Die Göttliche

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.

Ron Silver's decision to try and grant his dying mother's wish to meet Greta Garbo becomes an all-consuming obsession in "Garbo Talks" (***1/2). This unusual story touches upon a theme that is seldom explored with much depth in films: the effect the movies or a particular star may have on our entire lives. How many of us have had the experience of watching a golden oldie that evokes a vivid memory of where we were and what our lives were like the very first time we saw it? Most of us, I'll bet. This thought is crystallized in the funny and touching monologue Anne Bancroft delivers in her hospital bed to her idol as she tells Garbo what her films have meant to her during key moments of her life. Ron Silver is effectively low-key as Bancroft's devoted son, and the telling cameos contributed by a great supporting cast playing assorted New York oddballs he meets during his odyssey are a special bonus (Hermione Gingold is a rare hoot). There are a few gaps that could probably have been filled in better between the vignettes (I would have been curious to know how Silver spent his night on Fire Island after missing the last ferry boat), but all-in-all this is a wonderful little sleeper. Those who are tuned into it will know what I mean.

...playing an extremely feisty lady living in NYC who simply doesn't take anyone's stuff-for example, when construction guys yell obscenities to passing women, she gets up on a lift and confronts the guys, "Ok, who here has the electric tongue? Is it plug in or batteries?" She is a Garbo fanatic, presumably enchanted by Garbo's independent nature, crying at her films playing on TV.

Her suffering adult son Gilbert (Ron Silver) has to routinely bail her from jail, take daily humiliation at work and deal with his complaining wife, uncharacteristically played by cutie Carrie Fisher.

Add to that, Mom is diagnosed with inoperable brain tumor. Her dying wish is to meet Greta Garbo, whom we all know at the time lived in NYC. For anyone who remembers NYC in the 80's, it was a big deal to have a "Garbo Sighting" and better yet-a snap photo.

All this sets up the episodic story of Gilbert's goal to find Garbo. It was very cute, although the story flow was kind of uneven. Some "episodes" in his quest were funny, some poignant, some too long and others too short for my liking.

Overall, it was worth a view for the enjoyable performances, especially Bancroft who obviously had fun doing it. Catherine Hicks is also a standout, as a struggling actress working at the same dull accounting firm as Gilbert. Harvey Fierstein's segment was way too short, he's a powerhouse (as usual) in his vignette.

The music however was the absolute worst. It's dated, inappropriate and goofy. Leonard Maltin's two sentence comment actually mentions the horrible soundtrack. Never underestimate the power of music in film!

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.

I can't add too much to the other reviews. We have a devoted son trying to fulfill his mother's wish, and he goes to extremes in order to fulfill it, all the while trying to unknowingly fulfill his own.

I saw this film when it was first released, and was just astounded as to its simple form. It was heart warming and heart wrenching all at once, though I didn't feel it at the time, but admired its simplicity in form. This is the kind of film making they simply don't do anymore. The shots are basic, functional, non-energetic, and do their job. No steadicam work, no overhead remote wire work, nor sweeping helicopter shots. And for that matter there's no wit filled dialogue. No excessive use of foul language. No explosions, gunshots nor car chases. No phony and juvenile romantic moments. No fake intimacy. No fabricated outlandish scenarios. No pre-teen raunch jokes and humor. None of that.

It's the way movies used to be. The movie going audience was different back then. More mature. More adult. More willing to behave themselves and take life seriously but also acknowledge a time and place to have fun. They were also smarter when it came to the human condition. They weren't raised on fast food cinema with superheros gallivanting around CGI worlds. It was a different time. A different place. It's what going to the movies used to be like.

And that's who this film is for. For those people, the movie audience of yesterday, who didn't mind taking in a matinée to see a romance or detective story on the screen. The kind of movie goer who wasn't waiting to be wowed by the next big breakthrough in special effects, CGI and other technical wizardry. They went for the actors and story.

And those are the kind of films Greta Garbo was in. Oh sure, she was beautiful to be sure, but she was also an actress with reclusive tendencies--a quirk that made her legendary among her comeliness and presence on screen. People thought she was beautiful, and then her natural character was captured via lens and film to relay to the movie going audience of the 30s and 40s. People fell in love with her, her characters, her performances, and her films.

In this film we bring all those elements together to form a compound for the classic movie lover who lived in the 80s. For anyone who loves their mother, for anyone who loves classic films, for anyone with a misled faith in Hollywood endings, such as I and many others, this film is for you.

I haven't seen it since it was first released. And it was a pleasure to see it again.

Check it out.