..."It's not true-- I was arrested last month in Brooklyn; they gave me a sandwich and some cigarettes-- it was Mozzerella Cheese."
This is the response of Estelle Rolffe when she is told,
"They don't give you nothing' in detention, honey."
She's in jail, and she's demanding to know:
"Who do you have to pay off to get a little water around here?"
Her son dutifully comes to pay her bail, and, asks her if it's ever going to stop... "marching for Washington, getting arrested, lying down in front of cars"...? But as Estelle reminds him, "I am who I am, you are who you are." She also says she doesn't mind going to jail for something she believes in. She's a firm believer that if the present generation would be a little more active, she could take it a little more easy. Her son Gilbert, is dominated by a spoiled, pampered wife, who never stops telling him that she wants him to move to California where her parents are. He's pushed around at work and never says a word. And somewhere in the middle of all this is the infamous Greta Garbo. We know Estelle adores her because we are introduced to her when she is crying her eyes out at the end of "Camille"-- possibly Garbo's best known film...
"You can get other opinions, but there's nothing to be done." When Estelle begins having headaches that turn out to be a brain tumor, Gilbert gets the news he must pass on to his mom. "That's an attitude she won't understand," he says. So, Estelle is given the "speech" for a woman who now has but a short time to live, and in response she says just one thing... It's not a last wish... she has a lot more, she's just short on time. Now, Gilbert is spending his lunch hours hunting for biographies and calling obscure phone numbers. In the process, he meets an eccentric, aspiring actress named Jane Mortimer, who adores him because he's so "off center." Estelle loves Garbo possibly even more than she loves Gilbert... What would you do?
When the film was released in 1984, the real Garbo was alive and well, and living in New York (where the film takes place). Many of the "rumoured" details of Garbo's later life are depicted in the story, such as her notorious hatred of photographers, her vacant apartments in the building where she lived, her Swedish maid, and mention that she still has the first nickel she ever made (by a forgotten actress who knew her back in the day). To create a movie centered around a woman still living, right in the city where she lived, must've indeed been a risk; and when you consider that the real Garbo was most famous in later life for her being a recluse, it makes the mystique of the movie greater. Superb performances by Anne Bancroft, Carrie Fisher, and Catherine Hicks, make this film one of my very favorites. The cheesy, 80's violin music in the scenes is way overkill, but under that is an endearing story of an admiration for a mother Gilbert loved, but didn't understand... so he goes on a journey which helps him understand himself better than ever before.
This is the response of Estelle Rolffe when she is told,
"They don't give you nothing' in detention, honey."
She's in jail, and she's demanding to know:
"Who do you have to pay off to get a little water around here?"
Her son dutifully comes to pay her bail, and, asks her if it's ever going to stop... "marching for Washington, getting arrested, lying down in front of cars"...? But as Estelle reminds him, "I am who I am, you are who you are." She also says she doesn't mind going to jail for something she believes in. She's a firm believer that if the present generation would be a little more active, she could take it a little more easy. Her son Gilbert, is dominated by a spoiled, pampered wife, who never stops telling him that she wants him to move to California where her parents are. He's pushed around at work and never says a word. And somewhere in the middle of all this is the infamous Greta Garbo. We know Estelle adores her because we are introduced to her when she is crying her eyes out at the end of "Camille"-- possibly Garbo's best known film...
"You can get other opinions, but there's nothing to be done." When Estelle begins having headaches that turn out to be a brain tumor, Gilbert gets the news he must pass on to his mom. "That's an attitude she won't understand," he says. So, Estelle is given the "speech" for a woman who now has but a short time to live, and in response she says just one thing... It's not a last wish... she has a lot more, she's just short on time. Now, Gilbert is spending his lunch hours hunting for biographies and calling obscure phone numbers. In the process, he meets an eccentric, aspiring actress named Jane Mortimer, who adores him because he's so "off center." Estelle loves Garbo possibly even more than she loves Gilbert... What would you do?
When the film was released in 1984, the real Garbo was alive and well, and living in New York (where the film takes place). Many of the "rumoured" details of Garbo's later life are depicted in the story, such as her notorious hatred of photographers, her vacant apartments in the building where she lived, her Swedish maid, and mention that she still has the first nickel she ever made (by a forgotten actress who knew her back in the day). To create a movie centered around a woman still living, right in the city where she lived, must've indeed been a risk; and when you consider that the real Garbo was most famous in later life for her being a recluse, it makes the mystique of the movie greater. Superb performances by Anne Bancroft, Carrie Fisher, and Catherine Hicks, make this film one of my very favorites. The cheesy, 80's violin music in the scenes is way overkill, but under that is an endearing story of an admiration for a mother Gilbert loved, but didn't understand... so he goes on a journey which helps him understand himself better than ever before.