Garbo's last silent movie is actually a banger

If you are into those old silent movies where everyone stares intensely for five minutes, The Kiss is actually a pretty good time.

It is perfect for people who just want to watch Greta Garbo look amazing while her life slowly falls apart. If you hate movies without talking, you should probably just skip it though. 🎬

Garbo plays Irene. She spends most of the film looking like she wants to bolt out the nearest door because her husband is a total drag.

The husband, Guerry, is way older and basically a walking red flag of jealousy. He is always hovering around like a dark cloud.

Then there is this young kid named Pierre, played by Lew Ayres. He looks like he is about twelve years old and has a *massive* crush on Irene.

There is a scene in a museum where they are surrounded by all these cold stone statues. It feels like they are the only things alive in the room, but Garbo is so still she almost blends in.

The way the lighting hits her face is just... wow. You can tell the cameraman was absolutely obsessed with her. 💡

Everything goes wrong because Pierre asks for one last kiss before he goes away to school. It is meant to be innocent, or at least that is what she thinks, but the husband walks in at the worst possible second.

The struggle that follows is messy. It doesn't look like those clean, fake movie fights you see in stuff like Fighting Bob.

It is desperate and awkward. Someone ends up dead and suddenly we are in a courtroom drama.

I noticed this one weird detail where Garbo is wearing this huge fur collar. It looks like it weighs thirty pounds and she can barely turn her head, but she still looks cool.

The trial part feels a bit rushed to me. It is like the movie suddenly realized it was running out of time and needed to wrap things up fast.

Her lawyer is played by Conrad Nagel and he is fine, I guess. He mostly just looks worried and holds a lot of papers.

I kept thinking about Wild Oranges while watching this. Both movies have that feeling of a woman being trapped in a house that feels like a cage.

There is a moment where Irene is on the stand and the camera just stays on her face for a really long time. She doesn't even move a muscle but you can see her brain working through the lie she is telling.

It is much more intense than the melodrama in Passers-by. Garbo just had this way of making a small blink feel like an explosion.

The ending is sort of abrupt. It doesn't give you that big emotional release you might expect from a modern movie.

But maybe that is why I liked it. It feels more like a real person's secret that they are taking to the grave. 🤐

If you liked Four Around the Woman, you will probably dig the vibe here. It is all about secrets and people watching each other from the shadows.

The music in the version I watched was a bit loud, but it didn't ruin the mood. You just have to lean into the drama of it all.

It is a short watch, which is nice. It doesn't overstay its welcome like some of those three-hour epics.

Overall, it is just a solid look at how dangerous a little bit of affection can be when the wrong person sees it. definitely worth a look on a rainy Sunday.