Queen Christina (1933)

Directed by: Rouben Mamoulian | 97 minutes | drama, romance, biography | Actors: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone, Elizabeth Young, Aubrey Smith, Reginald Owen, Georges Renavent, David Torrence, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Ferdinand Munier

Considered by many to be a film classic, which should mainly be attributed to Garbo in the title role, which she plays with great verve. Suddenly it’s a soap-level melodrama, but it’s Garbo who breathes life into the whole thing, dominating every scene with her presence. There’s no question who the star of ‘Queen Christina’ is, although the camera work also plays a big part in portraying Garbo as favorably as possible.

Before that time, the film did have many daring elements: Christina dresses up as a man, shows (lesbian) feelings for her lady-in-waiting Countess Ebba and the Spanish ambassador Antonio (her ‘love interest’) is already attracted to her, even though he thinks that she’s a man!

The latter also gives rise to some comic entanglements. Some are intended, such as the confusion of the Spanish aide who thinks there are two men in bed when he wakes Antonio in the morning. But at the same time it is completely unbelievable that no one realizes that Christina acting as a man (she is wearing pants and lowering her voice slightly) is actually a woman. That makes the whole thing somewhat unbelievable.

Garbo’s ex-lover John Gilbert (she left him at the altar in 1927, but demanded that he play the male lead) puts down a rather flat Antonio and can barely counterbalance her. He was reportedly already suffering from his alcohol addiction, which would be fatal for him three years later.

A funny role for Aubrey Smith as her haunted servant Aage, who shakes his head through the film for yet another antics of Christina.

Some scenes are famous, such as the one in which Christina walks through the room of the snowbound inn she shares with Antontio, taking in everything she needs to remember. But the most famous is the final scene, when things don’t go so well – again for Garbo – and she stares at the stern of a ship in the distance and the camera slowly zooms in on her. Her mysterious stare looks past the camera into the distance. Director Mamoulian had told her to think about ‘nothing at all’. And it is precisely a completely empty gaze that makes a remarkable impression, because there seems to be much more behind it. Garbo all the way.