Greta Garbo (1905-1990) was a Swedish‑born actress who rose from silent films to international fame in the 1930s, before withdrawing from public life at the height of her celebrity.
Ninotchka is a comedy in which Garbo allows her austere, icy persona to be melted by Melvyn Douglas, who plays the suave Parisian Count Léon d’Algout. Ernst Lubitsch shows her transformation from stern Soviet envoy to unexpectedly romantic heroine with his trademark lightness, letting Garbo’s timing and understatement do the work. The film’s charm lies in how it lets her be both the legend and the woman, revealing a sly humor that had always been there beneath the reserve.
