Camille (1936)
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Camille Movie Review
Camille is a 1936 romantic drama film directed by George Cukor and starring Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor and Lionel Barrymore. It’s your standard melodrama from the thirties.
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“When one may not have long to live,
why shouldn’t one have fancies?“
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A Parisian courtesan must choose between the young man who loves her and the callous baron who wants her, even as her own health begins to fail. Obviously, this movie is incredibly melodramatic, it’s so melodramatic that it becomes a fault, at least to me. I have no problems with 30s melodramas, I actually love most of them, but this one included two big melodramatic plot points, and that was just too much for me. They should have done just one.
The deteriorating health subplot did not work as well, though it did lead to that heartbreaking, very powerful ending where for once the dying woman does not talk while she is dying, that was quite realistic for this time period. But the romantic subplot is so much better as it really worked, it was very moving at times and it was genuinely well crafted in characters and their relationships.
Let’s talk about Garbo. This just might be her career-best performance, the second best really after ‘Ninotchka’, but her best dramatic performance. She’s just excellent here. Unlike her more theatrical performances, this one has that air of theatricality, but also an air of confidence, realism and even subtleness. She sold her emotional scenes, and she was magnetic throughout. She competed in a stacked year at the Oscars, but she would have been a worthy winner had they gone with her.
Lionel Barrymore is well cast himself, and quite memorable as Monsieur Duval. But Robert Taylor is suitably romantic, charismatic and a perfect fit for Garbo’s Marguerite. The two share a wonderful relationship. Although the dialogue can be overly stagey at times, it’s also quite romantic, and some scenes are beautiful.
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Camille has its beautiful sequences when it comes to imagery and landscapes, but overall its long runtime and somewhat slow pacing made it not as exciting as this material clearly needed. George Cukor’s direction is surprisingly weak when compared to his other great works.
Camille is problematic in incorporating not just one, but two big melodramatic plot points, and that was just too much for me. The deteriorating health subplot did not work all that well, but the romance did work as it was often splendid and sweepingly romantic. Greta Garbo here gave probably her career-best dramatic performance as she was all around magnetic and wonderful.
