Camille (1936) - film review

In Paris of the 1840s, Marguerite Gautier is a high society courtesan who enjoys the most lavish and dissolute lifestyle.  Her expenses are covered by the wealthy Baron de Varville who takes her as his mistress.  The wayward Marguerite shows her gratitude by falling in love with Armand Duval, a younger man who has no fortune of his own.  For a time, Marguerite and Armand share a perfect romantic idyll, but all too soon Fate conspires to bring an end to their happiness...

One of the highest ranking and best loved romantic dramas in cinema history, Camille demonstrates the dizzy artistic heights that Hollywood production teams can rise to when everything goes right.  Under George Cukor’s masterful direction, the legendary Greta Garbo delivers what many regard as her finest performance, a heart-rending and immensely subtle portrayal of a complex Parisian courtesan who lives for pleasure and dies for love.  

Garbo’s tour de force performance is beautifully complemented by a talented supporting cast, which includes a young and handsome Robert Taylor, Henry Daniell in his most substantial film role and Laura Hope Crews as the ageing strumpet whose cheap vulgarity accentuates the refinement and emotional warmth of Garbo’s character. 

With its supremely elegant composition, glamorous design and exquisite performances, this film is by far the best screen adaptation of the celebrated novel and play La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils.  It is this literary work which forms the basis for Verdi’s famous opera La Traviata, music from which makes it into the film’s intensely evocative score.  Camille is one of those perfectly crafted pieces of cinema which can genuinely be described as timeless.

© James Travers 2008

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