Exciting Greta Garbo footage (featuring Mark A. Vieira)

Greta Garbo has for sometime now being my favourite film star of all time; so it was extremely exciting earlier this year when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released footage of a rarely before seen screen test of Queen Christina photographed by William H. Daniels.

These tests are a sumptuous array of Garbo posing alongside moments where she is relaxed and at ease. Both in close up and long shot she looks radiant and pulchritudinous; and since their release in January we have an exciting exclusive from my friends at GarboForever.com.

Mark A. Vieira, author of some of the greatest photographic collection of some of my favourite stars, has provided some insight into the actual footage HERE . Please click the link to read more about these tests, especially interesting is the analysis from a photographic aspect. Hopefully there will be future "lost" footage of The Divine Woman (both Garbo and the film).

A Lost Art

This is the finest example of why the internet is good.

This documentary will never be released on DVD or shown on television again.

This is because some faceless corporations who own the rights to some of the clips used are blocking it's release. They are not interested in the art and knowledge in which they own; things which aren't as tangiable like money.
They do not understand the wider picture that by showing this great documentary to a new audience they will garner more interest in the films rights in which they own. Kevin Brownlow has dedicated his life to the preservation and restoration of the world's greatest art form: Motion Picture. This is his reward.

This series, will eventually be pulled from Youtube, just like it has been on numerous other Youtube channels down the years.

There is also another issue concerning films made before 1940. A lot of films have been noted as "lost", but this is not strictly true. There are a lot of people in the world who have the original reels of these "lost" films, but refuse to donate them to film institutions as they need a financial incentive to do this.

I want to bring this to people's attention because there is a real risk that all this may one day be lost forever. Silent films is where movie magic was born and cinema is just as culturally significant as a Turner, a Renoir or a Titian.