French actress Sarah Bernhardt: biography, personal life, creativity. The Life of Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt and Diamonds

Sarah Bernhardt (French Sarah Bernhardt; nee Henriette Rosine Bernard, French Henriette Rosine Bernard; October 22, 1844, Paris, France - March 26, 1923, ibid.) - French actress, who at the beginning of the 20th century was called “the most famous actress of all time.” history."

She achieved success on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and then triumphantly toured in America. Her role consisted mainly of serious dramatic roles, which is why the actress received the nickname “Divine Sarah.”

Sarah Bernhardt was born on October 22, 1844 in Paris. Sarah's mother, Judith (later Julia) Bernard (1821, Amsterdam - 1876, Paris), came from a Jewish family and was the daughter of traveling salesman Moritz Baruch Bernardt and Sarah Hirsch (1797-1829). From 1835, Judith, her four sisters and brother were raised by their stepmother Sarah Kinsbergen (1809-1878). The father remained unknown. Sometimes he is considered to be Paul Morel, an officer of the French fleet (some official documents testify to this). According to another version, the father is Edouard Bernard, a young lawyer.

Before arriving in France, Judith worked as a milliner. But in Paris she chose to become a courtesan. Her pleasant appearance and ability to dress tastefully ensured her a comfortable existence at the expense of wealthy lovers. The daughter who was born prevented Judith from leading a carefree life, and therefore Sarah was sent to England, where she lived with a nanny. She could have stayed there until she came of age, if there had not been an accident: the nanny left Sarah alone with her disabled husband, Sarah was able to get out of her chair and came too close to the fireplace, her dress caught fire. The neighbors saved Sarah. Judith was traveling around Europe at this time with another sponsor. She was called to her daughter, she came to England and took Sarah to Paris. However, she soon left her again, leaving her in the care of another nanny.

Forced to live in a dull place, in a gloomy house where her nanny brought her, Sarah withdrew into herself. But fate still united mother and daughter. A chance meeting with her aunt, Rosina, who was a courtesan like Judith, plunges Sarah into a frenzy. In a fit, she falls from the nanny's arms and breaks her arm and leg. Her mother finally takes her, and it takes several years for the lonely girl to remember what motherly love is.

Sarah was not taught to read, write, or count. She is sent to Madame Fressard's school, where she spends two years. While at school, Sarah takes part in plays for the first time. During one of the performances, she suddenly sees her mother enter the hall, deciding to visit her daughter. Sarah has a nervous attack, she forgets the entire text and “stage fright” has remained with her since then until her very last days, continuing to haunt her even during the period of her world fame.

In the fall of 1853, Sarah was sent to study at the privileged private school Grandchamps. Patronage is arranged by another admirer of Judith, the Duke of Morny.

As a teenager, Sarah was very thin and coughed constantly. The doctors who examined her predicted her quick death from tuberculosis. Sarah becomes obsessed with the topic of death. Around this time, her famous photographs were taken, where she lies in a coffin (the coffin was bought for her by her mother after much persuasion). One day, the mother arranged a meeting of close relatives and friends, where they decided that Sarah should be quickly married off. In affectation, the girl turns her gaze to heaven and declares to those present that she has been given to God and her fate is monastic robes. Duke Morni appreciates this scene and recommends that the mother send her daughter to the conservatory. At the same time, Sarah attends a real performance for the first time at the Comedy Française.

At the age of 13, Sarah entered the drama class of the Higher National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, from which she graduated in 1862.

Despite the patronage, in order to enter the conservatory, Sarah had to pass an exam before the commission. To prepare for it, she takes diction lessons. Her main teacher at this time was Alexander Dumas, her father. A creative genius, he teaches Sarah how to create characters through gestures and voice. During the exam, everyone is fascinated by Sarah’s voice and she easily enters the training, to which she devotes all her strength. She wins second prize in her final exam.

On September 1, 1862, Sarah Bernhardt made her debut at the Comedie Française theater in the play “Iphigenie” by Jean Racine, playing the main role. None of the critics saw a future star in the aspiring actress; the majority believed that soon the name of this actress would quietly disappear from the posters. Soon, due to a conflict, Sarah Bernhardt stopped collaborating with Comedy Française. Her return there took place only ten years later.

After leaving the theater, difficult times began for Bernard. Little is known about the next four years of her life, except that during this period she changed several lovers. But Sarah did not want to become a courtesan like her mother. On December 22, 1864, Sarah gave birth to a son, Maurice, whose father was Henri, Prince de Ligne. Forced to look for funds to support and raise her son, Sarah gets a job at the Odeon Theater, the second most important of the Parisian theaters of that time. After several not very successful roles, critics notice her in King Lear, where she plays Cordelia. The next success comes with a role in the play “Kean” by Dumas the Father, who was very pleased with the performance of his protégé.

In 1869, the actress played the role of the minstrel Zanetto in “The Passerby” by François Coppet, after which success came to her. Her role as the Queen in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blase, which she played in 1872, became a triumph for her.

She worked in the theaters “Comédie Française”, “Gimnise”, “Port Saint-Martin”, “Odeon”. In 1893, she acquired the Renaissance Theater, and in 1898, the Nation Theater on Place du Châtelet, which was named the Sarah Bernhardt Theater (now the French Théâtre de la Ville). Many outstanding theater figures, for example K. S. Stanislavsky, considered Bernard's art a model of technical excellence. However, Bernard combined virtuoso skill, sophisticated technique, and artistic taste with deliberate showiness and a certain artificiality of play.

Many outstanding contemporaries, in particular A. P. Chekhov, I. S. Turgenev, A. S. Suvorin and T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik, denied that the actress had talent, which was replaced by an extremely refined and mechanistic acting technique. Such a major success was explained by the phenomenal publicity provided to Bernard by the press, which was more related to her personal life than the theater itself, as well as the unusually inflated hype preceding the performance itself.

Among the best roles: Doña Sol (“Ernani” by Hugo), Marguerite Gautier (“The Lady of the Camellias” by Dumas the Son), Theodora (Sardou’s play of the same name), Princess Greuse, Duke of Reichstadt (in the play of the same name and “The Eaglet (French)” Rostand), Hamlet (Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name), Lorenzaccio (Musset's play of the same name). Since the 1880s Bernard toured many countries in Europe and America. She performed in Russia (1881, 1892, 1908-1909) at the Mikhailovsky Theater, in Moscow, as well as Kyiv, Odessa and Kharkov.

During a 1905 tour in Rio de Janeiro, Sarah Bernhardt injured her right leg, which had to be amputated in 1915. But, despite the injury, Sarah Bernhardt did not give up stage activities. During the First World War she performed at the front. In 1914 she was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. In 1922 she left stage activities.

The actress died on March 26, 1923 in Paris at the age of 78 from uremia following kidney failure. She is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

The most famous roles on the theater stage:

1862 - Racine, Iphigenie
1862 - Eugene Scribe, Valérie
1862 - Moliere, Learned Women
1864 - Eugene Labiche & Delande, Un mari qui lance sa femme
1866 - T&G Cognard, La Biche aux Bois
1866 - Racine, Phaedra (as Aricie)
1866 - Marivaux, The Game of Love and Chance (as Sylvia)
1867 - Moliere, Women of Science (as Armande)
1867 - George Sand, Marquis de Vilmer
1867 - George Sand, François the Foundling (as Mariette)
1868 - Dumas father, Keane, genius and dissipation (as Anna Dambi)
1869 - Coppe, Passerby (as the troubadour Zanetto); first big successful role
1870 - George Sand, L'Autre
1871 - Andre Terrier, Jeanne-Marie
1871 - Coppe, Fais ce que dois
1871 - Foussier and Edmond, Baroness
1872 - Bouyer, Mademoiselle Aïssé
1872 - Victor Hugo, Ruy Blas (as Doña Maria of Neuburg, Queen of Spain)
1872 - Dumas the Father, Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (as Gabrielle)
1872 - Racine, Britannicus (as Junie)
1872 - Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro
1872 - Sandeau, Mademoiselle de la Seiglière
1873 - Feye, Dalila (as Princess Falconieri)
1873 - Ferrier, At the lawyer
1873 - Racine, Andromache
1873 - Racine, Phaedra (as Aricie)
1873 - Feye, Sphinx
1874 - Voltaire, Zaira
1874 - Racine, Phaedra (as Phaedra)
1875 - Bornier, La Fille de Roland Dumas son, L "Étrangère (as Mrs. Clarkson)
1877 - Victor Hugo, Hernani (as Doña Sol)
1879 - Racine, Phaedra (as Phaedra)
1880 - Ogier, Adventuress
1880 - Legouve & Eugene Scribe, Adriana Lecouvreur
1880 - Meillac & Halévy, Froufrou
1880 - Dumas son, Lady with Camellias (as Marguerite)
1882 - Sardou, Theodora Sardou, Theodora (as Theodora)
1887 - Sardou, Tosca Dumas son, Princess Georges
1890 - Sardou, Cleopatra, as Cleopatra
1893 - Lemaitre, Kings
1894 - Sardou, Gismonda
1895 - Moliere, Amphitryon
1895 - Magda (translated from German by Suderman Heimat)
1896 - Lady with Camellias
1896 - Musset, Lorenzachio (as Lorenzino de "Medici)
1897 - Sardou, Spiritualism
1897 - Rostand Samaritan
1897 - Mirbeau, Les Mauvais bergers
1898 - Catulle Mendes Medea
1898 - Lady with Camellias (as Margarita)
1898 - Auguste Barbier, Joan of Arc (as Joan of Arc)
1898 - Moran & Sylvester, Izéïl (as Izeil)
1898 - Shakespeare, King Lear (as Cordelia)
1899 - Shakespeare, Hamlet (as Hamlet)
1899 - Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (as Cleopatra)
1899 - Shakespeare, Macbeth (as Lady Macbeth)
1899 - Richpin, Pierrot Assassin (as Pierrot)
1900 - Rostand, Eaglet (as Eaglet)
1903 - Sardou, La Sorcière
1904 - Maeterlinck, Pelleas and Melisande (as Pelleas)
1906 - Ibsen, Woman from the Sea
1906 - C. Mendes, La Vierge d’Avila (as St. Teresa)
1911 - Moreau, Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (as Queen Elizabeth)
1913 - Tristan Bernard, Jeanne Doré (as Jeanne Doré).

On October 22, 1844, the legendary French actress Sarah Bernhardt was born. For half a century her name has not left the pages of newspapers and magazines around the world. Her life was very eventful. Here are some little-known facts from the biography of the actress

How the actress's career began.

At one of the social events given by her mother Judith van Hart, fifteen-year-old Sarah, wringing her hands, threw herself at her feet, begging to be let into a monastery. Judith's patron, the Duke of Morny, half-brother of Emperor Napoleon III, was present at this scene.

Yes, this girl is not going to the monastery, but straight to the stage! - exclaimed de Morny.

That same evening, together with Alexandre Dumas, her father, they took Sarah to the Comedy Française, where they were showing Britannica. Racine shocked her to tears. Under the patronage of de Morny and Alexandre Dumas the Father, Sarah was accepted into the National Academy of Music and Declamation. After two years of study at the academy, Sarah received an engagement at the Comedy Française. Although at first her candidacy raised doubts among the director of the troupe.

Everything is excessive with her,” he said. – Too thin waist, too thick hair, over-expressive eyes!

In 1862, Bernard successfully debuted at the Comedy Française in the role of Iphigenie in Racine’s tragedy “Iphigenie in Aulis”.

Sarah Bernhardt and diamonds.

Sarah Bernhardt had a lot of diamonds. She loved jewelry and did not part with them even during travel and tours. And so that nothing would happen to the stones, she took a pistol with her on the road.

Man is such a strange creature that this tiny and absurdly useless thing seems to me to be reliable protection,” Bernard explained her passion for firearms.

Men in the life of Sarah Bernhardt.

Sarah's mother wanted to make the girl a courtesan, but Sarah refused this role. The actress experienced her first intimacy at the age of 18 with the Comte de Kératry, but experienced true love with Prince Henri de Ligne. From this relationship Sarah had a son. Among her fans were Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Oscar Wilde. The great actress magically attracted both men and women. In books about Sarah Bernhardt, a bold assumption is made that the actress seduced all the heads of state of Europe. There is evidence that she really had a close relationship with the Prince of Wales, the nephew of Napoleon I. Sarah Bernhardt was showered with magnificent gifts by the Emperor of Austria, the King of Spain, and the King of Italy. The partners with whom she played in the theater were often her lovers, but many later became true friends.

In 1882, Sarah Bernhardt married for the first and only time in her life to Aristides Jacques Damal, a Greek diplomat. He was 11 years younger than Sarah. Their marriage was extremely unsuccessful, and after a few months they divorced. At the age of 66, the actress met American Lou Tellegen, who was more than 30 years younger than her. This love affair lasted four years.

Male roles and cinema.

Sarah Bernhardt played many male roles. The role of Napoleon's son in Rostand's play The Eaglet brought her resounding success. In March 1900, when Sarah Bernhardt played the role of a twenty-year-old youth, she herself was already 56 years old. The audience liked her performance so much that they called the actress for an encore 30 times. Sarah Bernhardt's list of male roles includes the Prince of Denmark in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Zanetto in Francois Coppet's play The Passerby, and Lorenzaccio in Musset's play of the same name. In addition, she became one of the pioneers of cinema. Sarah Bernhardt has participated in several films. The actress managed to embody the image of Margarita Gaultier not only on the theater stage, but also on the silver screen. But after watching the film “Lady of the Camellias,” Sarah Bernhardt decided not to get involved with cinema anymore. The close-up mercilessly showed the actress's true age. 70-year-old Sarah could play young Juliet on stage. But in the movies this is impossible.

War.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began. Sarah Bernhardt sent her relatives away from Paris, taking care of their safety, but she herself remained in the besieged capital. At the Odeon theater, Sarah Bernhardt equipped a hospital for the wounded. Using her connections, she obtained everything necessary for the hospital: food, linen, clothing, medicine, firewood for heating. They did not hesitate to help the wounded. Somewhat later, in 1904, at the height of the Russo-Japanese War, together with the famous Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, Sarah Bernhardt gave charity concerts. The money earned was sent to wounded Russian soldiers. By the way, Sarah Bernhardt and the Russian public have always had mutual love. She toured our country three times: in 1881, 1898 and 1908.

Love for shocking.

The famous actress has always been distinguished by her eccentric behavior. Just look at the mahogany coffin that accompanied her on all her trips. Even in childhood, when doctors gave the girl a terrible diagnosis: consumption, she begged her mother to buy her a coffin so that she would not be put in some ugly one. In the coffin, Sarah Bernhardt rested, read, and learned new roles. She posed for photographers in it. There were even rumors in Paris that Sarah Bernhardt indulged in lovemaking in her coffin.

Sarah Bernhardt loved to shock the public, and not only on stage. She even decorated her home in a very unusual way. She “decorated” the apartment with stuffed birds holding skulls in their beaks. As for pets, in addition to traditional cats and dogs, the actress acquired a monkey; a cheetah, a white Irish wolfhound and chameleons lived in her garden.

Fears.

Sarah Bernhardt, despite her fearlessness, had one phobia - a panicky fear of heights. But in 1878, during the Paris Exhibition, Sarah Bernhardt tried to overcome it by rising in a hot air balloon to a height of two thousand meters. High in the air there was a champagne lunch in pleasant company. In any case, for Bernard this entertainment became a real test. Sarah Bernhardt also managed to curb her nervousness: at the beginning of her acting career, she was afraid to go on stage, and it even came to the point of fainting.

Death.

The great actress even reacted unusually to her own death. When she died at the age of 78, she ordered the selection of six of the most beautiful young actors who would carry her coffin. She set off on her last journey - spectacularly and elegantly - on March 26, 1923. Tens of thousands of admirers of Sarah Bernhardt's talent followed the coffin across the city - from Malesherbes Boulevard to the Père Lachaise cemetery. The road was strewn with camellias - her favorite flowers.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Sarah Bernhardt remained in besieged Paris and set up a hospital in the Odeon theater, devoting herself entirely to the wounded and abandoning even her artistic room.

After the end of the war, Bernard returned to the stage. A real triumph was her performance on January 26, 1872 as the Queen in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blase.

After her triumph on the stage of the Odeon, Bernard returned to the Comédie Française. Here the actress shone in the tragedies of Racine and Voltaire, and with great success played Doña Sol in the drama Hernani by Victor Hugo, which premiered on November 21, 1877.

In 1879, the Comedy Francaise toured London. Sarah Bernhardt became the favorite of the English public. After "Phaedra" she received an ovation that had no analogues in the history of English theater.

After a triumphant season in London, in 1880 Bernard broke her contract with the Comédie Française, made six tours of America, and toured in England and Denmark. The actress's touring repertoire included the plays "Lady of the Camellias" by Alexandre Dumas the Son, "Frou-Frou" by Henri Meilac and Ludovic Halévy, "Adrienne Lecouvreur" by Eugene Scribe, and others. In 1891, Bernard made a triumphant tour of Australia. During her tours, she visited Russia three times (the last time in 1908).

The actress's talent, skill and great fame forced playwrights to write plays especially for her. Victorien Sardou wrote the plays Fedora (1882), Tosca (1887), and The Witch (1903) for Bernard. Since the 1890s, a significant place in the actress’s repertoire has been occupied by roles in neo-romantic dramas by Edmond Rostand, also written especially for her: “Princess of Dreams!” (1895), "Eaglet" (1900), "Samaritan Woman" (1897).

Sarah Bernhardt willingly performed in male roles (Zanetto in “The Passerby” by François Coppet, Lorenzaccio in “Lorenzaccio” by Alfred Musset, the Duke of Reichstadt in “The Eaglet” by Rostand, etc.). Among them was the role of Hamlet (1899). This role, which Sarah Bernhardt played when she was 53 years old, allowed the actress to demonstrate the high perfection of her technique and the eternal youth of her art.

Sarah Bernhardt repeatedly tried to create her own theater. In 1893, she acquired the Renaissance Theater, and in 1898, the Nation Theater (now the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre), which opened with Sardou's play Floria Tosca.

During the First World War, the actress performed at the front. In 1914 she was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

In 1905, during a tour in Rio de Janeiro, the actress injured her right leg; in 1915, the leg had to be amputated. Nevertheless, Bernard did not leave the scene. The last time she appeared on stage was in 1922.

Sarah Bernhardt became one of the first theater actresses who decided to act in films. This happened in 1900: a phonorama was demonstrated in Paris, providing synchronous projection of image and sound, and Sarah Bernhardt was filmed in the scene of Hamlet's Duel.

In 1912, she starred in the films "The Lady of the Camellias" and "Queen Elizabeth". The worldwide success of "Queen Elizabeth" created a name for the film's director, Louis Mercanton. Subsequently, the actress starred in several more of his films.

Bernard was engaged in sculpture and literary creativity. In her later years, she began to write plays and published Memoirs of a Single Chair and a novelized autobiography, My Double Life, which reflected her mastery of words and subtle humor.

There were many legends and incredible myths about the actress’s personal life. It was alleged that Bernard seduced almost all the heads of European states.

At the dawn of her career, she met the Belgian Prince Henri de Ligne, with whom she gave birth to a son, Maurice, in 1864. In 1882, Sarah Bernhardt married the Greek diplomat Aristidis (Jacques) Damal. Their marriage was extremely unsuccessful and they divorced a few months later. At the age of 66, the actress met American actor Lou Tellegen, who was 35 years younger than her. This love affair lasted four years.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

BERNARD SARAH

(b. 1844 – d. 1923)

The great French theater actress, creator and director of the Sarah Bernhardt Theater (1898–1922), sculptor, painter, author of two novels, four plays and memoirs “My Double Life” (1898). Awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor (1914).

She was called the Great Bernard, the Magnificent Sarah, Mademoiselle the Rebel. She was an amazing woman. Extraordinarily beautiful, graceful, graceful, with a wild, naturally golden, curly mane of hair and sea-green eyes. She exuded a unique chic, and every action was perceived as another eccentric prank. Impressionable, passionate, sensual, impulsive. Behind her was a trail of scandals that turned into legends. She knew how to captivate spectators and men, and making friends with women was as natural as breathing. An extraordinary thirst for life, insatiable curiosity, combined with other bright qualities of character, turned into the rarest human alloy, into a “miracle of miracles,” into a brilliant actress named Sarah Bernhardt. But let us think about the words of V. Hugo: “This is more than an actress, this is a woman...” A great woman.

Sarah was born on October 23, 1844. Her mother, Julie van Hard (Judith von Hard), who had Jewish and Dutch blood in her veins, was very pretty. Having moved to Paris, she made a rapid career as a highly paid kept woman and was accepted in high society. At 16, Julie gave birth to the first of three illegitimate daughters. It is not known exactly who Sarah's father was, but most biographers name the naval officer Morel Bernard. The girl, weak from birth, was raised by a wet nurse until she was five years old. She called her Penochka and loved her like her own child. Then her “comfortable children’s prison” became Madame Fressard’s boarding house and the privileged Catholic monastery of Grand-Champ, where the Jewish girl was baptized.

Sarah's mother rarely visited. But she always appeared, like a Madonna, when her daughter, suffering from tuberculosis, prone to fevers and fevers, especially after uncontrollable attacks of “wild anger,” was between life and death. Sarah loved her mother very much, from whom came the unique aroma of another life, closed from the girl. To keep her close to her longer, she jumped out of a window at the age of five, broke her arm and severely injured her knee, but achieved her goal. For two years, the mother and her patrons took care of the baby.

At the age of 14, impressionable Sarah convinced herself that she should become a nun. Madame Bernard believed that her daughters were destined to become beautiful courtesans (later Sarah agreed that this “work is very profitable,” but she herself never lived at the expense of her lovers). And one of her mother’s patrons, the Duke de Morny, taking a close look at the stunning temperament of young Bernard, advised her to study theater art at the Conservatory. Sarah, who first crossed the threshold of the theater at almost 15 years old and knew nothing about the profession, was nevertheless enrolled in an acting school. She studied hard, and her teachers predicted success for her.

Everyone was sure that at the final exams Bernard would receive first awards in the tragedy and comedy genres. But, as throughout her entire creative life, she was let down by her fear of going on stage. She often played in such an excited state that after the end of the performance she fainted. Despite the failure, in 1862 Sarah was enrolled in the best theater in Paris - the Comédie Française, thanks to the patronage of A. Dumas and the Duke de Morny. In her debut role as Iphigenie in Racine's play of the same name, she was "inexpressive." Critics noted the young actress’s pleasant appearance and impeccable diction. Her unique voice, which Dumas said sounded like “a crystal clear stream, babbling and jumping over golden pebbles,” had yet to captivate the audience.

Bernard did not last even a year in this theater. For insulting her younger sister Regina, she slapped the fat diva. She refused to apologize and was forced to leave. Then Bernard briefly played at the Gymnaz Theater. Gradually she began to reveal herself as a dramatic actress. She has fans. Among Sarah's first famous lovers was the handsome lieutenant, Comte de Catrie, and her first love was the scion of a noble Belgian family - Duke Henri de Ligne. The family of the young prince rebelled against their feelings, and Sarah was forced to give up her happiness. A few months after her sad return to Paris, she gave birth to her son Maurice (1884) and became a loving and devoted mother. Later, Prince Henri de Ligne offered Maurice to recognize him and give him his high-born name, but the son of the famous actress Bernard refused this honor.

Sarah plunged headlong into work at the Odeon theater, which, although less famous than the Comédie Française, became a home for the actress. The public liked her for her originality and became an idol of students, successfully playing in the plays “Kin” by A. Dumas (1868) and “Passerby” by F. K?nne (1869). In the latter, she created a sensation by playing the role of the young minstrel Zanetto. The actress’s intoxicating path to fame was interrupted by the war with Germany. The spirit of patriotism that flared up in her did not allow her to leave the city besieged by enemies. Having sent the entire family away from the fighting, Sarah equipped a hospital at the Odeon and, along with other women, became an ordinary caring sister of mercy.

France lost the war, but the courageous Bernard defeated herself, saving other people's lives in the cold and hungry autumn and winter of 1870–1871. And already in January of the following year, Sarah stood at the top of the theatrical Olympus. She became the “Chosen One of the Public”, the famous author V. Hugo knelt before her and thanked her for a truly royal game (the role of the queen) in his play “Ruy Blas”. Years later, Bernard wrote in her memoirs that now one can argue about her, but she cannot be neglected.

After this triumph, the actress with all her eccentricities was happily accepted by the Comedy Française. Sarah parted with the Odeon because she received “mere pennies” there, but preferred freedom and independence in everything, including material terms. Gifts from lovers are a natural thing, but she did not sell her feelings. Sarah surrounded herself with talented men. It is unknown how close Gustave Dore, Edmond Rostand, Victor Hugo, and Emile Zola were with her. Contemporaries named them among her thousands of lovers. And in one of the books, Sarah was credited with “special relations” with all the heads of European states, including the Pope. The actress, passionate in love, was that explosive mixture of eroticism and freedom of spirit that excited men. But declaring herself that she “was one of the greatest mistresses of her century,” in her memoirs “My Double Life” (1898), she passed over all love affairs in silence, probably so as not to offend anyone. Contemporaries stated that Bernard slept with all her theatrical partners. It was written about Sarah and Pierre Berton that their passion “could light up the streets.” And a long relationship with the magnificent actor Jean Mounet-Sully almost ended like the Shakespearean tragedy “Othello”. The rejected and offended lover was prevented from “carrying out the sentence” by the director, who lowered the curtain a few minutes before the dramatic denouement.

But Bernard loved the thrill. She rose to a height of 2600 m in the basket of a hot air balloon, driving the theater director to a white heat, descended into underground caves, and slid down Niagara Falls on the ice on her own coat. This passionate woman treated all her extravagant and serious ideas with the same ardor as she did the theater and men. When Sarah decided to try her hand at sculpture, she stayed up all night in her studio. Even Rodin himself did not deny her talent, although he called the works “somewhat archaic.” The sculptural group “After the Storm” received an award at the exhibition (1878) and was sold to the “king of Nice” for 10 thousand francs.

Carried away by painting, Bernard, instead of treating anemia in Menton, went to Brittany, climbed the mountains and did not leave her easel on the seashore for hours. And it seemed that after yet another eccentricity this fragile and sickly woman gained more strength. Doctors predicted her death as a child. Having learned about this, the impressionable girl persuaded her mother to buy her a coffin so as not to lie “in some kind of freak.” She did not part with him even on tour. I learned the roles in it, slept, took pictures and even made love if it didn’t bother my partner. And Bernard managed to combine all this abundance of ideas and adventures with rehearsals and triumphant performances in the theater.

Each new performance revealed to the viewer the uniquely expressive facets of the actress’s talent (“Phaedra” by Racine, “Zaire” by Voltaire, “The Foreigner” by Dumas the Son). At the premiere of his play Hernani, V. Hugo cried, enchanted by Sarah in the role of Doña Sol. He attached a diamond tear on a chain bracelet to his letter of gratitude to the actress.

On tour with the Comedy Francaise, Bernard conquered London, but now she was already cramped within the confines of one theater. After an unsuccessful production of “The Adventuress” by Dumas the Son, which she called “her first and last failure,” Sarah, having paid a hundred thousand forfeit, left the theater and created her own troupe (1880). Having made a whirlwind tour of England, Belgium and Denmark, which was called “28 days of Sarah Bernhardt”, the actress signed a lucrative American contract. With nine performances, Bernard traveled to 50 cities in the USA and Canada, giving 156 performances and receiving huge fees. Now her name meant success, and playwrights created plays under Bernard: Dumas the Son - “The Lady of the Camellias”; V. Sardou - “Fedora”, “Tosca”, “The Witch”, “Cleopatra”, Rostand - “Princess of Dreams”, “Eaglet”, “Samaritan Woman”. The actress was capable of any role. At 32, she played the 70-year-old blind Roman woman Postumia in Parodi’s “Victimized Rome,” and at 56 she appeared on stage as a twenty-year-old prince, the son of Napoleon, in “The Eaglet.” Sarah managed to capture the eternally male roles - Lorenzaccio in Musset's play of the same name and captivated the audience with her exquisite, unconventional solution to the role of Hamlet.

Her insatiable thirst for activity was amazing. Sarah tried several times to create her own theater, and in 1898, the Sarah Bernhardt Theater opened its doors on Place du Châtres in Paris. With her troupe, in which her sister Zhanna played, the actress traveled half the world, toured Australia, South America, Europe, visited the USA nine times and Russia three times. Only Germany did not see her - Sarah could not forgive the Germans for the siege of Paris. During her first visit to Russia, Bernard met in St. Petersburg the adviser to the Greek mission, Aristides (Jacques) Damala. He was nine years younger than Sarah, very handsome and easily won women’s hearts. Bernard was so fascinated by him that she even married him (1882). However, their marriage was short-lived. The husband chased young actresses, played big cards, and then became addicted to drugs. But even being already divorced from him, Sarah took care of him, dying from morphine and cocaine (1889). Bernard herself attracted men for a long time. At the age of 66, she met Lou Tellegen in the United States, who called their four-year love affair “the best years” of his life. But he was 35 years younger than Sarah.

The desire to feel and live opened up new horizons for Bernard. Sarah was seriously involved in literary creativity. After the successful short story “Among the Clouds”, she wrote two manual novels for young artists (“The Little Idol” and “The Red Double”) and four plays (“Andriena Lecouvreur”, “Confession”, “The Heart of a Man”, “Theater on the Field of Honor” "). And Sarah Bernhardt's memoirs are not boring memories, they are a sea of ​​feelings and thoughts. She was so different while still being herself. Sarah’s actions shocked many, but no one was surprised either by her selfless generosity to her fellow artists in need, or by her joint charity concerts with E. Caruso in favor of Russian wounded during the war with Japan. Bernard performed for soldiers on the fronts of the First World War (1915), and on the trip she was accompanied by the famous French general F. Foch, whom she performed 35 years ago in her hospital. Sarah really needed such a faithful friend, since shortly before the trip her leg was amputated well above the knee. But overcoming difficulties, as well as creating them, was her favorite thing, because it was not for nothing that she chose the words “At any cost” as her life motto.

Bernard attracted attention to her person not only with her extraordinary creative achievements, but also with her eccentric behavior and whims that shocked the public. One cold winter, she spent two thousand francs on bread to feed the hungry sparrows of Paris. And her mansion in the center of Paris was somewhat reminiscent of a menagerie. It was inhabited by four dogs, a boa constrictor, a monkey and a huge cockatoo. Sarah also dreamed of having two lion cubs, but they were successfully replaced by a “very funny cheetah” and a snow-white wolfhound, which she purchased with money raised from the sale of her paintings and sculptures at an exhibition in England.

Bernard received fabulous fees, but also lived with her characteristic chic. Her beloved son, the exquisitely handsome Maurice, who squandered fabulous sums in gambling houses, also helped her spend the money she earned through hard work. To pay off his debts, Sarah was forced to work until the last days of her life. She was one of the first great theater actresses who decided to appear on the silver screen in 1900. The first attempts - the scene of Hamlet's Duel and the film adaptation of Sardou's play Tosca - were so unsuccessful that Sarah ensured that the film was not released. But, squeezed by creditors, she was forced to agree to play leading roles in the films “The Lady of the Camellias,” “Queen Elizabeth,” “Andriene Lecouvreur,” “The French Mothers,” “Jeanne Doré” and “His Best Thing.” The opinion of critics was ambiguous - from delight to complete rejection. Her acting style, makeup, and speech were designed for a theater audience and were perceived rather strangely on the screen. But most of the films were worldwide successes, and Queen Elizabeth had a significant influence on Hollywood style.

Since 1915, Bernard played on stage only while sitting. And if someone could be ironic when they saw her being carried onto the stage in an elegant stretcher, then with the beginning of the play any ridicule disappeared. To captivate the viewer, Sarah had enough expressive gestures of her carefully made-up hands. And her voice, flowing into the hall, captivated the audience, forcing them to measure their breathing with the tempo of her speech. On stage, motionless Bernard remained a theatrical goddess. This courageous woman deservedly wore the highest award of France - the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Bernard lived her life with youthful enthusiasm and ecstasy. A severe attack of uremia interrupted rehearsals for the film “The Seer,” but did not break her spirit. In the last hours of her life, Sarah selected six young actors who were to accompany the eternally young, passionate and immensely talented woman on her last journey. And the infamous mahogany coffin waited in the wings. On March 26, 1923, Sarah Bernhardt died, stepping from life into legend. It has become the national pride of France, a symbol of the country, like the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Marseillaise. She “was not afraid to climb onto the pedestal, which is based on gossip, fables, slander, flattery and sycophancy, lies and truth,” said her friend, actress Madeleine Broan, “because remaining at the top, obsessed with the thirst for Glory, Bernard strengthened it with talent, work and kindness."