That Face, That Laugh

From Leo Lerman's collected journals, The Grand Surprise:

November 1, 1976 . . . then the doorbell rang and in came an unidentifiable woman . . . She was Garbo - the only (?) authentic legend left. Garbo is beautiful (or we thought her beautiful) when she laughs. She throws her head back and becoming, suddenly, the essence of laughter, golden laughter, pure joy before any of us knew of pullution, contamination. . She has abrupt shifts - almost like an actor who has been directed to speak thoughts in a character submerged until this moment . . . She is full of wide-eyed incredulities and amazements . . . And she is permeated by self-raillery. She seems almost always poised for flight - solitary - so solitary."

To experience the miracle of Garbo laughing view the 1939 Ernst Lubitsch classic Ninotchka.