Garbo: Where Did You Go?

It starts off with a ridiculous statement which says that "why she quit acting and where she went are a mystery to this day...." which was completely untrue. Everyone knows she lived in New York City and walked a lot. People saw her all over the city for years and years. Why she quit has also been well documented. So this slow moving, poorly narrated, idiotically stylized documentary teaches us nothing. Why is that woman in the blond wig reading papers while someone who sounds like Madonna using her fake British accent does a voice over? Why are the creepy papier machet masks necessary-symbolism? Wow, that's a high school play level plot device. The whole thing was off-putting, cringy, shallow and took away from the only decent parts, which was the interviews with people who knew her.

Only worth seeing for the clips of her silent movies and for the fact that there are so few documentaries on Greta Garbo (the TCM one being far superior to this) but overall this is very much a mixed bag and overall a bit of a mess.

The lumpy paper mache masks used to depict Garbo's head are truly grotesque. A very strange stylistic device for a woman who was universally known as the Divine One and feted for her staggering beauty during her lifetime. Could they have not used still photographs? Ultimately, the repetitive use of these masks throughout becomes a big bore.

Secondly the narration by Noomi Rapace is dull and vocally she sounds far too modern to convey the thoughts of Garbo's in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

The use of 'An Investigator' in a blonde Garboesque wig also adds nothing. A Louella Parsons or Hedda Hopper or even a Walter Winchell type may have been a better choice at representing the Hollywood of the time. Little to no mention of the Garbo mania of the 1930s or of Garbo's private life.

The good things are very few and far between: Some taped phone conversations from Sam Green, who was Garbo's walker; Scott Reisfield, representing Garbo's family; Mimi Pollak's daughter giving her opinion; and an interview snippet of Marlene Dietrich humbly declaring that nobody was Garbo's competitor, implying that no one at that level of fame or success in the 1930s.

Sadly it's a shame this documentary doesn't do Garbo any justice at all.

The people who were interviewed and the archived footage regarding Garbo were great. The use of the paper mache mask were creepy and unnecessary. Also unnerving was the platinum blonde actress who chewed through every seen she was in. Her acting was way over the top, and did nothing for the film. It appeared as though this documentary was the first professional job for the blonde and she wanted to make a good impression. She failed miserably.

I stopped watching about 3/4 of the way through the film because I couldn't take the mask and the platinum blonde anymore. I wish the film had been solely archival footage and interviews.

I love documentaries and was so excited to watch this and learn more about Garbo. This was extremely boring and provided mostly surface level information. More time was spent showing an actor holding a weird fake head in front of her own or flipping through papers than clips of Garbo. And yes, I understood the point of the fake head, I just found it an unnecessary waste of time. The film would touch on something quite briefly but wouldn't explore it deeper and would quickly move on. It left me constantly hoping for more but I was disappointed each time. Surely there is more information out there about a fascinating person like Garbo. Don't waste your time.

A few interesting facts and movie clips.

The documentary basically focused on everything we already know about Garbo and did little to delve into the deeper mystique of the woman and give us insight into the Garbo that was out of circulation for 50 years. Additionally, I found these things problematic:

-- The "voice of Greta" reading her letters sounded like a character out of Downton Abbey rather than a shy Swede.... totally misses that low husky sound.

-- There is a woman with a mask that keeps appearing in the film --- with the mask hiding her and then at times giving a glimpse of the real life. I suppose there is symbolism there with the real Garbo hiding from the public... but the mask is so creepy and so distracting, that I had to quit watching and just listen.

-- The actress billed as "the investigator" consistently interrupts at inopportune moments and is perhaps more distracting than the creepy mask.

Overall, not well-produced and a big let down. Don't invest the 90 minutes. You could tune into a TCM Garbo movie and hear a Ben Mankiewicz pre-film summary that would give you the same level of information (and you could actually watch him and not be creeped out).