Garbo is the only reason to watch Camille

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s melodrama and want to see an absolute masterclass in acting, then yes. It’s a slow burn, though. If you need explosions or someone jogging through a desert like in The Missing Link, you’re going to be bored to tears. This is a movie about people sitting in rooms, looking sad, and wearing very expensive lace.

Greta Garbo is basically doing everything here. I mean, the rest of the cast is fine, but you’re only looking at her. She has this way of holding her breath before a line that makes you feel like the whole room is losing oxygen. It’s wild.

The vibe

There’s a specific scene where Marguerite is just staring out a window, and the lighting makes her face look like a marble statue that just started crying. It’s gorgeous, but it’s also a little bit much. Sometimes the movie tries so hard to make everything look "tragic" that you want to just tell them to open a window and let some air in.

Robert Taylor is in this too. He’s the guy who loves her, and he plays it with a lot of wide-eyed sincerity. It’s charming, I guess, but compared to Garbo’s intensity, he feels like he’s in a completely different movie. It’s like watching a puppy try to keep up with a hurricane.

Odd little details

• The lace on the dresses is actually distracting. How did they sit down without ripping it?
• There’s a moment with a clock that ticks way too loud. I swear they boosted the volume on that foley sound just to mess with us.
• The Baron character is so cartoonishly evil he might as well have a mustache to twirl.

I found myself wondering if this story would feel any different if it were set in a different time. It’s not quite as weird as She, obviously, but it has that same feeling of being trapped in a set that was built yesterday. Every hallway looks like a hallway, every parlor looks like a parlor. It’s very 1936.

Anyway, watch it for the close-ups. Don't worry about the plot so much. It’s a tragedy, you know how it ends. It’s not about the destination, it’s about watching Garbo’s face collapse in slow motion. It’s weirdly hypnotic. 🎭