New-York tribune., 1921-12-25
Bernhardt
Holds Movies
But Lightly
The Divine Sarah Talks
of Screen Art and Gives
Some Reminisc ences
FROM The rrsoane.s Europeoa sureon

PARIS. Dec 1S.-The movies have
great and beautiful art, but they can
never replace the Legitimate" stage
any more than photographs can re-
place oil paintings, says Sarah Bern
hardt in an article she has just pub
lished.
Frances leading actress at the age
Of seventy-eight discloses how the
dramatic that was in her. first mani
tested itself. She writes:
'The stage is the great propagan-
1t is the pivot of all the arts--litera-
ture. painting. music and architecture
sre the brain, heart, flesh. muscles and
the blood of the stage, and that is why
it is so great, so necessary to the
vitality of the. world.
Another art has grated .itscf on
the stage-the movies, which could be-
come art but for the moment it serves
as a school fer vice, thievery and as
sassination. There are, of course,
some beautiful films. but so few.
However, | persist in believing that it
will become very great and very
beautiful art, brother of the beautiful
and noble thester; and claim, no mat
ter what people say, that the movies
can no more replace the stage than
photography can replace painting
Sarah Bernhardt understands now
why youth is so attracted by the
glamour of the stage, but at one time
she could not appreciate it and did
not even care for plays As a little
girl she caused scandal every time
she went to the theater, but it was
merely a sign of her innate ability to
enter every part and to live with the
story.
Early Recollections
OF the Paris Stage
"The theater, the stage! These
words fame up incessantly in the
dreams of young people who wish to
peep through the veil of the future"
says madame. at seems to these
young people that whole life of mys-
terry and glory is inclosed in these two
words. And how we'll / understand
them! Yes, now l understand them,
because when a little girl didn't have
this nostalgia for the stage. The
only pageants / understood were the
festivals of the Convent of Grand
Champs, where I was brought up
that is to say, a novice's taking the
veil, the funeral service of the head
sister dead at ninety), the first com
munlons of the convent, the reception
i the m monsignor, the bishop, and the
Christmas celebrations, which awak-
ened the mother love asleep in the
hearts Of all future wives.
ooh. Those eight days preceding
Christmas We all thought up ways of
5eautifying the cradle and three times
in few years | succeeded over my
rivals. Each time that I arranged the
stable where the Divine Child was born
it was a real triumph. The sisters
praised me, saying:
How beautiful it is. How were
you able to make that starry sky?
Who gave you the idea of that
little aureole?'
And since then I understand that
art was singing in me, for l never put
my foot in 2 theater until after I left
the convent. However, yes, l remem-
Der the Theater Robert -Houdin, where
they doubtless took me, because in
the wolf and lamb l saw the wolf
with flaming eyes jump on the lamb
and carry it off. stamped. was
then eight or nine years old. and 7
cried:
"'Kill him, you everybody.
Kill the wolff
Such was my first theatrical emo
ton, and it caused a scandal!
Development of
Her Dramatic Art
MY second emotion was at the The
atre Francais, where, having gritted
my teeth because Of the meanness of
Nero in 'Britannicus,' melted in tears
about the sorrows of Alcmene in
'Amphitryon.' This time again I
caused scandal, because the public,
seeing my indscreet grief, gave way
to uncomfortable. laughter. This ridic-
ulous manifestation of my emotions
caused my godmother, who was with us.
to say to my mother:
"'This child is poor little idiot
with whom Won will nnver ho ohIo +o 10
anything. Let her become nun;
she's not good for anything else (My
eodmother was a heretic.)
Il was then fourteen years old, but
l was already living in fiction. For
hours at time / went out of nv nor
sonality, taking that of the heroine of
the story l was reading. For example.
1t / were reading 'Mademoiselle dc Ia
Valliere.' limped bit for the rest Of
the day"
In this way the maiden Sarah gra6u
ally and unconsciously began to de-
velop her remarkable ability in dra-
matte art and the Interpretation of
characters. When she succeeded in
putting over" the part she entered
while reading novels, without realizing
that she was acting, she was as pleased
as she was when later in life she made
her hxst great public success
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