The Dryden will screen Forever and Always (George Kuchar, U.S. 1978, 20 min., 16mm)—"a marriage on the rocks that hurts the heart almost as much as the colors hurt the eye"—followed by Camille (George Cukor, U.S. 1936, 109 min., 35mm)

In her first collaboration with George Cukor, Greta Garbo delivers what is arguably her finest screen performance as Marguerite Gauthier, a high-priced French courtesan who falls madly in love with a middle-lower class man named Armand Duvall. Akin to Proust's Charles Swann, Armand lets his jealously get the best of him, which leads to a series of unfortunate events during their period of separation. Based on Alexandre Dumas' play La Dame aux Camelias, Camille still holds up as one of the most romantic and heart breaking films of all time. Most famed in this film is the perfectly directed death scene, performed flawlessly by Garbo and composed shortly after Cukor witnessed the death of his own mother. Also tragically tied to this film was the death of producer Irving Thalberg. This proper classic, with its blaring message of love above all else, once again proves that filmmaking as an art may flourish despite, and even within, Hollywood studio parameters.

[source: George Eastman Museum website, 2016-Feb-22]