Romance

ROMANCE is one of Greta Garbo's most forgotten films and one can see why. It's basically a filmed stage-play and not much happens in it. In fact, if you watch ROMANCE and no other Garbo movie, you basically saw every other Garbo film. Garbo plays a European woman who is attached to an older man but falls in love with a younger man, who's beyond her reach. This is the same story for INSPIRATION, SUSAN LENOX, MATA HARI, CAMILLE, etc. One has a vivid sense of deja vu while watching it, certainly if you saw her other films just before this one. And certainly because it also stars one of Garbo's most frequent co-stars, Lewis Stone.

So, is ROMANCE good? Yes, it's good. Not great but good. The fact that the story resembles so many other Garbo films, which are better than this one, sorta makes it less good or original. It's probably Garbo's least "sleazy" story. She's not a tramp or prostitute. She plays an opera singer. There's something chaste about ROMANCE, which is probably the film's most original aspect.

Needless to say, ROMANCE is a must see for fans of Garbo. She's looks lovely and she's good in it, even if she's, like the story, a bit stagy herself.