Playing as part of the 45th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
In The Divine Sarah Bernhardt, the life of the world’s first star of stage and screen is told in multiple acts, jumping through time as Bernhardt (a magnetic Sandrine Kiberlain) recounts her relationship with the actor Lucien Guitry (Laurent Lafitte). Bernhardt and her wild inner circle (including Amira Casar as Louise Abbéma) revel in eccentricity and opulence in Paris, yet against the backdrop of the Dreyfus Affair, Bernhardt, in all her modernity and defiance, also rages against injustice and rising antisemitism—even persuading Émile Zola to write his infamous “J’Accuse…!” Director Guillaume Nicloux enchants the viewer just as Bernhardt charmed her lovers and acolytes, including a young Sigmund Freud, played by Nico Rogner. The flair and finesse of Nicloux’s script (cowritten with Nathalie Leuthreau) and the sumptuous décor by art director Olivier Radot make for a riveting portrait. This story of love and conviction in times of societal and political upheaval is a delightful visual spectacle and majestic drama. —Karina Curry