Natalie Wood In West Side Story (1961)

Natalie Wood in a film still from “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” 1969.

Natalie Wood photographed in between takes of “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” 1969.

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961) “We took them to lunch at a place on East Fifty-eighth street, and my dear, we shouldn’t have been there. They were entwined, lots of hugs and kisses. The restaurant was rather crowded. But that didn’t deter the lovers. They went at it all through lunch. I loved it!” - Eleanor Kilgallen

Natalie Wood in “Love With the Proper Stranger,” 1963.

Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) dir. Robert Mulligan

Natalie Wood rehearses “the Sweetheart Tree,” on set of “the Great Race,” 1965.

Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower, We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind;

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961, dir. Elia Kazan)

When I saw The Umbrellas of Cherbourg again a few years ago, it struck me: it’s exactly the same ending as in Splendor in the Grass. I adore that film. It’s one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever seen in the cinema. And the end scene is exactly the same as in Umbrellas. He is on the farm, with his dungarees, his wife, the child and she comes back…it was so moving to see that resemblance. I think it is one of the maddest, most audacious films on the subject of love. Particularly for a man to bring a young woman to life in such a way! Splendor in the Grass is so much about unbridled love. The idea that loving can make you insane. That is what happens: you become insane! Going as far as to see her leave for the hospital, because she is dying of love, she wants to die! That film knocked me over. - Catherine Deneuve

Natalie Wood and Jack Lemmon depicted by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, for “the Great Race,” 1965.

NATALIE WOOD in PENELOPE (1966)