Greta Garbo as a filmic form: kinesias of an actress-author in Hollywood cinema

Abstract

Greta Garbo, considered as the symbol of the star system until the end of the 1940s, played as a professional film actress in over 30 movies, from the pre-sound synchronic cinema to the post-sound synchronic cinema, an integral part of the complex Fordist-Taylorist Hollywood model. Nevertheless, the Garbo myth became an operating model for acting – a class of actors and actresses. Thus, through the methodology of bibliographic review, we seek to identify the the actorial operative kinesias that led her to consolidate herself in the cinematographic canon, in two instances: acting and extrafilmic. To this end, we articulate the notion of kinesias – anthropological movements that are not always ascendant in liminal environments – to actor studies, especially to Patrick McGilligan’s theory of the actor-auteur. Through a critical analysis of bibliographic review, we found that Greta Garbo amalgamated all the notorious and current acting precepts in their temporary context (fascination, dramatic action, photogenic, movie diva, rosticity, embody film and embodiment in acting, verisimilitude, star system through the bias of the persona mister), becoming an actress-author: dictating the forms of films and interfering in the direction of Hollywood power. The industry bounced back, and Garbo never won an Oscar in her acting career.