Madame Sarah

Rating:
Summary: Sarah B by Someone Who Really Knows the French Theatre
Review: Sarah Bernhardt was the Madonna and the Meryl Streep of her day. She was a brilliant actress who broke from the traditions of the Comedie Francaise to create her own theatrical milieu. She inspired the intellectuals and the fans alike in fin-de-siecle Paris and she acted her way around the world. Her scandalous life style inspired plenty of press and numerous imitations.

Author Cornelia Otis Skinner provides a direct link to this era: her father, a noted stage actor, remembers seeing The Divine Sarah on the stage, and Cornelia herself became an actress. Cornelia was also a devotee of the French theatre--her most famous book, "Our Hearts Were Young and Gay", recounts her early studies with the stars of the Comedie Francaise in the 1920s.

Reading the witty "Madame Sarah" you have the feeling that you are hearing from someone who was there, someone who actually saw the Left Bank students unhitch the horses of Sarah's carriage and pull it through the streets themselves. The book is well-informed and admiring of its complex subject, but it is not fawning, as it frankly documents the less-appealing sides of a talented woman.

I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the history of the theatre, the French theatre, the Paris of the era, or the very intriguing actress herself...