great, great filmmaker.

It was during

the filming of Wild Orchids

that the telegram was

delivered to her dressing room.

"She never forgave me for not

being the one to tell her when he died."

"She took his death as an incredible blow

and couldn't even mention his name after."

"Always referring to him as,

'someone I have a great

devotion for, and always will.'"

"His death hit her

even harder than her sister's

because she felt guilty

for his painful and humiliating decline."

Greta lost two

very important people in her life.

The first one was her sister,

Alva, who died from cancer.

And the second blow was Stiller.

And I think she felt guilty also,

towards Stiller.

After both had died,

she didn't want to stay.

She wanted to go home.

She was his conception

of what he could create as an artist.

It's like his gift to the film industry

wasn't a film, it was Garbo.

The Garbo-Gilbert affair

translated into screen magic

and excited audiences

with their offscreen antics.

They were partnered up again in Love

and A Woman of Affairs.

Garbo's success

during this stage of her career

was not only based

on her looks or her talent,

but also on the public's

interest in them as a couple.

Away from factory life, I am tired

and I'm not interested in anything.

I'm hardly dreaming any more.

I'm currently working

like crazy on a new film.

As soon as it's done, I will travel

with or without permission

from this factory.

Do you think any audience

would like to see me?

Oh, I think I've turned into

a Swedish-American monster.

Lars, please write a couple of lines

before I'm crossing the Atlantic,

so I know if it's possible for us

to meet up in Paris.

This was a real invitation from her side

to be with him and maybe start,

you know, a more,

shall we say,

physical connection with him.

Mimi, it will be fun to see you.

I can't wait.

Do you think people will be

curious and come to the station?

I hope they don't.

Garbo finally managed to escape

and sail back to Sweden, full of dreams

that she could slide back

into her old life

with her friends from drama school

and the anonymity that preceded stardom.

Instead, she was mobbed upon arrival.

She come to Sweden

in 1928 to meet my grandmother.

They were going to a restaurant,

like ordinary people,

but, you know, people were,

"Woo-hoo, Greta Garbo. She's here now."

People were crazy.

I don't think she knows before

how it should be, how big she would be.

And I don't think she wanted to be that.

She wanted to be like anyone else.

She just wanted to act.

She goes to Sweden

and literally people

are following her down the street,

which is the last thing she expects.

She thought, at least

in Sweden, she'd be left alone.

Photographers are taking her picture,

which is new 'cause

the technology is changing.

Before that, a celebrity

would be photographed

standing at the place to be photographed.

Now they're being

followed through the park,

being followed on the street,

and it's very intrusive.

Seeing her friends

and family waiting for her

made any concerns about her privacy

with the press disappear.

She hugged her mum and her friends

tightly on the station platform,

surrounded by journalists

and photographers.

She enjoyed Christmas with her family

and reminisced with Dramaten friends,

Mimi, Mona, and Vera,

and spent time with her mother.

Greta arranged to view

Stiller's belongings

before they were sold,

then visited his and Alva's graves

before reluctantly returning to Hollywood.

It seems that they met in Paris,

and I think it was a bit curious

that when she came back to Sweden,

that they didn't seem to have met at all.

How come, when they were so near?

Strange.

I think it depended on

probably that he had

gotten engaged to another woman.

So, then it was finito.

"I'd been given

quite a few bits of good advice

about how to behave

if I ever got the chance

to meet Greta Garbo."

"Mostly these concerned the need

to avoid certain topics of conversation."

"Garbo was not, for example,

prepared to talk about her films

nor about her time in Hollywood."

"Her childhood and adolescence

were never to be touched on."

"Basically, you weren't allowed

to talk to her about anything."

I was working with Sven Broman.

He was the publisher

and was editor-in-chief

of the magazine, ret Runt.

It was glorious days.

It was like printing money

instead of printing magazines.

You could do almost anything

as long as you delivered.

Important content in the magazine

was celebrity stories

and celebrity pictures,

and we often published stories

about Greta Garbo and pictures.

There was a problem,

though, with those stories.

She never talked to journalists.

So, freelance journalists

invented captions from Greta Garbo,

and paparazzi photographed her,

you know, running like this

with black things

over her head, and so on.

Sven and I were talking about,

"Can't we do something better than this?"

Could it be possible to meet Greta Garbo?

To get in contact with Greta Garbo?

And that lighted a light within Mr Broman.

And he said,

"I will do that before I die."

The year 1927 brought to a close

the era of the silent film,

and the years in which unrestricted

by any language barriers,

Hollywood and its stars monopolised

the picture screens of all the world.

Late in '28, the talkies

get a firm grip on Hollywood.

Production methods

and equipment are revolutionised.

Cameramen are locked in soundproof booths,

ironically nicknamed ice boxes.

A new figure, the sound engineer,

dominates the set

and actors quail before him.

Crude microphones hang from the ceiling

or are concealed,

not too well, behind some prop,

like this one into which

Junior Coghlan is talking.

Life becomes more

complicated for everyone.

And for the poor cameraman,

shut up in his ice box,

it's one long Turkish bath.

Everybody was waiting for it.

What kind of voice would she have?

Not everybody could make the transition.

Part of it was the voice,

you had to have a voice that people liked,

and people loved Garbo's voice,

and it fit her so well.

And it was commented on by reviewers

how her voice was just the most

natural voice for her to have.

She has this quite dark voice,

but very sensual.

Her first line is classic.

Gimme a whiskey. Ginger ale on the side.

And don't be stingy, baby.

Well, shall I serve it in a pail?

Well, that suits me down to the ground.

She does Anna Christie,

which is a Eugene O'Neill film.

It's a very serious film, won a Pulitzer.

It's a very sophisticated play

that they film basically as a play.

It doesn't have a lot of fancy costumes.

There are no sets to speak of.

And it's a hit. It's a huge success.

Her popularity burst forth

from a Eugene O'Neill play.

It's hilarious.

You know that Swedish word...

Skol?

I guess I know that word

all right, all right.

Anna Christie.

Romance.

Where does she think she is, Russia?

Ah, here we have it.

The film where she first uses

what became her infamous line.

I want to be alone.

Where have you been?

I suppose I can cancel

the Vienna contract?

I just want to be alone.

You're gonna be very much alone,

my dear madam, this is the end.

She plays a ballerina

whose career is fading

in the Grand Hotel.

At this point, she'd become so famous

she started to be billed just "Garbo."

Mata Hari, Queen Christina,

both mildly scandalous for their treatment

of blatant eroticism and bisexuality.

Funnily enough, they went on

to become her most successful.

Before she was so big,

she was like anyone else,

but she was more like, hee,

you know, she was funny, happy.

Like anyone else, she wanted a boyfriend,

and she wanted to go to a restaurant

and eat and drink and dance

and like anyone else.

But then she was famous,

then, "Oh, no,

what's happening with my life?"

She wasn't happy then.

This was a woman who didn't have

an easy time being happy,

but she managed to get there.

And then because of her dreams

and the dreams of others, i.e. Stiller,

she was taken to a place

which destroyed her happiness, really.

But she couldn't resist it

because it offered her

what she had always dreamed of.

But that wasn't where she was happy.

Where she was happy was halfway there.

Sven was very enthusiastic

about finding Greta

and the enthusiasm spread

into the editorial offices of ret Runt.

And we formed a group called Letta Greta,

which means "finding Greta,"

it translated into that.

We gave each other ideas of expeditions

where we probably could find her.

So, one expedition went to Tista Slott

with a photographer and a reporter

to see if she appeared.

She didn't.

Sven and I decided to try another thing,

which was a little more glamorous,

and that was going to New York

and try to get into her house.

So, we took a yellow cab to the house,

and there was a doorman standing outside.

And we said, "Good morning,

we are going to visit Greta Garbo."

And he said, "Who?" He said, "Who?"

"Greta, you know, Greta Garbo,

she is living in this house,

you're the doorman."

"I've never heard of a person

called Greta Garbo."

So, we had to see that

this was also a failure.

This went on for a couple of years

and the Letta Greta group more and more

become a wining and dining group.

We looked and looked and looked.

We Letta'd and Letta'd and Letta'd,

but we didn't find Garbo.

Sven Broman, on his hand,

he didn't give up.

What is it? What does the gentleman want?

Accommodations for the night.

Why, only now this gentleman

has taken our last room, the best one.

Ever loyal,

Garbo insisted that her one-time lover

return to MGM and star

opposite her in Queen Christina.

She knew his contract was over

and his career was in a steady decline

due to his struggles with alcoholism.

I'm really mortified, sir.

The film is a fictionalised account

of the final years of the reign

of Queen Christina of Sweden.

In character, she spends

the first half of the film

dressed as a man.

When the Spanish courtier

mistakes her for one,

they end up sharing

a room together at an inn.

When he finally realises she's a woman,

they make love with her

still dressed in her male disguise.

This film is seen by many

as an example of early q*eer cinema.

Of course, it had to be.

I felt it. I felt it.

A presence.

Oh, life is so gloriously improbable.

Hmm.

God, it's been a difficult time.

It all went wrong.

I'm half done with Christina now,

and half done is what

she's going to be when she's finished.

It's impossible

to try and achieve anything

out of the ordinary here.

This is the last time I'm trying to do

something radical and artistic.

If only those who dream about Hollywood

knew how hard it is

to make anything truly creative.

On top of all the other absurdities,

they're marrying me for the 759th time.

Can you think of anything

lower than the people

who are in charge of this

so-called art I'm part of?

The closing scene

of Queen Christina

captures the full power

of a Garbo performance.

As Queen Christina

prepares to sail to Spain,

she stands stoically

at the front of the ship.

Her character leaving Sweden

knowing she can never return.

Three years after the film's release,

Jack Gilbert died from a heart attack.

He was only 38 years old.

The liner Kungsholm

sails into New York,

accompanied only by

a ship full of news reporters,

Garbo returns to America.

True to her silent reputation,

the Swedish star offers

nothing to the eager press,

though she barely gets

the chance to speak.

Here is where you see

a slightly more isolated Garbo

because of just the effects of celebrity.

It was clearly transitioning

because of the nature, I think,

of film and... and the nature of celebrity.

I mean, both of these things

are evolving at a breakneck pace.

In some ways she was

a curmudgeon, she didn't like that.

She wanted that separation.

She thought her art

should stand for itself,

and clearly fans thought otherwise.

There are people standing in her yard.

There are people following her in cars.

She was hounded

by the press and she couldn't...

She was a person

who needed to be by herself.

I give them

everything I got on the screen.

And why do they try to invade my privacy?

I've never done

anything to invite them in.

I don't do interviews.

I don't answer to their lies.

I don't play tennis

with the press, it leads to nowhere.

Yet still they chase, chase, chase.

In the paparazzi era,

this sort of almost meme

about her was created as this recluse.

Paparazzi talk about how

they would wait to get certain images

because they were selling a story.

They could sell a photo

for a hundred dollars,

but they could sell a story for 5,000.

And the story for Garbo was,

"Oh, she's hiding from us."

So they would literally

wait for her to cough

and put her hand up and sell that picture.

Now she also tried to ruin

pictures by putting her hand up,

so that it became a bit

of a game between them.

And then she started ignoring them.

She was called

the "Mysterious Woman" by so many.

And I think that helped, of course,

to create her identity as a star

more than as an actress,

but as the star during this period.

What is it you like about me?

My mind?

Mmm, no.

Oh...

You Desire Me.

The Painted Veil.

It's enchanting, nothing else.

I didn't know you were

going back to St Petersburg...

Anna Karenina.

Why this change of plan?

Why? To be where you are.

I could k*ll you for this.

Camille.

I'm not worth k*lling, Armand.

I've loved you as much as I could love.

If that wasn't enough.

Ninotchka.

A farce in which Garbo proved herself

a highly capable comic actor,

and for which she was Oscar-nominated.

It was the role closest

to her actual personality.

There's less acting

in Ninotchka in a sense

that she's just being herself.

Good evening, comrade.

This man is very old.

You shouldn't make him work.

He takes good care of that.

He looks sad. Do you whip him?

No, but the mere thought

makes my mouth water.

The day will come when you will be free.

Go to bed, little father.

We want to be alone.

Sort of this sly humour,

that's what comes through in Ninotchka.

The screen gets a new Garbo,

warm, human, beautiful.

Audiences laughing so hard,

there were patrons complaining

they couldn't hear the film.

Garbo catapulted back to the top

of the female MGM contingent.

Outside of love, everything else

seems to be a waste of time.

I like men.

Jumping right

off the back of Ninotchka,

the studios rushed forward

with another comedy

called Two-Faced Woman.

This time the budget was slashed,

the wardrobe designs

were not up to scratch,

and the studio refused

the director, George Cukor,

sufficient time to work with the actors.

The National Legion

of Decency rated the film

as "C" for condemned.

Citing its alleged immoral

and un-Christian attitude

toward marriage and its obligations.

Archbishop Spellman, the powerful

leader of the Church in New York,

published a letter

urging all faithful Catholics

to not go see it.

Other Church leaders soon followed.

It did okay in a box office sense.

It was not by itself an unsuccessful film,

and there's no indication

she ever intended to retire.

It was a dreadful movie.

Oh, no, no, this is a sign

for me to stop right here, now.

Her last movie,

she was not happy with that.

And... and then she said,

"I'll retire." She retired.

Oh, you frightened

the life out of me, Larry.

Aren't you under a misapprehension?

Larry, please.

I'm not Larry, I'm his twin brother.

Oh, darling Katherine.

In this harsh new world,

there's no place for me any more.

The most

beautiful woman in the world,

24 movies for MGM under her belt.

It's hard to believe that she deliberately

decided to stop acting

because of one lousy film.

She continued to keep producers hanging,

contemplating scripts,

and even testing for a few,

only to back out at the last minute.

She moved to New York, and in 1951,

became an American citizen.

And then the world's greatest movie star

became known

as the world's greatest recluse.

In 1955, she was awarded an honorary Oscar

for her luminous and unforgettable

screen performances.

Over the next 30 years,

despite what was said in the press,

she wasn't alone.

She had a long-term lover, George Schlee,

and partied with her friends

that were protective of her

and loyal, such as Charlie Chaplin,

President Kennedy and Onassis.

But the paparazzi never stopped following,

desperate for a scoop.

The story of my life

is about back entrances,

side doors, secret elevators,

and other ways of getting

in and out of places

so that people won't bother me.

She had had what I would think of as

much more intimate

relationships early in her life

with Stiller and Gilbert.

And then she meets Schlee, he was married,

and they had a very open relationship.

They travelled together frequently.

They were in New York, both of them

living in apartments in the same building.

I think their relationship

was very important

because it went on until Schlee's death.

Act Three,

New York, 1972.

Amongst the bustling crowds,

we spot Garbo.

Impeccably dressed, using a newspaper

to shield her face from the press.

Everything they had made up

about her, she had now become.

With Schlee and her brother,

Sven, now gone,

she retreated into herself.

Close friends rallied around her.

Ccile de Rothschild

set about finding her walking companions

and younger men to keep her company.

Enter Sam Green.

Hello, Claire.

- Er, Mr Green?

- This is Mr Green, yes.

- Just a second.

- Thank you.

- Hello, Mr Green.

- Well, hello.

Did you happen to see

my latest splash in the paper?

Yes, I did.

Well, splash is the right word.

- Are you mad?

- Er...

How about this...

And it leaves the impression

that I disrobed in public.

I couldn't even go bathing in public.

How did the photographer get you?

You must have been out and about.

Yes, thank God it's a long lens camera.

Otherwise, they would

have seen all the things

that are hanging with his...

With long lens camera

you don't see it so well.

In his social life, he was straight.

And he had to be straight

because he lived off very rich,

somewhat damaged women.

You'd visit some rather

vulnerable old grand dame

and there, of course, was Sam.

Somehow, he'd got in.

On the streets of New York, Garbo walked.

Locals would spot her

as she shopped at Bloomingdale's

and browsed the flea markets in SoHo.

Sightings of Garbo

around New York were common.

Most people in her

neighbourhood had stories

of interactions with her.

It was said that the watchers

were divided into two categories,

passive and active.

Some people would follow,

but most watched and let her be.

When Garbo walked,

it was convenient for her

to have a companion

because of obsessive fans.

Erm, you know, they did exist,

and she didn't hire security.

And so, a Sam Green

or a Raymond Daum walking with her,

or a Cecil Beaton, is a form of defence.

She was pretty clear

that they wanted to leverage

the relationship socially.

There was no shortage

of lovers vying for her attention.

Cecil Beaton,

who she cut out of her circle

after multiple leaks of her private life,

Mercedes de Acosta, a poet,

an apparent affair with Marlene Dietrich,

although Marlene claimed they'd never met.

Even at 80, she wasn't short of offers.

The only one

I wanted there was you.

I wanted you, we could have rented

a car and just run around the desert.

- Why me?

- Oh, because.

I... Er, you know why.

- [Garbo] No, I don't.

- Well, you do.

- I apparently don't.

- Well...

After all,

you don't know me very much.

Well, what I know I like,

and there's a great sort of, er, chemistry

- that I think is kind of fun.

- Is that all?

I... I really am terribly cheered up

- and have fun with you.

- That's all.

And... and you must know that.

You're an awfully

flippant young man, I must say.

- I... There's a...

- Just talking, talk...

about things and without knowing

anything about anything. That's terrible.

- Well...

- How do you know?

I have a feeling that...

Yeah,

and you get your head cut off.

When are we

going to walk in the snow?

I haven't the foggiest idea.

She was savvy with her money,

investing in property and art.

She had a huge collection,

which included three Renoirs.

As she receded from public view,

she quickly adapted into her new life,

partying with close friends

and holidaying under

an invented new persona

she called "Miss Harriet Brown."

Witty, talkative and apparently

flirtatious and charming,

under this guise,

she could do all the things

that she had always wanted to do

that fame had taken away.

After 1960, she would go

to Klosters, it's off-season,

she had a circle of friends there,

another group of people

who didn't talk about her.

So, she had sort of this

circle of activities that she did.

We got a clue, and the clue was

Ms Garbo seemed to go

to Klosters every summer,

'cause she wanted to avoid the heat.

And we got paparazzi pics

from Klosters every year

when she was running

in the mountains and...

Terrible pictures, but it was Greta Garbo.

And she stayed every year

at the same hotel.

It was called Hotel Pardenn,

and she stayed in the same room.

Room 4110.

So, we were pretty close.

We knew she is there every summer

and maybe next summer.

So, Sven Broman and his wife, Si,

went to Hotel Pardenn

in Klosters and checked in.

And went to the dining room

to have luncheon.

And, oops, Greta Garbo was sitting there.

So, Sven started to nod at Greta Garbo,

and after one lunch or two,

she nodded back.

Then it was a matter of timing

when he should approach her,

because, I mean, he couldn't

sit there nodding for two weeks.

That wasn't the purpose of the trip.

It was to win her confidence

and made the first interview ever

after she had stopped meeting journalists.

"She was alone at lunch that day."

"When we had finished eating,

I went over to her table,

bowed and said,

'Would you like us to give

your love to Sweden?'"

To my taste I didn't think it

a very good line, but it worked.

Oh, so you are Swedish.

I have been sitting here looking at you.

But there are rarely any Swedes here,

So I was unsure.

A drink, perhaps?

Well, I don't know.

Are you staying here at the hotel?

His wife told me,

"I've never seen him so nervous."

"Ever."

Punctually at three o'clock,

a telephone call.

And when she called, she never said,

"It's Greta, or something,"

she always said, "It's me."

So, Si Broman, Sven Broman,

went hastily to the bar

and after couple of minutes,

Greta Garbo arrived.

"So, there we were,

sitting, waiting in the bar."

"In a quarter of an hour,

it would be five o'clock."

"I was sitting there as though

I had been turned to stone

looking at the entrance to the bar."

"Suddenly Garbo was

standing in the doorway."

Sven had prepared a better line

this time for the afternoon.

He rehearsed and said,

"When she's sitting down,

I would say, 'Would you

like to have a whiskey

with lots of ice on the side?'"

Unfortunately, she was faster than him.

So she ordered a vodka martini.

But he used his line anyway.

Imagine yourself that you are from Sweden,

but you've never met anyone from Sweden.

I can barely remember

when I last spoke Swedish.

Are you from Stockholm?

Yes, we live in Stockholm.

I miss Sweden so much.

But I can't return home.

I don't dare.

They chase me too much.

In this bar,

in this Hotel Pardenn,

in Klosters, Switzerland,

their friendship started.

Sweden was where she was happiest,

but she couldn't go back because

she was more famous

in Sweden than in the States.

And her fame lasted longer

in Sweden than in the States.

She couldn't get back her old life,

which you never can.

Once you make big decisions in life,

you can never go back, really,

and she couldn't.

She was anonymous in New York,

so that's where she stayed.

She had a circle of friends in New York.

She would come out to visit

my mom in particular, and us.

I think when you get

to when she's much older,

she becomes more frail.

She has pernicious anaemia,

which is a lifetime condition,

and, you know,

somewhat debilitative over time.

She's had a heart attack.

She's had breast cancer.

And so, yeah, her life

becomes somewhat more narrow,

and a lot of her friends pre-deceased her.

Greta had

to cut out a lot of friends

and acquaintances throughout her life,

mainly because they were using her

or selling stories for their gain.

I thought I could

trust you a little bit,

but I don't think so any more.

You're just like

the rest of the commoners.

It's not true.

What are you talking about?

One of your friends at some party.

- Yeah?

- And telling a story about me.

- It makes me sad.

- Are you sure?

- Are you really sure?

- Yeah.

I asked you specifically

not to tell it to anybody,

and it's all belittling

and making idiots out of people always.

And that's the sad part.

Right. Think of all of the stories

I could have told

to people all of these years,

- and I haven't told any.

- What stories?

I mean, there's nothing much to tell.

Well, there's nothing

much to tell, exactly.

I don't discuss my life

- or my anything with anybody.

- Oh, I know.

There were a lot of people

on the street that saw...

- You remember...

- Ah, Mr... Er, no, no, no, no.

No, I'm not trying to get out of anything,

but I don't know what I'm into.

That's what's so sad, you see.

It just makes things so contributing

to all the rest of the lies about one.

Greta's private world continued to narrow.

"In the summer of 1986,

the second year I had

the opportunity of meeting Garbo,

I put the inevitable question to her,

'Why was it that you stopped

filming so abruptly?'"

"I was tired of Hollywood

and did not like my work."

"There were many days

where I had to force myself

to go to the studio."

"I did not get any good scripts,

any good ideas for films."

"I actually went on filming

longer than I intended."

"I really wanted to live another life."

"I wanted to stop earlier,

but I'd been bound

to the terms of my contract."

"Were you so disappointed

with your last film, Two-Faced Woman,

that you gave it all up because of that?"

"No. That film was hardly

any worse than any other,

but I had started to abandon

my career a long time before that."

"But I still don't understand."

"Your films were a success

the whole world over."

"It must have been tempting

to continue when people idolised you."

"I always wanted to do my best."

"I got nothing free, I had to work hard."

"But I also got pursued and persecuted."

"I could never be left alone,

and I dreamt of being left in peace."

"I was only a girl when I started,

and after all, I never thought

that I had a childhood

like any other people."

"Then there was the press,

of which you, Mr Broman,

has been a representative,

which pursued me and never left me alone."

"That was no kind of life."

"It was not worth the price."

The acquiring,

the satisfaction of her dreams

really did make her unhappy, I would say.

And she left the only way

she could, by just abdicating.

She wanted Greta Gustafsson.

Not change her name.

Stay in Stockholm,

play in Dramaten,

and meet my grandmother and other friends,

Vera Schmiterlw and so on.

Just have fun.

"Today I can really see that

at times I was both difficult and stupid."

"I regret the way I behaved."

"If I'd been able to make

some decent films,

if I'd been more in a position

to make the important decisions,

I would have been more fulfilled."

"I do realise now that

I was way too sensitive

during those first years in Hollywood."

"Nowadays, you can almost

fly back and forth every day."

"It's difficult for young

people to understand

how isolated you could feel."

"Sweden was far away,

and it was impossible to go home."

Sven and his wife were invited

to the Hudson apartment

where we had been

messing with the doorman.

They also met in Klosters every summer

until the last summer before she died.

The result was a book

called Conversations with Garbo.

It's uncertain if she ever read it,

'cause she died before

the book was published.

And by that, you can say

the Letta Greta expedition is over.

There are many different

versions of who Greta Garbo really was.

Funny and smart,

the life and soul of a party.

Sad and lonely, a bizarre hermit.

Everyone's interpretation

of who she was is just that.

Only Garbo knows the truth

behind the Garbo myth.

She never gave that away.

Perhaps that's why we still find her

so endlessly fascinating.

Maybe she got the most

she could out of life, you know.

Considering her...

The baggage from childhood,

considering the fact that

she became world-famous

based on beauty and charisma,

not so much on acting.

Considering she had wealth,

maybe this was

as good as it could get for her.

Maybe her capacity even

for love relationships

was not that great.

I mean, if she had stayed in Sweden,

I'm not sure

it would've been so much better.

I know she was very happy

when she was

at the drama school, that's for sure.

And she said it,

and you can see it from her letters,

and from people's descriptions of her,

but could she have sustained it?

I'm not sure.

The truth was

Garbo had become

a legend in her own lifetime,

and a legend is

the hardest thing to live with.

People have a need

for something mysterious

and inaccessible and romantic.

Most film stars are

only too happy to return the love

they feel their fans show them.

It's what keeps them going over the years.

But when Greta Garbo

had been Greta Gustafsson,

serving behind a Stockholm shop counter,

she never dreamed that stardom

could be such a heavy,

heavy weight to bear.

Now, even when she fled from her fans,

she only increased her

fascination for them.

All she ever asked for was a private life.

"I want to be let alone,"

she said over and over again.

I was born, I grew up,

I live like every other.

Why must people talk about me?

We all do the same things

in ways that are just a little different.

We go to school, we learn,

we're bad sometimes, we're good sometimes.

We find our life's work and we do it.

That's all there is

to anyone's life story, isn't it?

The film I like best from her,

I've seen them, it's Gsta Berlings Saga.

She is so natural.

That's the woman she was.

That's the beauty of a person.

Not only this, you know, inside too.

You can see it in the movie.

That's the most adorable film, I think.

I think Gsta Berlings Saga,

because it goes very much

to the Swedish soul.

I mean, it's a national ethos,

and in Gsta Berlings Saga,

you see a star is born.

One of my favourite Garbo films

from early on is As You Desire Me,

where she looks completely different.

You can almost sense the kind of

freedom she feels in that part,

not having to look like Garbo.

To be honest, I don't think

any of her films are very good.

But I think obviously that

Queen Christina is very daring.

It really, I mean, it's so q*eer in 1930,

what, two or three.

I, of course, have to say Christina,

because I've been

fascinated by Queen Christina.

It's probably not because

of the quality of the acting

and the quality of the film.

It's because of the quality of the theme.

The thing about Christina

is a favourite story of mine.

So, that's why Garbo's movie,

Christina, that's why I like the movie.

Anna Karenina is a great film.

She's really good in it,

and it's a good story for her.

You know, clever cinematography,

the scene with her face

emerging through the smoke from the train.

It's just such

a great way to start a film,

and then was cribbed by everybody.