0:00:06 > 0:00:08On a spring morning in 1990,
0:00:08 > 0:00:12an elderly woman left her New York apartment.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16Dressed in a large overcoat, hat and dark glasses,
0:00:16 > 0:00:19she wandered alone through the city.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23This had been her daily ritual for over 30 years.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27But she was never completely alone.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31Wherever she went, a silent, shadowy figure was watching,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34waiting for the chance to take her photograph.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41He had stalked her for ten years.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Now the game of cat and mouse was about to come to an end.
0:00:45 > 0:00:51She was caught in the glare of his flash gun for the last time.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54The reclusive old woman in the photograph
0:00:54 > 0:00:59had once been the most famous movie star in the world -
0:00:59 > 0:01:00Greta Garbo.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34Greta Garbo was the most mysterious and secretive film star
0:01:34 > 0:01:35of the 20th century.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39She cast a spell over Hollywood in the 1920s and '30s
0:01:39 > 0:01:43with her exotic looks and hypnotic presence.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50At the centre of her appeal was her determination to remain an enigma.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56Garbo was always ferociously protective of her personal life.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01She felt that being photographed off the movie set violated her privacy.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05But the more she tried to hide from the camera,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08the more aggressively she was hunted down.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10Her life would become a nightmare,
0:02:10 > 0:02:16a disturbing parable of the 20th century obsession with celebrity.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27Right from the start,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30Greta Lovisa Gustafson was painfully shy.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33A working-class girl from Sweden,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35she always felt awkward and out of place -
0:02:35 > 0:02:38taller and heavier than the other girls.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46Very few pictures have survived from her childhood. The most amazing one
0:02:46 > 0:02:49is probably a an incredibly strange picture of her
0:02:49 > 0:02:53at her confirmation, in which she's got this giant bow in her hair
0:02:53 > 0:02:56and a kind of gap-toothed smile, and looks a bit too plump.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00But she felt awkward, she felt like that photograph looks.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Greta always preferred being alone.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07She often hid herself away
0:03:07 > 0:03:11and dreamed of escaping the austere reality of her home life
0:03:11 > 0:03:12to become an actress.
0:03:14 > 0:03:15After leaving school,
0:03:15 > 0:03:20she started work in a department store in Stockholm in July 1920.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22It was here that she would get her first break -
0:03:22 > 0:03:25modelling hats for the store's spring catalogue.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38All of a sudden this is no longer just the kind of self-conscious,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42slightly overweight young girl.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46This is a young woman who, glancing at the camera for some reason,
0:03:46 > 0:03:49has a flash and produces a glance.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52You can see the real Garbo emerging.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58After the success of the catalogue shoot,
0:03:58 > 0:04:02the department store asked her to appear in two adverts.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04She was then cast in her first film,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07a short comedy called Peter the Tramp.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11Her dreams of becoming an actress were starting to come true.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18In 1922, at the age of 17,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Greta won a place at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre Academy.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24It was here that she was noticed
0:04:24 > 0:04:28by one of Sweden's leading film directors, Mauritz Stiller.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31I think that what Stiller was most drawn to when he saw her
0:04:31 > 0:04:36was first and foremost her face, rather than her body,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40and secondly, in that face, on that face, those eyes.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43The eyes of Garbo were mesmerising even then.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50Stiller took a gamble on the shy young actress
0:04:50 > 0:04:52and gave Greta the leading role
0:04:52 > 0:04:55in his new film, The Saga of Gosta Berling.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58The self-conscious girl from the hat shop
0:04:58 > 0:05:02would be transformed into the beautiful Countess Elizabeth Dohna.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04But there was one condition.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09Stiller insisted that she lose 20lbs if she wanted the part.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Stiller, both as a man and a director,
0:05:11 > 0:05:17lived up to his reputation for being a great taskmaster,
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and also a great artiste, a great Svengali,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24who took you under his wing at your own risk,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26and at your complete submission to him.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36Stiller realised that Greta could be his passport to Hollywood.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41But first, she needed a new name to appeal to an international audience.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Greta Gustavson would now be known as Greta Garbo.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50The film was such a success that it was showcased in Berlin.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53This was Garbo's first trip away from home
0:05:53 > 0:05:56and her first taste of being a film star.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02Film offers flooded in,
0:06:02 > 0:06:06including one from the head of the Hollywood studio MGM -
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Louis B Meyer.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13What he saw in Garbo was the exact same thing that everyone else saw,
0:06:13 > 0:06:15which was a spell-binding face
0:06:15 > 0:06:19and a style of acting that even at this early point seemed...
0:06:19 > 0:06:23uh, original and unique and unusual, because it was.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27This was a woman who did not overact
0:06:27 > 0:06:30and who let her incredibly subtle facial expressions
0:06:30 > 0:06:32do the acting for her.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39In July 1925, before contracts were even signed,
0:06:39 > 0:06:44Garbo and Stiller were on their way to New York.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49When they arrived, Garbo felt more isolated and out of place than ever,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52made worse by the fact that she spoke little English.
0:06:52 > 0:06:58The euphoria of success in Europe was already a distant memory.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00Stiller knew he had to raise her profile
0:07:00 > 0:07:04and set up a meeting with one of New York's leading photographers -
0:07:04 > 0:07:05Arnold Genthe.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13In Genthe's photographs, you see a real ferocious intensity in Garbo.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24You see the huge and shining fire in her eyes,
0:07:24 > 0:07:25the thick mane of hair,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28the confident holding of her chin.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32You know, apparently Genthe let Garbo go a little bit free,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34because she doesn't seem particularly posed,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37the way she had with the European photographers.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42Genthe's photographs were snapped up by Vanity Fair magazine.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46Garbo was on her way to Hollywood stardom.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49In Europe, Garbo was an actress, but in Hollywood,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52she was expected to become a product.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54Like every other aspiring starlet,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Garbo was put through the MGM publicity machine.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02Diet advisors, wardrobe consultants and dentists
0:08:02 > 0:08:06all played a part in the repackaging of Greta Garbo.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08Once they'd worked their magic,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12she reluctantly set off for her first Hollywood publicity shoot
0:08:12 > 0:08:14with photographer Don Gillum.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16He took her to the zoo.
0:08:16 > 0:08:17There are well-known photographs
0:08:17 > 0:08:21of Garbo sitting with the lion, looking very unhappy.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23He took her to the beach.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25In the end, it's a very unsatisfactory group of photographs
0:08:25 > 0:08:29because Garbo was not comfortable with this.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31In fact, she looked rather ordinary.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33And the studio figured out pretty quickly
0:08:33 > 0:08:35that they didn't want Garbo to appear ordinary.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38They wanted her to appear spectacular.
0:08:38 > 0:08:39Much to Garbo's relief,
0:08:39 > 0:08:44the studio immediately abandoned these staged lifestyle shoots.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47From now on, Garbo would only be photographed
0:08:47 > 0:08:51in highly-controlled studio-based sessions.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01She was introduced to Hollywood's only female photographer,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Ruth Harriet Louise.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07Over the next four years, she would help to establish
0:09:07 > 0:09:12the enigmatic Garbo look - cool, sexy, sophisticated.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15A modern woman for a new era.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21Louise exploited Garbo's beauty
0:09:21 > 0:09:24by simplifying her,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27by not photographing her with any props,
0:09:27 > 0:09:31with very simple black or white backgrounds,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35by covering her with either a very simple shirt,
0:09:35 > 0:09:37or often with a drape,
0:09:37 > 0:09:41and concentrating exclusively on her face,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44and lighting her very softly
0:09:44 > 0:09:46and gently and elegantly.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52The camera could get closer and closer and closer,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54and she just looked better and better and better.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03Garbo's first films were huge hits
0:10:03 > 0:10:06and the public soon started to clamour for more photographs
0:10:06 > 0:10:09and gossip about the new star.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11But she was already starting to feel threatened
0:10:11 > 0:10:14by the public's interest in her private life.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17The game of cat and mouse had begun.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20When she began an affair with her co-star John Gilbert,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24it was the hottest story in Hollywood.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28Garbo recoiled from the endless crackle of the camera flash.
0:10:32 > 0:10:38She was like, you know, when you drop a pebble into an oyster,
0:10:38 > 0:10:44she just reacted immediately, shut up in herself and tried to get away.
0:10:44 > 0:10:51She arranged her life so that this didn't happen very often,
0:10:51 > 0:10:53so that people didn't break through.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58Greta was afraid that John Gilbert was only in love
0:10:58 > 0:11:00with Garbo the movie star -
0:11:00 > 0:11:03not the real woman beneath the glamorous surface.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07When he proposed to her, she turned him down.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12Subsequent to that, the number of sexual, true sexual experiences,
0:11:12 > 0:11:14and affairs in Garbo's life, I think,
0:11:14 > 0:11:19could be counted on the fingers of a mutilated one hand.
0:11:19 > 0:11:20There weren't that many.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29Despite her personal insecurities, Garbo was still supremely confident
0:11:29 > 0:11:33in the controlled environment of the photographic studio.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36She could even be recklessly provocative.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40In 1929, photographer Nickolas Murray asked her
0:11:40 > 0:11:44to come to a shoot in a low-cut evening dress.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47So she came in wearing a white shirt with a collar,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and he asked her, "Miss Garbo, would you mind just
0:11:50 > 0:11:55"pushing the collar down, so we can just focus on your face?"
0:11:55 > 0:11:59With that, as the story goes, she took the shirt off altogether.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Garbo was a sensation.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10The public adored her.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Every film she released was a box-office hit.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17MGM's new chief photographer, Clarence Sinclair Bull,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21was now helping to perfect the Garbo look.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Garbo does not seem to be particularly temperamental
0:12:28 > 0:12:29about her photograph.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32When she and Bull were working together, there's a sense
0:12:32 > 0:12:35that at the moment that he snapped his shutter
0:12:35 > 0:12:40she knew what he was recording, and he knew what he was recording,
0:12:40 > 0:12:44that they were really collaborating almost perfectly.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46Over the next 12 years,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49they produced over 4,000 portraits together.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52And it was Clarence Sinclair Bull who created the image
0:12:52 > 0:12:57that would immortalise Garbo as a Hollywood legend.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02What he did is he took a portrait from a film called Inspiration,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06and he transposed it on a photograph of the Egyptian Sphinx.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Apparently, Garbo loved the image.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16She became very quickly, after this, known as the Swedish Sphinx.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23Garbo was confirmed as the ultimate elusive and mysterious star.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27She was a riddle, an enigma. She seemed unstoppable.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30But a revolution was sweeping through Hollywood.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33The "talkies" had arrived, destroying the careers
0:13:33 > 0:13:37of many of the most successful silent-movie stars.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40All of a sudden, nothing mattered
0:13:40 > 0:13:43but how these actors and actresses sounded.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46Not even... All those beautiful qualities of Garbo -
0:13:46 > 0:13:49her face, the subtlety, the expressions...
0:13:49 > 0:13:51"Yeah, yeah, yeah, what have you done for me now?"
0:13:51 > 0:13:53And what you needed to do for them now
0:13:53 > 0:13:56was to have a voice that worked in talkies.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02Garbo was one of the last MGM silent stars
0:14:02 > 0:14:04to risk the perilous cross-over.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09The studio feared her foreign accent would turn audiences against her.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14But with each new movie, Garbo's husky, heavily-accented voice
0:14:14 > 0:14:16only added to her appeal.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20I thought you'd understand when you saw me again what had happened,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23that it had been so enchanting to be a woman,
0:14:23 > 0:14:28not a queen, just a woman in a man's arms.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Her stardom increased to a degree that had never been seen before
0:14:32 > 0:14:35anywhere, in any film person in the world.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37It took its toll on her.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40She truly didn't understand then,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43and never understood for the entire rest of her life
0:14:43 > 0:14:46why they would "make such a fuss".
0:14:46 > 0:14:48But while she complained about the fuss,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52her social life was attracting even more attention.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56She was often seen in public with the bi-sexual writer and socialite,
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Mercedes de Acosta.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02Paparazzi shots of them emerging together from a men's tailor,
0:15:02 > 0:15:06with Garbo wearing trousers, created a scandal.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14Women didn't wear trousers in public, for the most part.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18And Garbo was someone
0:15:18 > 0:15:21whose fashions mattered a great deal to movie-goers.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24And the idea that you would go to a men's tailor
0:15:24 > 0:15:27to have these clothes made was not...
0:15:27 > 0:15:29It was shocking.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Garbo developed an intimate friendship with Mercedes de Acosta.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36She had started to let down her guard.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39You have to keep in mind that this was a woman who was afraid
0:15:39 > 0:15:43to see you, or to shake your hand, let alone to go to bed with you.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46To her, this was the most monumentally dangerous
0:15:46 > 0:15:50and threatening thing in the world, and she did it very rarely,
0:15:50 > 0:15:55especially after the publicity over her affair with John Gilbert.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03On holiday together in the Sierra Nevada in 1932,
0:16:03 > 0:16:08Garbo even allowed Mercedes to take her photograph -
0:16:08 > 0:16:10topless.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13It's very significant that Garbo allowed Mercedes to photograph her.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15She was famously controlling of her own image.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19It suggests a certain amount of intimacy,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22and the fact that they were relaxed together.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29Interest in Garbo's private life was turning into a public obsession.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33By the mid-'30s, Garbo was becoming reclusive.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36She rarely gave interviews and shunned publicity,
0:16:36 > 0:16:40even refusing to attend premieres of her own films.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44Wherever she went, she was pursued by photographers.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48I don't think she cared a bit about her image.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50She cared about her privacy.
0:16:50 > 0:16:56She didn't want to be violated any further.
0:16:56 > 0:16:57I want to be alone.
0:16:57 > 0:16:58Where have you been?
0:17:00 > 0:17:02I suppose I can cancel the Vienna contract.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04I just want to be alone.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07You're going to be very much alone, my dear madam. This is the end.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10Garbo never said, "I want to be alone".
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Her character in the movie Grand Hotel said that.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16What she said was, "I want to be left alone,"
0:17:16 > 0:17:18and there's a huge difference,
0:17:18 > 0:17:20and it was exactly what the world wouldn't do.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28In 1941, Garbo received her first bad reviews
0:17:28 > 0:17:31for the movie Two Faced Woman.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33It was also a box-office failure.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36As America was drawn into the Second World War,
0:17:36 > 0:17:38Garbo's career stalled.
0:17:38 > 0:17:44In all the years that we lived through the war and everything,
0:17:44 > 0:17:47I never heard her talk about Hitler.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Churchill - maybe.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54But she was not a woman who was interested
0:17:54 > 0:17:57in how the world was going to hell, you know.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59She was more interested...
0:18:01 > 0:18:04..in the hell that was pursuing her.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06With no more movies to promote,
0:18:06 > 0:18:10Garbo saw no reason to be photographed at all.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12But she was still being chased by the camera.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16She hated the fact that she had no control over endless shots,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18snatched wherever she went.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28Even when her friend, celebrity photographer Cecil Beaton,
0:18:28 > 0:18:34pleaded with her to pose for him, Garbo refused every time.
0:18:34 > 0:18:39Then in 1946, Garbo needed a new passport photograph.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43To Beaton's surprise, she asked him to take it.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53She started to pose, it was one of those days
0:18:53 > 0:18:55when everything was going well.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00She got intrigued and adopted more and more extraordinary postures
0:19:00 > 0:19:05and positions for him, and then he had secreted away some costumes,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07and some she rejected, some she accepted.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10She was dressing up as a harlequin and all sorts of things,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14and producing a great number of fascinating photographs,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17very few of which, quite frankly, were appropriate for a passport.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26This was the most intimate photo shoot Garbo had ever done.
0:19:26 > 0:19:32In front of Beaton's lens, all her inhibitions seemed to disappear.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37But Garbo had no idea that Beaton intended to publish the photographs.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42When they appeared in Vogue later that year, she was horrified.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49I think that Cecil was obsessed with his career
0:19:49 > 0:19:54and with being the best in his career,
0:19:54 > 0:19:58and having those trophy photographs of Garbo was worth the sacrifice
0:19:58 > 0:20:01of perhaps giving her up and promoting his career.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05Garbo was furious.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08She said she would never to speak to him again.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18By 1949, Garbo hadn't worked for nearly a decade.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22She always said that she was just waiting for the right project.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25That year, she was offered the chance of a comeback
0:20:25 > 0:20:28in a film called The Duchess of Langeais.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31But the studio insisted on a screen test.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35She goes ahead and does it, which is an indication of how serious she was
0:20:35 > 0:20:39about wanting to make this film, and it turns out beautifully.
0:20:39 > 0:20:44It proves in spades that she is still as photographic,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47if not more photographic than ever.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Garbo even agreed to work for a reduced fee
0:20:50 > 0:20:53but the financial backers pulled out.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57The film was never made.
0:20:57 > 0:21:02She said, "I will never make a moving picture again.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04"This is the end."
0:21:12 > 0:21:15In the 1950s and '60s,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18Garbo retreated into the world of the super-rich,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21with holidays on Aristotle Onasiss' yacht
0:21:21 > 0:21:24or at the Rothschilds' villa in France.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27With them, she felt safe from the camera.
0:21:27 > 0:21:33But a shot from the past was about to come back to haunt her.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37In 1960, Mercedes de Acosta published the topless photograph
0:21:37 > 0:21:41from their holiday in 1932.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43Betrayed yet again by a friend,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47she cut Mercedes out of her life forever.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50Garbo hadn't appeared on screen for over 20 years
0:21:50 > 0:21:52but her refusal to be photographed
0:21:52 > 0:21:56was only increasing the public's hunger for more pictures.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06There is kind of a morbid curiosity in how she changed,
0:22:06 > 0:22:08and in her ageing process.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10She was kind of like Helen of Troy.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13This was the fairest woman in the world,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16and that was a large responsibility in any age,
0:22:16 > 0:22:18but it got worse and harder for her.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23She felt mocked, I think. She felt as if the world almost delighted
0:22:23 > 0:22:27in the gradual crumbling of its greatest beauty.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34In April 1976, celebrity photographer Harry Benson
0:22:34 > 0:22:36was on assignment in Antigua
0:22:36 > 0:22:40when he got the chance to photograph the world's most elusive star.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46A friend of mine had a boat, and he rented it out.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54So we'd go away in the boat, and we scouted where the house was.
0:22:55 > 0:23:01We basically got the boat right opposite her house on the beach
0:23:01 > 0:23:04so when she arrived, she thought it was quite normal.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09It was a 300mm lens.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13She was right in my striking range of the lens,
0:23:13 > 0:23:20so, basically, all I had to hide was, you know, the lens shining.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23And I think she might have seen it.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29I think she always suspects somebody is watching.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32This has been her life, this paranoia.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40It's like...sighting the Loch Ness Monster,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43you know. It's a phenomenon.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57In the final years of her life,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Garbo retreated to her New York apartment.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03A prisoner of her own image and legend,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06she was still at the mercy of the camera.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08Because she always fled down the street,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11it became a great sport to photograph her,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15and people used to stalk her and follow her around.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18The whole thing was something that, in a way, she created.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20She created this kind of strange thing,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23so you have this dilemma with her - what was she really up to?
0:24:23 > 0:24:26I'm sure she really hated being photographed
0:24:26 > 0:24:29but, equally, she was rather defiant.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32New York was the best of worlds and the worst of worlds for Garbo.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35It was a place where on the one hand she could disappear
0:24:35 > 0:24:37into a crowd and mingle,
0:24:37 > 0:24:40and not necessarily be recognised all the time.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43On the other hand, it was a place where she was constantly recognised
0:24:43 > 0:24:46on the street by people.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50It had both things, and it both complicated and facilitated
0:24:50 > 0:24:53this strange game that increased over the years,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55this strange adaptation to life and game, at the same time,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58of hating the publicity and the photography,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01and of rather enjoying the effort to outwit the photographers.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06It became her daily ritual to walk for hours
0:25:06 > 0:25:08through the streets of New York.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10Her friend, Sam Green, would often join her
0:25:10 > 0:25:13and protect her from inquisitive fans.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20She had almost no friends.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23Some acquaintances, but no-one was very close,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26and the woman needed a lot of protection.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31For instance, she could never write a cheque
0:25:31 > 0:25:34to pay her bills, because no-one would cash them.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36The signature was always worth more
0:25:36 > 0:25:39than the amount of money on the cheque.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51We would walk on the city blocks and the code was I would stop the person
0:25:51 > 0:25:53who was going to approach her,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57and she would take a left or a right, but never get off the kerb,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00so I was sure to find her as I circled the block,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03I knew she would be on it at some place. That was our code.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11Even in the scorching summer sun,
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Garbo would dress in a hat, overcoat and dark glasses.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20Her aim was to prevent photographers from getting a clear shot.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23But if that failed, there was one last trick she would use.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33She was able to ward off anyone taking a good photograph
0:26:33 > 0:26:38by carrying a rather nasty piece of paper Kleenex in her pocket
0:26:38 > 0:26:41which she would pull out and put in front of her face
0:26:41 > 0:26:45in order to shield anyone from getting a good photograph
0:26:45 > 0:26:46or a publishable photograph.
0:26:52 > 0:26:58In the early 1980s, one photographer became obsessed with Garbo.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03Ted Leyson would stalk her for the next ten years.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08Garbo's lifelong struggle with the camera was turning into a nightmare.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18I think it was his life's ambition to stalk her every day.
0:27:18 > 0:27:24And, yes, we would see him with his long-distance lens,
0:27:24 > 0:27:28almost every day. That's why on sunny days
0:27:28 > 0:27:29she would carry an umbrella,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32because it was a very good shield from Mr Leyson.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35And the crumpled Kleenex was always ready to spoil his shots.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42He would position himself outside Garbo's apartment
0:27:42 > 0:27:44across the street, usually,
0:27:44 > 0:27:51for hours and hours at a time, if not every day, every other day,
0:27:51 > 0:27:53something like that, for years.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57But there was one shot that had always eluded Leyson.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01An unspoiled close-up of Garbo's face.
0:28:01 > 0:28:07On the 9th of April 1990, Garbo was on her way to hospital.
0:28:07 > 0:28:08There was a flash.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10Sick and weak,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14she was unable to look away or raise a hand to her face.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17She looked straight into the lens.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Ted Leyson finally had his shot.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25Half a century after her last screen appearance,
0:28:25 > 0:28:28Greta Garbo had lost her battle with the camera.
0:28:28 > 0:28:33Six days later, at the age of 84, she died.