Live musical accompaniment by Cliff Retallick.
 

Reklamfilm Pub Greta Garbo

Sweden, 1921

This short is a compilation of two Swedish commercials shown in Stockholm theaters, showing Garbo (still Gustafsson at the time) modeling hats for a department store and eating pastries at a café.

35mm, b&w, silent with Swedish intertitles and live English translations, 4 min. Director: Lasse Ring.
 

The Saga of Gösta Berling

Gösta Berlings saga, Sweden, 1924

A pioneer in the Swedish film industry, Mauritz Stiller discovered the young Greta Gustafsson and effectively initiated her transformation into the screen goddess known as “Garbo.” Based on a novel by Selma Lagerlöf, The Saga of Gösta Berling features Garbo in her first leading role as a countess whose love for the titular protagonist, a disgraced minister (Lars Hanson), redeems him. Louis B. Mayer apparently saw this breakthrough film and invited both director and ingénue to Hollywood. Garbo flourished at MGM and became a superstar; Stiller struggled and soon returned to Sweden, where he died prematurely in 1928.

35mm, b&w, silent with Swedish intertitles and live English translations, 183 min. Director: Mauritz Stiller. Screenwriters: Mauritz Stiller, Ragnar Hyltén-Cavallius. With: Lars Hanson, Gerda Lundequist, Greta Garbo.