Alluring to men, captivating to women, eternal scorner of convention, Sarah Bernhardt has become an immortal, regenerating in myth as the decades dance by, a French national treasure embraced by the world.
In director Guillaume Nicloux’s THE DIVINE SARAH BERNHARDT, the theatrical flair, passion, and eccentricity, is focused on the portrayal by Sandrine Kiberlain, mirroring Sarah Bernhardt’s magnetic force, we get a tentative hint of the bold, unpredictable, and utterly unforgettable thespian, the dazzling stage icon, as her life unfolded under dazzling lights and amid headline-making scandal.
Presented as a death bed confession, THE DIVINE SARAH BERNHARDT is a flash flashback affair that zeroes in on the schism between a father and son, and of the direct causation by la belle dame.
Having recently had her leg amputated, her bed becomes her stage, a space she commands, a space well known for private performance for various audience members. Whether commanding attention from the footlights or her own sickbed, Bernhardt lived for the drama.
THE DIVINE SARAH BERNHARDT is an unabashedly theatrical portrait, full of exotic pets, hysterical histrionics, private salons, and public outbursts. Indeed, the film begins as an illusion, as we witness Bernhardt uttering her last words, taking her final breath, only to reveal that it is a performance, a life like death scene par excellence!
Colour, chaos and charisma are at the core of this most uncompromising of people, confidently captured by Kiberlain, encompassing the complex magnetic character that attracted the general public and celebrities alike.
Production values are first rate from art direction to costume design and cinematography and the subtle use of Debussy as an underscore is splendid.
THE DIVINE SARAH BERNHARDT is a slice of a life lived large – flamboyant, formidable, indefatigable, a devoted professional who lived up to her motto, Quand meme!
