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Her Majesty moves

Profile image of Victoria DuckettVictoria Duckett

2016, Manchester University Press eBooks

https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526113047.00013
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21 pages

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Abstract

Sarah Bernhardt, the greatest theatrical star of the late nineteenth century, enabled and even promoted the association of early fi lm with the British monarchy. She did this literally, by playing the role of Queen Elizabeth in Queen Elizabeth (Les Amours de la Reine Elisabeth , Henri Desfontaines and Louis Mercanton, 1912). Bernhardt also promoted the association of the cinema with monarchy symbolically, making the medium a new empathetic vehicle for the development of celebrity mystique and global power. In The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France , Marc Bloch explains that in the Middle Ages through to at least the seventeenth century, royal power was associated with physical contact. English and French kings were believed to possess magical powers of healing; through their sacred touch they were thought to cure their subjects of epilepsy and tuberculosis. Distributing so-called cramp rings that they consecrated through their touch, these monarchs sought to heal the sick even beyond the boundaries of their own state. 1 Bernhardt's Queen Elizabeth tells the story of a royal ring's failure to deliver the Queen's favourite from death. The Earl of Essex sends back a ring given to him by Elizabeth in order to gain her pardon from the charge of treason. The ring, however, is never received and he is consequently executed. Anguished by the loss of her favourite subject, the Queen dies of remorse. At the opening of the twentieth century, Bernhardt's fi lm functioned symbolically as a royal ring. It circulated widely, changing the ways audiences engaged with and experienced celebrity mystique and power. In this changed order, it is Bernhardt's capacity to move audiences through the nascent medium of fi lm that confi rms her already established status as a theatrical diva. Film accords her the symbolic status of queen. Bloch explains that his history of monarchy off ers a new way to investigate a subject that is otherwise formalised into accounts of political developments

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References (81)

  1. exhibitors towards the longer fi lm and earned $80,000 for Zukor on an investment of $18,000. With this money Zukor was able to make a distribu- tion deal with Paramount Pictures, which he eventually took over.' Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, The Divine Sarah: A Life of Sarah Bernhardt (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), p. 310.
  2. 'L'indiretta partecipazione della grande tragica francese al sorgere delle fortune del fondatore della Paramount è uno dei casi più paradossali della storia dell'industria cinematografi ca.' Enciclopedia dello spettacolo (Rome: Casa Editrice le Machere, 1954), p. 371.
  3. Besides Camille and Queen Elizabeth , Bernhardt appeared in a fi fty-second excerpt from Hamlet (Clément Maurice, Phono-Cinéma-Théâtre, 1900), and other, longer-playing works: La Tosca (André Calmettes, 1908), Adrienne Lecouvreur (Louis Mercanton and Henri Desfontaines, 1913), Sarah Bernhardt à Belle Isle ( Sarah Bernhardt at Home , Louis Mercanton, 1913), Jeanne Doré (Louis Mercanton with René Hervil, 1915), Ceux de chez nous ( Those at our House , Sacha Guitry, 1915), Les Mères françaises ( Mothers of France , Louis Mercanton and René Hervil, 1917), It Happened in Paris (David Hartford, 1919), Daniel (director unknown, 1921), and La Voyante (Louis Mercanton, 1923). Of these fi lms, La Tosca , Adrienne Lecouvreur , It Happened in Paris and La Voyante are lost and only a short of excerpt of Daniel is available. See David W. Menefee, Sarah Bernhardt: Her Films, Her Recordings (Dallas: Menefee Publishing, 2012).
  4. See Eileen Bowser, The Transformation of Cinema (New York: Scribners, 1990), pp. 204-5; and Richard Abel, The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema 1896-1914 (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1994), p. 316, for recent scholarship that endorses this view. Charles Musser, in his article 'Conversions and convergences: Sarah Bernhardt in the era of technological reproducibility, 1910-1913', Film History 25:1-2 (2013), p. 170, cites Terry Ramsaye, Adolph Zukor, Geoges Sadoul, Robert Sklar and Eileen Bowser to support this same point. Further sources could be cited to confi rm the criticisms made about Bernhardt's acting. ( Jay Leyda and Andre Bazin are also critical of her theatricality.) My point is that 'fi lmed theatre' has long been used as a term of critique in fi lm studies.
  5. See, for example, Abel, The Ciné Goes to Town , p. 316. See also Barbara Hodgdon, 'Romancing the Queen', in The Shakespeare Trade: Performances and Appropriations (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), pp. 112-15.
  6. See, for example, the Ciné Journal speaking of Bernhardt as 'THE GREATEST ARTIST OF THE WORLD in the Cinema' and off ering the rights for the 'ENTIRE WORLD', marketing the fi lm as 'the most magnifi cent ever presented.' 'Queen Elizabeth', Ciné Journal 230 (18 January 1913), pp. 72-3.
  7. See Sander L. Gilman, 'Salome, syphilis, Sarah Bernhardt and the "modern Jewess" ', in Sander L. Gilman (ed.), Love + Marriage = Death and Other Essays on Representing Diff erence (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998). See also Janis Bergman-Carton, 'Negotiating the categories: Sarah Bernhardt and the possibilities of Jewishness', Art Journal , 55:2 (Summer 1996), pp. 57-8, where it is explained that a caricature published in 1884 in La Vie Parisienne entitled 'Théodora Puff ' shows Victorien Sardou literally 'drumming support' for Bernhardt, who stands 'blowing her own horn' on the stage beside him. Here, Bernhardt's exaggeratedly large nose corres- ponds to one of the anti-Semitic physiognomic signs of Judaism. Visibly diff erent from those physiognomies of the watching audience, Bernhardt is culturally sepa- rated from the crowd. Her thinness also reiterates this separation, suggesting a for- eignness which the anti-Semitic imagination translated into sickness and disease.
  8. See Sarah Bernhardt's comments about this 'band of students' called the 'Saradoteurs' in Paris in Sarah Bernhardt, Ma Double Vie: Mémoires de Sarah Bernhardt (Paris: Eugène Fasquelle, 1923), p. 290. See also Suze Rueff , who relates in her biography of Bernhardt that Bernhardt 'drew to the Odéon the students, the midinettes and the artisans of the rive gauche '. Suze Rueff , I Knew Sarah Bernhardt (London: Frederick Muller Ltd, 1951), p. 48.
  9. See Stephen M. Archer, 'E pluribus unum: Bernhardt's 1905-1906 farewell tour', in Ron Engle and Tice L. Miller (eds), The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 161.
  10. See Frederick S. Boas, Queen Elizabeth in Drama and Related Studies (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970), especially ch. 1 ('Queen Elizabeth in Elizabethan and later drama').
  11. See David Beasley, McKee Rankin and the Heyday of the American Theater (Ontario, Canada: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2002), pp. 379-80, for a discussion of this and the impact O'Neil had in Australia.
  12. 'Queen Elizabeth', The Argus (25 March 1901), p. 9.
  13. ' Amusements', New York Times (2 October 1866), p. 5.
  14. Marvin A. Carlson, The Italian Shakespearians: Performances by Ristori, Salvini, and Rossi (Washington, DC: Folger Books, 1985), p. 34; Susan Bassnett, ' Adelaide Ristori', in Michael R. Booth, John Stokes and Susan Bassnett (eds), Three Tragic Actresses: Siddons, Rachel, Ristori (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 165.
  15. F. G. W., 'Ristori', American Art Journal 5:26 (18 October 1866), pp. 407-8.
  16. 'Bernhardt as Queen Elizabeth', New York Times (12 May 1912), p. X9.
  17. Bassnett, ' Adelaide Ristori', p. 121.
  18. F. G. W., 'Ristori', pp. 407-8.
  19. '[N] ous ne comprenons pas grand chose aux griefs qu'articule contre lui l'évêque de Worcester … Qu'importe! Nous regardons Sarah Bernhardt. Et Sarah est extraordi- naire. La tragédie incomplète et confuse se concentre, se precise, dans son attitude, dans ses gestes, dans le frémissement de ses mains, dans l'angoisse de ses yeux, dans le tremblement de sa voix haletante et brisée. Nous ne nous intéressons nullement à Essex que nous connaissons fort mal. Mais la douleur de cette femme amoureuse et trahie, l'émoi de cette souveraine tiraillée entre l'élan de son coeur et les obsta- cles de la raison d'Etat nous remuent. Au dénouement, Sarah Bernhardt est plus admirable encore. … Elisabeth inconsolable, dévorée de remords. … Terribles, le visage de l'artiste, son égarement, son épouvante, et dans ses prunelles l'eff roi des récentes hallucinations. […] Sarah de pousser de merveilleux cris de haine et de nous off rir le spectacle d'une sublime agonie […] Elle traduit avec une extrême vérité la gamme entière des sentiments humains, elle exprime la véhémence aussi bien que la douceur; son jeu est sincère; il est même à l'occasion réaliste.' Adolphe Brisson, 'Chronique théatrale', Le Temps (15 April 1912), p. 1.
  20. Gerda Taranow, Sarah Bernhardt: The Art within the Legend (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972), p. 169.
  21. W. Stephen Bush, 'Queen Elizabeth', Moving Picture World (3 August 1912), p. 420.
  22. See the photographs reproduced in the catalogue by Carol Ockman and Kenneth E. Silver (eds), Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama (New Haven and London: Yale University Press 2005), pp. 154 and 155. Here we see a reproduction of Hall's 1912 photograph, 'Sarah Bernhardt on caboose of her private Pullman car, " Le Sarah Bernhardt " ', as well as the Moff ett Studio's 'Sarah Bernhardt standing inside her train "Le Sarah Bernhardt" ', 1912.
  23. 'Queen Elizabeth's ring', The Times (19 May 1911), p. 11.
  24. 'Elizabethan days', Chicago Defender (6 April 1912), p. 7.
  25. Martin Meisel, Realizations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 51.
  26. As described in William Butler Yeats, 'Notes', Samhain (October 1902), p. 4. 32 Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England I (A New Edition with a few explanatory notes by John Nichols) ( John Nichols & Son: London, 1811), p. 287.
  27. Michael Dobson and Nicola J. Watson, Elizabeth's England: An Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 140.
  28. Ibid .
  29. See the photographs of Bernhardt on the live stage in Queen Elizabeth : Sarah Bernhardt dans 'La reine Elisabeth', pièce d'Emile Moreau: documents iconographiques (Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1912).
  30. Ibid .
  31. Cited in Susan Bassnett, Elizabeth I: A Feminist Perspective (Oxford, New York and Hamburg: Berg, 1988), pp. 73, 74.
  32. Winfried Schleiner, ' "Divina Virago": Queen Elizabeth as Amazon', Studies in Philology 75:2 (Spring 1978), pp. 174-5, 176.
  33. I do not want to go into the debates surrounding who painted this image and what it possibly represents. See David Armitage, 'The procession portrait of Queen Elizabeth I: a note on a tradition', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 53 (1990). Armitage links it to the 'isolable tradition of representing royal power' and states that because we can see the garter of Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester, as he walks alongside Elizabeth in the portrait, we can date it to 25 June 1593 as this is when he received the Order of the Garter and became Elizabeth's Master of the Horse after the fall of Essex. See pp. 301 and 305.
  34. See discussion of the Procession Portrait in Louis Montrose, The Subject of Elizabeth: Authority, Gender, and Representation (Chicago and London: University of
  35. Chicago Press, 2006), pp. 104-5, where he states that 'this splendidly festive image of the Elizabeth cult is made the occasion and the means to commemorate the honor and worship of one of Elizabeth's noble followers. By means of this oblique displacement, the Queen remains the nominal subject of the painting, but its real subject becomes the Earl of Worcester in his relationship to the Queen.' 42 May Agate, Madame Sarah (London: Home & Van Thal, 1945), p. 170.
  36. David Hume, The History of England , vol. 1 (London: James S. Virtue, 1800), p. 543.
  37. Norman D. Ziff , Paul Delaroche: A Study in Nineteenth-Century French History Painting (New York: Garland Publishing, 1977), p. 70.
  38. 'Depuis le tableau de Paul Delaroche, de ce peintre dramaturge qui s'est occupé de la mise en scène de l'histoire, beaucoup plus que de sa philosophie, on ne peut répresenter Elisabeth, vieille et mourante, autrement que couchée sur des coussins, et râlant à travers la dentelle d'or de sa collerette hérissée.' Louis Ulbach, 'Revue théâtrale', Le Temps (20 May 1867), p. 1.
  39. 'Le théâtre représent le tableau de la mort d'élisabeth, par Delaroche. La Reine est étendue sur de riches tapisseries amoncelées sur le parquet et lui faisant une sorte de lit. Elle est fardée, mais son visage porte l'empreinte de la mort.' Eugène Nus and Alphonse Brot, Le Testament de la Reine Elisabeth, drame historique a grand spectacle en cinq actes et huit tableaux (Paris: Librairie Dramatique, 1867), p. 62. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
  40. Abel , Richard , The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema 1896-1914 ( Berkeley, Los Angeles and London : University of California Press , 1994 ).
  41. Agate , May , Madame Sarah ( London : Home & Van Thal , 1945 ). ' Amusements', New York Times (2 October 1866 ), p. 5.
  42. Archer , Stephen M. , ' E pluribus unum: Bernhardt's 1905-1906 farewell tour ', in Ron Engle and Tice L. Miller (eds), The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial period to the Present ( Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 1993 ).
  43. Armitage , David , ' The procession portrait of Queen Elizabeth I: a note on a tra- dition ', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 53 ( 1990 ).
  44. Bassnett , Susan , Elizabeth I: A Feminist Perspective ( Oxford, New York and Hamburg : Berg , 1988 ).
  45. ---' Adelaide Ristori ', in Michael R. Booth , John Stokes and Susan Bassnett (eds), Three Tragic Actresses: Siddons, Rachel, Ristori ( Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 1996 ).
  46. Beasley , David , McKee Rankin and the Heyday of the American Theater ( Ontario, Canada : Wilfred Laurier University Press , 2002 ).
  47. Bergman-Carton , Janis , ' Negotiating the categories: Sarah Bernhardt and the possibilities of Jewishness ', Art Journal 55 :2 (Summer 1996 ).
  48. 'Bernhardt as Queen Elizabeth', New York Times (12 May 1912 ), p. X9. Victoria Duckett -9781526113047
  49. Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 07/03/2020 08:05:10AM via free access
  50. Bernhardt , Sarah , Ma Double Vie: Mémoires de Sarah Bernhardt ( Paris : Eugène Fasquelle , 1923 ).
  51. Bloch , Marc , The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France , trans. J. E. Anderson ( London : Routledge & Kegan Paul , 1973 ).
  52. Boas , Frederick S. , Queen Elizabeth in Drama and Related Studies ( Freeport, NY : Books for Libraries Press , 1970 ).
  53. Bowser , Eileen , The Transformation of Cinema ( New York : Scribners , 1990 ).
  54. Brisson , Adolphe , ' Chronique théâtrale ', Le Temps (15 April 1912 ).
  55. Burrows , Jon , Legitimate Cinema: Theatre Stars in Silent British Films, 1908-1918 ( Exeter : University of Exeter Press , 2003 ).
  56. Bush , W. Stephen , 'Queen Elizabeth', Moving Picture World (3 August 1912 ).
  57. Carlson , Marvin A. , The Italian Shakespearians: Performances by Ristori, Salvini, and Rossi ( Washington, DC : Folger Books , 1985 ).
  58. Dobson , Michael and Nicola J. Watson , Elizabeth's England: An Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy ( Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2002 ).
  59. 'Elizabethan Days', Chicago Defender (6 April 1912 ), p. 7. Enciclopedia dello spettacolo ( Rome : Casa Editrice le Machete , 1954 ).
  60. F. G. W. , ' Ristori ', American Art Journal 5 :26 (18 October 1866 ).
  61. Fuller , Thomas , The History of the Worthies of England I (A New Edition with a few explanatory notes by John Nichols) ( London : John Nichols & Son , 1811 ).
  62. Gilman , Sander L. , ' Salome, syphilis, Sarah Bernhardt and the "modern Jewess" ', in Sander L. Gilman (ed.), Love + Marriage = Death and Other Essays on Representing Diff erence ( Stanford : Stanford University Press , 1998 ).
  63. Gold , Arthur and Robert Fizdale , The Divine Sarah: A Life of Sarah Bernhardt ( New York : Alfred A. Knopf , 1991 ).
  64. Hodgdon , Barbara , ' Romancing the Queen ', in The Shakespeare Trade: Performances and Appropriations ( Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press , 1998 ).
  65. Hume , David , The History of England , vol. 1 ( London : James S. Virtue , 1800 ).
  66. Mayer , David , Stagestruck Filmmaker: D. W. Griffi th and the American Theatre ( Iowa City : University of Iowa Press , 2009 ).
  67. Meisel , Martin , Realizations ( Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press , 1983 ).
  68. Menefee , David W. , Sarah Bernhardt: Her Films, Her Recordings ( Dallas : Menefee Publishing , 2012 ).
  69. Montrose , Louis , The Subject of Elizabeth: Authority, Gender, and Representation ( Chicago and London : University of Chicago Press , 2006 ).
  70. Musser , Charles , ' Conversions and convergences: Sarah Bernhardt in the era of technological reproducibility, 1910-1913 ', Film History 25 :1-2 ( 2013 ).
  71. Nus , Eugène and Alphonse Brot , Le Testament de la Reine Elisabeth, drame historique à grand spectacle en cinq actes et huit tableaux ( Paris : Librairie Dramatique , 1867 ).
  72. Ockman , Carol and Kenneth E. Silver (eds), Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama ( New Haven and London : Yale University Press 2005 ).
  73. Queen Elizabeth', The Argus (25 March 1901 ).
  74. Queen Elizabeth', Ciné Journal , 230 (18 January 1913 ).
  75. Queen Elizabeth: Sarah Bernhardt dans 'La reine Elisabeth', pièce d'Emile Moreau: doc- uments iconographiques (Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1912 ).
  76. Rueff , Suze , I Knew Sarah Bernhardt ( London : Frederick Muller Ltd , 1951 ).
  77. Schleiner , Winfried , ' " Divina virago": Queen Elizabeth as Amazon ', Studies in Philology 75 :2 (Spring 1978 ).
  78. Taranow , Gerda , Sarah Bernhardt: The Art within the Legend ( Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press , 1972 ).
  79. Ulbach , Louis , ' Revue théâtrale ', Le Temps (21 May 1867 ).
  80. Yeats , William Butler , ' Notes ', Samhain (October 1902 ).
  81. Ziff , Norman D. , Paul Delaroche: A Study in Nineteenth-Century French History Painting ( New York : Garland Publishing , 1977 ).

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Liesbeth Grotenhuis

2023

The femme fatale was the ultimate subject for the Symbolist painter: the dangerous seductress was accentuated in well-known characters from mythology, history and the bible. On stage, these stories also flourished, especially when brought to stage by talents like Sarah Bernhardt. This paper will explore Bernhardt bringing theatre to a next level as she fused the line between performing and real life. The new medium of photography confirmed this ambivalence. But with her outspoken presence, she also remained a popular model for the traditional painter, both in a specific role and as herself. More interestingly, she adopted this iconography to profile herself as a strong, independent human. Soon other actresses and female dancers followed. How did the male-developed iconography (to distinguish the female otherness) affect the adaptation by women themselves in their feminist development?

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Related topics

  • Art History
  • Art
  • Performance Art
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