The enigmatic beauty

Greta Garbo’s uniquely photogenic beauty belies her great talent as an actress, as her performances in Queen Christina and Camille prove. A hint of a Garbo smile, touch, or glance conveyed volumes. She was languid, distant, and melancholy, yet in her love scenes she conveyed a passion and hunger that startled audiences and overturned American notions of eroticism and sexuality. Part of her fascination, too, is the mystery of her private lives and loves: “I want to be alone,” she insisted, but she remains the world’s divine woman.