Sweden celebrates Garbo centenary

The Swedish Film Institute kicked off the Garbo centenary celebration last Friday with a screening of the 1936 classic Camille, which had its original premiere at Stockholm's Roda Kvarn movie theatre.

"It was Garbo's own favourite and is part of a two-month retrospective of the films of one of the world's greatest film stars ever," said institute spokesman and Garbo expert Jan Goransson.

"She played a lot of look-but-don't-touch parts," Goransson said. "It was rare for her to play simple girls, from ordinary backgrounds."

Born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson to a working-class family in 1905, Garbo along with her parents and two siblings lived in a small studio apartment in Stockholm. She made her acting debut in an advertising film for the Stockholm department store Pub, where she worked selling hats as a teenager. After being accepted to the Royal Dramatic Theatre's drama school in 1922, director Mauritz Stiller gave her a starring role in the classic silent film The Story of Gosta Berling.

The screening kicks off a major Garbo retrospective in which 13 of her films will be featured in three cities, among them Garbo's first Hollywood film, the seldom screened Torrent from 1926.

The exhibition Images of Greta -- based around nine quotations by or about Garbo -- will also be shown at the Sture cinema in Stockholm through the fall. A number of previously unpublished photographs and other Garbo-related objects will also be on display, including a dress she wore in The Story of Gosta Berling, a number of her private letters, her notebook from the Royal Dramatic Theatre drama school and Swedish original film posters.