Grand Hotel is the 1932 Greta Garbo film famous for the line “I want to be alone.” Garbo says it as Grusinskaya, a celebrated but emotionally exhausted Russian ballerina staying at a luxurious Berlin hotel.
The film was directed by Edmund Goulding and produced by Irving Thalberg for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Its ensemble cast included John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, and Lionel Barrymore. Multiple storylines unfold among guests and staff, making the hotel a crossroads for romance, ambition, theft, illness, and betrayal.
The quotation became closely linked with Garbo's own reputation as a private, elusive star, even though the line belongs to her character. Garbo later objected to the popular interpretation, saying she had meant “I want to be let alone.” Grand Hotel won the Academy Award for Best Picture and remains the only film to win that award without receiving a nomination in any other Oscar category.