THE GREAT ACTRESS SARAH BERNHARDT IN MERES FRANCAISES (1917)

MERES FRANCAISES (1917) – This silent film was made and set during World War One. It starred the legendary stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, whose career spanned from 1862 to 1923. She was practically royalty when she deigned to appear in a few silent films. 

The title Meres Francaises means Mothers of France and it was a morale-building wartime film. Sarah Bernhardt was in her 70s but nobly did her best as Madame Jeanne D’Urbex, the matriarch of a French family which suffers more than its fair share of loss and heartache as World War One rages on.  

Sarah as Jeanne loses her husband and a son to the grave, plus members of her extended family endure blindness and the loss of beloved friends. Madame D’Urbex puts aside her own pain and becomes the rock on which the women of her family and the young nurses serving under her can rely.

It’s a rare cinematic look at the global conflict from the point of view of women. Bernhardt is still limited by her missing leg and her advanced age, but that only emphasizes what she and others were enduring as the war refused to end.

Madame D’Urbex is unconquerable and is like a fictional Joan of Arc of the military hospitals. Her closing words in Meres Francaises may seem like wartime schmaltz, but this was filmed during a less cynical time. Those closing words? “So that the mothers shall no longer suffer, it is necessary that France carry on the war, war upon war, and that the glow of the future paradise shall illuminate itself from the bayonets of France.”

I can picture many modern-day actresses longing to portray such a strong, indefatigable character on the big screen. 73 minutes long.

FOR ADDITIONAL SILENT FILMS OF SARAH BERNHARDT CLICK HERE.