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. Continue reading
LE DUEL D’HAMLET (1900) – In this roughly 2-minute short, the 56-year-old Bernhardt gave cinema a gender-flipped Hamlet as she fenced with Pierre Magnier as Laertes in the climactic duel. 
TOSCA (1908, 1912) – Bernhardt portrayed Floria Tosca in this adaptation of the Puccini opera. (Yes, it’s a silent movie version of an opera.) The entire story was condensed into just 40 minutes and Sarah was so appalled with the production that she insisted that it not be released and, in fact, wanted it destroyed! 
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