Sarah Bernhardt: courageous, extravagant… and dramatic!
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At the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin, in 1884. NADAR'S WORKSHOP / GRAND PALAIS RMN
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Portrait One hundred years after her death, she still fascinates, but perhaps more through her courage, her commitment and her stories than through her talents as a tragedian...
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Recently heard from a mother exasperated by her little girl's whims: "Stop being such a Sarah Bernhardt!" More than a hundred years after her death (at the age of 78, on March 26, 1923), the tragedienne's fame has endured. A biopic was dedicated to her last year: "Sarah Bernhardt. The Divine," as well as a play at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal.
To express the perishable nature of the actor's work, it is sometimes said that he writes in the sand. Concerning Sarah, we have a few filmed pantomimes and sound recordings that are unlistenable, not so much because of their poor technical quality as because of her quavering chanting. It is said that after listening to a scene from "Phaedra" that she had just recorded, she predicted: "You will not know me as I am…"
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