The Most Beautiful Woman on the Screen: The Fabrication of the Star Greta Garbo Paperback - 1992

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Having just arrived at the train station in his hometown, Lieutenant Leo von Sellinthin (John Gilbert) is greeted by his family. A close-up shows his eyes suddenly widen. He seems captivated by a sight which is revealed only within the following point-of-view-shot. The lieutenant's mesmerized facial expression materializes: a woman of exquisite beauty is entering the field of vision. Within the norms of a certain system, beyond all subjective criteria of taste, beauty has been personified by film actress Greta Garbo. In Hollywood of the twenties, she was cast as -The Most Beautiful Woman on the Screen-. The object of consideration here is how Garbo's beauty was produced and standardized within the film industry. An analysis of a star requires an investigation of the qualities ascribed to him or her. Beauty is only one of numerous possible characteristics of a star; statements about -The Most Beautiful Woman on the Screen- grant insights into a star's overall function during a certain period in film history. Therefore, Greta Garbo is interesting not as a person, but rather as a case in point for a specific form of presenting beauty."

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