What an incomparable life------and yet so SAD.....yet so lonely......The pictures of her as an old woman I had never seen-----the hand that was all too human, the hair that for whatever reason she never cut, as most women do as they age.
I believe she was a lesbian ----or was she truly ASEXUAL??
It isn't important.
Whenever I look at those pictures by Clarence Bull or wach the severity of her hairstyle and collar in "Queen Christina" (a rather cheap cartoon) I am filled with wonder, with joy, with confusion, with sadness over this creature's life......
And yet she was STINGY, cheap, and it appears, lacking in loyalty.
What destruction must that ENORMOUS fame must have done to her! I can only think of Michael Jackson, but the comparison ends there.
That she exposed herself to the possiblity of gossip over her relationships with women is indeed (if not to be personally credited) a step ahead for gay rights, the way Marlene also did (in a much more sophisticated way).....
Can you imagine the loneliness? And she was the LEAST PATRICIAN of people-----she LOOKED patrician, but even her level of cultivation was minimal......Living in regal manner, and watching "Hollywood Squares".....Pathetic......
Gowing old is always hard.....Growing old when your beauty, your FACE defined you, must be TERRiFYING....
May she rest in peace.
Watch the closing shot of "Christina"------the NOBILITY, the HUMANITY, the FRAGILITY of this woman----and then put on "City Lights" and watch the devastating close and fade-out of Chaplin's tramp.
They BOTH break your heart.......