Die Göttliche

This film brought to mind our own encounter with the elusive Ms. Garbo one afternoon as we held the door open for her at the 59th St. entrance of Bloomingdale's. Ms. Garbo could be seen around her East Side neighborhood, where people didn't even stare at her out of respect of her privacy! Manhattan in the 50s, 60s and even 70s had a lot of antique dealers on 3rd. Ave. and Ms. Garbo was a constant figure browsing those stores. Greta Garbo, the once silver screen goddess, lived a modest life in Manhattan. Her trade mark was the shade of lipstick she always wore and the camel hair coat one saw on her, until in later years when she adopted a brown duffle coat whenever she went out.

Sidney Lumet's film pays homage to that fleeting figure. The mysterious woman is at the center of a film that perhaps is not so much about the mythical figure, as much as the allure of what she stood for.

The story of the terminally ill Estelle Rolfe is a sweet account in how her loving son Gilbert tries to bring the illusion of the movies to his dying mother. The movie shows to what lengths Gilbert goes to grant Estelle a moment with the person she most admired, the actress Greta Garbo. Estelle was a fan, but more than that, she was a no nonsense lady who championed righteousness above all.

Anne Bancroft was born to play Estelle. Ms. Bancroft knew this woman and her portrayal benefits from the way she plays her. As the son, Ron Silver is good. He will go to whatever extreme to please his mother. Carrie Fisher is Lisa, the California girl married to Gilbert who doesn't want to stay in New York. Veteran actors like Howard Da Silva, Stephen Hill, Herminone Gingold, Dorothy Loudon, Harvey Fierstein are seen in the film in supporting parts.

"Garbo Talks" is not one of Sidney Lumet's best movies, but still, one gets the feeling what it is to live in New York with this tale about the celluloid meeting reality in Manhattan.

The story of a dying woman's last request is to meet her favorite film actress. It wouldn't be problem but the actress is Greta Garbo who has remained in seclusion for years since her retirement from the film industry. Anne Bancroft plays the dying mother and Ron Silver plays her son. The rest of the cast includes Harvey Fierstein as what else a gay New Yorker, Liz Smith, Denny Dillon, Steven Hill, and others that are well-known in New York City. Anne Bancroft's performance is really something to watch in this film. You want what she wants. In a way, the film is more about her than her son who wants to please his dying mother and grant her one wish even if it's almost impossible. Greta Garbo's legacy and her reclusion in New York City life reads like a great fiction novel but it's true. Garbo who was one of the most famous of her generation didn't hide but didn't promote herself shamelessly and she didn't even make the movie. But it must be a compliment that so many of her fans still remember her fondly.

Anne Bancroft has one of my favorite "renowned actress who really wants a great part" stories regarding this movie. She wanted the role, but Sidney Lumet wasn't going to give it to her. He'd just seen one of her husband's (Mel Brooks) lesser known, but still good movies, "To Be or Not To Be," and told her he was looking for someone older, less glamorous, less beautiful.

And she said, "Look, in that movie, I was carefully photographed, I was lovingly lit, and I was sleeping with the producer!"

So she got the part. And did such a good job.

Anne Bancroft, in the film Garbo Talks, experiences what many film fans can only dream of, meeting their idol. As Estelle Rolfe fades, we see her son Gilbert grow, helped along by his quest to find the mysterious Greta Garbo before his mother dies.

This film, while not great, is a great film if you are a Garbo fan. Listening to Estelle tell Garbo of all the big moments of her life and how each were punctuated by one of Garbo's films, is a testament to the power film can have.

Imagine you knew that your life were about to end... What would you fill your last days with?

Melancholic and difficult as it may seem, we sometimes tend to occupy our minds with such dilemmas. But this is not as hard as it occurs to be. Rather than thoughts, reflections and grieving atmosphere, these days occur to be precious and simple for the main character of GARBO TALKS where the silver screen legend is, again, not left alone and says her powerful lines... This time, however, she does so at the bedside of her dying fan.

Estelle Rolfe (Anne Bancroft), a mother, a divorced wife, a vivid and an energetic middle-aged woman is told by the doctors of brain tumor. Not much time is left for her...What does she do? What does she dream of? This dream appears to be so eccentric, so peculiar, so unique: she desires to meet Greta Garbo, the celebrity she has always admired and whose roles have always been deeply associated with her private life events. Estelle asks her son, Gilbert (Ron Silver), whom she named after Garbo's most popular co-star John Gilbert, to find the celebrity near her famous New York apartment. Although it seems ridiculous to him, the love to his mother will prompt Gilbert to achieve the impossible...

Despite the fact that the content of the movie seems, at first sight, to be a little bit subjective and the action quite predictable, GARBO TALKS offers a very pleasant and a creative insight into a 'different personality' and her unique determination. The whole film together with its humorous moments as well as some affectionate images, becomes a complex study of being a celebrity fan, of the illusive world created by idolatry and its consequences in REAL LIFE, which is the one and the only and which has always been quite different and should be apart from screen stories. Moreover, this illusive world 'infects' her son. The various characters who come and go are, as if, perceived through the subjective eyes of Gilbert, they are all less important than Gilbert's supreme goal: fulfill his mother's wish. As a result, we can say that GARBO TALKS is a beautiful development of son's love. In that way, it is neither Gilbert nor Estelle who is in the lead. It is rather a mother-son relation that appears to be at the core.

The performances are worth attention, yet, there should be a particular mention about one portrayal and one actress. It is Anne Bancroft as a peculiar woman, a difficult woman, a strange personality who lives within the four walls of her specific world, yet who does not lose contact with the outer world perceiving it, however, from her own perspective. In scenes galore, Ms Bancroft shines as witty, fluent, determined, spontaneous and quite eccentric. Without her marvelous acting, the film would be pretty pathetic. Ron Silver does a good job as her loving son Gilbert, especially in the indefatigable quest for Garbo and in his scenes with Angelo Dokakis. Nevertheless, it is throughout Ms Bancroft who is at the focus of attention: we empathize with her, cry with her, laugh with her...she also drives us crazy...

According to some curious notes, director Sidney Lumet asked Greta Garbo to appear on screen again, after all these years, as herself. Unfortunately, there was no response and, consequently, it is Betty Comden whom we see in the role of the Swedish Sphinx. Greta Garbo died in 1990, six years after the premiere of this film. No one knows if she ever saw this film...

GARBO TALKS is a nice film about determination, dreams, inner world, celebrity adoration and, foremost, about the nostalgia for a world that seems gone, for a world that seems lost. GARBO TALKS is, finally, a pleasant fantasy which says that the unbelievable may become the reality. Why? Seemingly to console us, to make us happy just for a moment...not to be alone with oneself...