Beauty in the apertures of pain

Greta Garbo, Love, 1927

Greta Garbo, Inspiration, 1931

GRETA GARBO as Nina Ivanovna “Ninotchka” Yakushova in NINOTCHKA (1939) dir. Ernst Lubitsch

Greta Garbo in the MGM/Fred Niblo silent drama The Mysterious Lady, 1928.

Greta Garbo, A Woman of Affairs, 1928

Greta Garbo

“Unable to give her the Nobel prize, I wanted to be a bit grand and give Garbo something out of the ordinary — one of the stars in the sky. You can buy one from a Canadian firm that is part of an organization that exists to gather funds for an observatory. 

Garbo was sitting in our hotel room in Klosters. I explained that many of the stars in the sky lack names, but I had arranged for one of them to be known as Greta Garbo from now on. 

‘That’ll have to be the Star of Bethlehem, then,’ Garbo joked. 'I’m afraid that one’s already taken, but I’ve got the certificate here.’ I then produced the special star chart that I documents, etc. 

The star had had sent to me with all the related known as Greta Garbo is a sun one hundred times larger than the sun of our solar system and can be found just next to the pole star - only it’s infinitely further away. 

Garbo folded together all the paraphernalia and then said quietly: ‘Thank you. I promise to continue shining over everything, good as well as bad, in the future as well.’

The Duchess Of Langeais screen-test by Joseph Valentine c. 1949

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, Flesh and the Devil, 1926

“Garbo and my mother, Garbo’s only niece, arrived at Caneel Bay, a luxurious hotel in the Virgin Islands, for their annual Carribean vacation. At their beachside villa they would welcome the day with yoga poses. With the morning sunrise, Garbo, with her trademark wide-brimmed straw hat and over-sized sunglasses, took a long walk down the beach and a refreshing swim in the azure blue sea – a sea as magnificently clear and blue as her eyes… They would feast on yogurt, pineapples and strong coffee with maybe just a skvatt (Swedish for a splash) of warmed milk. I don’t know if Garbo adored anything better than a perfectly ripened pineapple, well perhaps caviar.” - Gray Horan

The Mysterious Lady (1928) 

Greta Garbo, 1925.

“Greta Garbo was the foundress of a religious order called cinema.”

- director Federico Fellini

Greta Garbo photographed by Milton Brown for Mata Hari (1931).

For everyone who plans to get drunk and make bad decisions this weekend!