Ideal Beauty

The Life and Times of Greta Garbo

Lois W. Banner (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

286 Seiten

2023
Rutgers University Press (Verlag)
978-1-9788-0650-4 (ISBN)

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One of the silver screen’s greatest beauties, Greta Garbo was also one of its most profound enigmas. Ideal Beauty takes a fresh look at an icon who helped to define female beauty in the twentieth century and provides answers to much-debated questions about Garbo’s childhood, sexuality, career, illnesses and breakdowns, and spiritual awakening.

One of the silver screen's greatest beauties, Greta Garbo was also one of its most profound enigmas. A star in both silent pictures and talkies, Garbo kept viewers riveted with understated performances that suggested deep melancholy and strong desires roiling just under the surface. And offscreen, the intensely private Garbo was perhaps even more mysterious and alluring, as her retirement from Hollywood at age thirty-six only fueled the public's fascination.

Ideal Beauty reveals the woman behind the mystique, a woman who overcame an impoverished childhood to become a student at the Swedish Royal Dramatic Academy, an actress in European films, and ultimately a Hollywood star. Chronicling her tough negotiations with Louis B. Mayer at MGM, it shows how Garbo carved out enough power in Hollywood to craft a distinctly new feminist screen presence in films like Queen Christina. Banner draws on over ten years of in-depth archival research in Sweden, Germany, France, and the United States to demonstrate how, away from the camera's glare, Garbo's life was even more intriguing. Ideal Beauty takes a fresh look at an icon who helped to define female beauty in the twentieth century and provides answers to much-debated questions about Garbo's childhood, sexuality, career, illnesses and breakdowns, and spiritual awakening.

LOIS W. BANNER is a professor emerita of history at the University of Southern California. She was the first female president of the American Studies Association. Her many books include Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox and American Beauty.

PROLOGUE
Who Was Greta Garbo?
PART I. THE STEICHEN PHOTO
1 GARBO GLORIFIED AND DEMONIZED

PART II. MATURING
2 CHILDHOOD
3 PUB, DRAMATEN, AND MIMI POLLAK
4 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Garbo and Stiller
PART III. THE STAR
5 HOLLYWOOD
6 THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY
Garbo and John Gilbert
7 FRIENDS AND LOVERS; ANNA CHRISTIE AND GARBO'S ACTING

PART IV. CHOOSING SIDES
8 UNDERSTANDING ADRIAN
From Flapper to Glamour
9 THE PRE-CODE ERA

10 BREAKING FREE
Queen Christina

11 DENOUEMENT

PART V. CELEBRITY
12 SUCCESS AND FAILURE

13 NEW YORK

14 SUMMING UP

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	08.09.2023
Zusatzinfo	25 b-w illus., 2 color illus.
Verlagsort	New Brunswick NJ
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 235 mm
Gewicht	739 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-10	1-9788-0650-7 / 1978806507
ISBN-13	978-1-9788-0650-4 / 9781978806504
Zustand	Neuware