Instrumentation
1(=picc+afl).1(=ca).2(I=asax.II=Ebcl+bcl).1(=cbsn) -1110 - pno - strings (2.2.2.2.1)
Availability
Full score and parts for hire
Programme Notes
Starring: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert
Director: Clarence Brown
Production company: MGM USA, 1928
Film Print: 35mm B&W print available from Photoplay Productions (Film Speed: 16-23 frames per second)
A Woman of Affairs features Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in one of their most sizzling partnerships. Under normal circumstances, the screenplay would not have got past the censors.
A beautiful and passionate lady is forbidden to marry the aristocratic man she loves. The man she does marry commits suicide on their wedding night as the police close in. Her brother dies from alcohol abuse. When she realises that all is lost, she too takes her life, driving her car at high speed into the tree where she and the aristocrat first vowed their love.
Carl Davis's Lisztian romantic chamber score brilliantly underpins the tragic action.