Rent Greta Garbo Collection: Camille (1936)

Literary Melodrama. - Greta Garbo Collection: Camille review by Steve

Sumptuous and expansive MGM production of Alexandre Dumas jr's 1852 novel about a courtesan who is destroyed by the hypocrisy of high society and her virtuous, transgressive love for a younger man. It's principally another vehicle for Greta Garbo which makes some sort of accommodation for her non-American accent.

She doesn't sound French, but then... neither does anyone else! She gives an impassioned but nuanced portrayal and thanks to sensitive direction from George Cukor her romantic scenes with Robert Taylor have an intimacy. Among a capable support cast, Henry Daniell is an effective bad guy as Camille's rich, ruthless patron.

Given this was released at the high tide of the Production Code, the script doesn't go into detail on the realities of life for a 19th century high society sex worker. But there is an impression of the iniquities of the period, especially for women, when the financial securities of the demi-monde are not even an afterthought.

Those born into the precariat either sell themselves to the aristocracy, or feed off each other. But this isn't social realism, it's a period melodrama with wonderful costumes and set decor and a superb score, which is the context for Garbo's baroque performance. Cukor keeps the mood buoyant. Until the famous death scene, at least.