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List Price: $50.00 | | Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Salesrank: 95555
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| Our Price: $24.76 |
| Used Price: $15.61 |
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
With her astounding beauty and enigmatic persona, Greta Garbo is the ultimate Hollywood icon. Though many books have tried to unlock the mystique of the "Swedish Sphinx" by focusing primarily on her personal life, Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy is the first to pay serious attention to what made her an icon-her 24 Hollywood films.
Celebrating the centenary of her birth, the book draws extensively on interviews, letters, and newly accessible M-G-M production files to chronicle Garbo's career from her American debut in 1926 to her self-imposed retirement in 1941 at the height of her popularity. A wealth of film stills, production photographs, and portraits-many previously unpublished, all beautifully reproduced from pristine prints-combine with Mark Vieira's engrossing text to bring vividly to life the actress who inspired the critic Kenneth Tynan to declare: "What, when drunk, one sees in other women, one sees in Garbo sober." AUTHOR BIO: Mark A. Vieira is a photographer, film historian, and the author of Abrams' acclaimed Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits, Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, and Hollywood Horror: From Gothic to Cosmic. He lives in Los Angeles.
Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy Reviews:
FIRST READ IT 2 YRS. AGO AND JUST READ IT AGAIN 
2009-09-19 - Mark Vieira's "Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy" is an excellent book. Great research. Very informative of all her films and the great legacy they are. Also, he has told facts in her personal life that were not known until recently. (I agree 100% re the Oct. 1926 to Apr. 1927 "strike" and two months again after; honestly, I thought the same a long time ago)!
I also agree 100% w/his saying that Karen Swenson's biography, "Greta Garbo-A Life Apart", is the definitive one (read this book twice too).
If there is any fault at all that I find w/Mr. Vieira's excellent work, it is as follows: The constant references to M. Dietrich. Furthermore, I certainly don't believe any kind of info that Dietrich's daughter Maria Riva has related.
Another pet peeve is the non-mentioning of the way John Gilbert, who loved Greta passionately and vice versa (they really were star-crossed lovers), was really destroyed with glee by Mayer.
All in all, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
lovely.
2009-04-29 - this book is the best book i bought.
a lot of excelent pictures of greta and great text also. i don't regret buying it.
superb tribute
2005-09-29 - U nusually informative survey of Garbo's career with background material on her artistry rather than just her personal life
wonderful pictures
Garbo Fans will want to be "alone" with this beautiful book!
2005-09-22 - The Swedish Sphinx Greta Garbo (1905-1990 was "an enigma wrapped up in mystery" to most people. However, in this out-
standing book you will come to know her for what she is best
remembered for: her movies!
Viera analyses each of Garbo's films from her first silent
feature "Torrent" through to her last talkie "Two Faced Woman."
In between these two films you will:
a. Have a in-depth analysis of each of the films
b. See the secrets revealed of such masters of photography as
William Daniels, Hurrell and Bull who lit Garbo to perfection.
c. Learn of Garbo's torrid and tortured affair with John Gilber
d. Learn about her great director Stiller and her work with such American directors as Clarence Brown and others.
e. Explore the business side of her relationship with MGM
as she dealt with moguls such as LB Meyer and boy wonder Irving
Grant Thalberg,
Viera is a photographer and film historian who makes the life
and career of Garbo come alive after all these years. I have enjoyed his earlier: "Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits" and "Sin in
Sof-Focus" always profiting from the enjoyable hours spent in his
company.
This is an essential book for any Garbo or movie fan of the golden era of Hollywood! A true delight!
Buy it!
2005-09-22 - Any book put out by Abrams has my vote and a place on my book shelf. This book on Garbo is no exception. Without reading a word her story is told through the fabulous photographs. A must for fans of classic film, Garbo (obviously!) and photography buffs!
Amazing!
