Greta Garbo's last MGM silent is a marvel of film artistry in which sets, lighting, pacing and story all come together with a remarkable thematic unity. Garbo portrays the wife of a rich man whom she doesn't love, the lover of a man she can't have, and the idol of a youth whose impetuous embrace leads to murder. Against exquisite Art Deco sets whose imposing chiaroscuro lighting, frigid lines and shiny surfaces speak for themselves, the Beautiful Woman struggles to assert that she is more than a figure of design. Melodrama mixes with genuine pathos in intense performances by Garbo and Lew Ayres as the infatuated adolescent. But the film's poetic darkness owes largely to the resourceful handling of the material by director Jacques Feyder, who later returned to his native France to become a leading figure in the "poetic realism" movement of the 1930s.