Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet, Image via Wikipedia
Once the curtain is raised, the actor ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third.
A few days ago, the Lone Wolf and I were taking a morning constitutional around the hallowed ground of Père Lachaise. It was a rare winter day in Paris with the sun shining bright in crisp blue skies, and the cemetery, which is more like a posh gated community, was full of visitors who had come to see the famous residents who rest there.
We happened upon a charming Moroccan woman--an engineer--and her lawyer brother who were looking for the singer Edith Piaf. They were a long way from the Sparrow, so L.W. and I decided to lead them in the right direction. On the way, we took a turn by "the most famous actress the world has ever known"--and certainly was in the19th Century--Sarah Bernhardt. The Moroccan couple did not know her. Time is fleeting, and the memories of man are short. Universal consciousness is brimming with the energies of brilliant artists who made the earth greener and stars shine brighter in our skies, who enriched the world that we all live in, but are lost and forgotten now.
Ms. Bernhardt may not be forgotten in history, but I decided it was time to relight her flame.
Sarah Bernhardt, image via Wikipedia
Ms. Bernhardt was born in Paris to a mother who was a courtesan, a vocation for beautiful and talented women who didn't have other means to survive or to make their waves. This meant Sarah grew up in a boarding house and in a convent.
Sarah Bernhardt from Wikipedia:
A child of delicate health, she considered becoming a nun, but one of her mother's reputed lovers – the future Duc de Morny, Napoleon III's half-brother – decided that Sarah should be an actress. When she was 13, le Duc de Morny arranged for her to enter the Conservatoire, the government sponsored school of acting. She was not considered a particularly promising student, and, although she revered some of her teachers, she regarded the Conservatoire's methods as antiquated and too deeply steeped in tradition.[6][7]
Much of the uncertainty about Bernhardt's life arises because of her tendency to exaggerate and distort. Alexandre Dumas, fils described her as a notorious liar.[2]
Now that wasn't very nice. What actor doesn't embellish? And I'd just like to point out that Alexander Dumas's (the son of The Count of Monte Cristo author) family had their own, um, challenges.
And Ms. Bernhardt's story is one of those "everyone told them they weren't talented and couldn't do it." And then she showed them! What I like about these true histories is the creative and spiritual fulfillment that occurs against all odds when an artist has been warned away. The irony: An artist is supposed to crack open his culture with new visions. New ways of looking at the world around him--and fresh ways of doing things. Exposing the hypocrises and highlighting the truth. A true artist creates a wave of change somehow--and hopefully in the interior of whoever is experiencing his art. But the status quo--even in artistic fields--more often than not pushes authentic voices away.
The importance of these stories is that they remind us how important it is to believe in ourselves.
He who is incapable of feeling strong passions, of being shaken by anger, of living in every sense of the word, will never be a good actor.
--Sarah Bernhardt
In 1866, she began six years of hard work with Odéon Theatre in Paris, and this is where and when her reputation was made. From Wikipedia:
Her first success was as Anna Damby in the 1868 revival of Kean (by the novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas père). Bernhardt’s greatest triumph at the Odéon, however, came in 1869 when she portrayed the minstrel Zanetto in the one-act verse
play Le Passant (“The Passerby”) by the young dramatist François Coppée, a part that she played again in a command performance before Napoleon III.[9][10]
During this time she acquired her famous coffin, in which she often slept in lieu of a bed – claiming that doing so helped her understand her many tragic roles. She made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand all over Europe and in New York.[11] She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the title "The Divine Sarah"; arguably, she was the most famous actress of the 19th century.[12]
In 1872, she returned to Comédie-Française, where her contract had once been cancelled after she slapped the face of an actress who had been rude to her younger sister.
We must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them.
She travelled and burned up her stages internationally, and it was a coup for Ms. Bernhardt to have come to your town. Decades later, I knew of a 1906 visit Ms. Bernhardt made to Little Rock, Arkansas, where I lived. She arrived at Little Rock’s Choctaw Station in 1906, which is now the home of the Clinton School of Public Service.
Oscar Wilde: 'Do you mind if I smoke?' Sarah Bernhardt: 'I don't care if you burn.'
She had many artist friends, including Gustave Doré and Georges Clairin, and actors Mounet-Sully and Lou Tellegen, as well as the famous French author Victor Hugo. She defended Emile Zola at the time of the Dreyfus affair.
Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
Bernhardt was an actress pioneer of silent movies, and she starred in eight motion pictures and two biographical films. How I'd love to find this one: Sarah Bernhardt à Belle-Isle (1912), a film about her daily life at home. As you saw in my latest Jours of Our Lives, I was intrigued with Ms. Bernhardt and her fabulous fort home on Belle Île on our journey chasing Henri Matisse. It was a ruin when we were there, but the fort has been reclaimed and is a museum now.
This is Sarah Bernhardt's neighborhood these days...
Ms. Bernhard't tomb is off to the left of this avenue
The day was very dark when I took this shot. I've lightened it up to show you the heart-shaped orb that I saw as soon as I snapped it. Notice it's like an upside down heart? You can say what you will. I believe I captured Ms. Bernhardt's spirit paying her tomb a visit. I think she was pleased with what she found. Sweet serenity.
There are five kinds of actresses: bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses -- and then there is Sarah Bernhardt.
P.S. Editor/writer Robert Gottlieb has a new book out about Sarah Bernhardt: Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt. I'd like to read it. Here's a link.
*
Notes: Third image from top - Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) as empress Theodora in costume above, in a portrait by William Downey (1829-18__). Image via Wikipedia.
Fourth image from top - Sarah Bernhardt, portrait by Nadar (d. 1910). Image via Wikipedia.
Fifth image from top - Fifth image from top, Sarah Bernhardt as Queen in Victor Hugo’s Ruy Blas. Image via Wikipedia.
--All other images by Beth Arnold. Beth Arnold in Paris.
