The Divine Sarah Bernhardt (MA) - 98 minutes

Start with the facts and lace it with fiction.

That is what screenwriter Nathalie Leuthreau and director Guillaume Nicloux have done with French stage star Sarah Bernhardt (22^nd October, 1844 – 26^th March, 1923).

She became a global sensation.

Bernhardt was spirited, determined, heavily opinionated and charismatic. Lovers of both sexes and admirers were plentiful. She travelled extensively.

The story presented is one of excess and adventure – wild animals allowed to roam freely in her luxurious home and hedonistic partying with friends and confidantes.

It begins with the lead up to and amputation of her right leg at age 70. The leg had troubled her since a mattress was not in position on stage years earlier.

Through the ordeal, she is still able to joke and, as is her want in her search for perfection, order others around, for she could be dismissive and a hard taskmaster.

She made a fortune, but squandered it away.

She supported her irresponsible son, Maurice, who was an excessive gambler.

For all her success, Bernhardt was also prone to self-harm, frequently slashing her wrists.

The bulk of the tale concerns her longstanding love affair with fellow French actor Lucien Guitry (13^thDecember, 1960 – 1^st June, 1925).

Both lived libertine lives, but Bernhardt was inconsolable when he tried to leave her to marry a younger actress.

So it was that Bernhardt and Guitry became estranged for a period.

In fact, that break was premeditated by Bernhardt’s actions on what should have been the day of her crowning glory, one of national celebration of her.

The corollary to that story involved Guitry’s own son, Sacha, who had a falling out with his father over the same young actress his dad was in love with.

It was Bernhardt who played peacemaker and fence mender.

Another important conceit in the movie concerns Bernhardt railing against the unfair treatment of French army officer Alfred Dreyfus.

That led to a vitriolic clash with her son.

The Divine Sarah Bernhardt is a rollicking ride, a period drama that unfolds in flashback and appears to rely heavily on fantasy.

As the screenwriter herself acknowledges, Bernhardt was a woman who lived life to the full, enjoying all the pleasures and savouring the forbidden.

Director Nicloux has done a good job realising her bohemian lifestyle, cramming a lot into little more than an hour and a half.

That includes liberally dropping the names of world famous literary, political and medical figures.

From Victor Hugo to Oscar Wilde and Sigmund Freud, they are all referenced.

The period detail is impressive throughout. I speak of the sumptuous sets and costuming.

Giving the film its pulsating heart is Sandrine Kiberlain, who is loud and bold and brazen. As Bernhardt, she sets out to show that the world revolves around her.

Laurent Lafitte is decidedly more measured as her largely adoring lover, Lucien Guitry.

Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet plays Bernhardt’s son as entitled, while much opprobrium falls upon Bernhardt’s indefatigable attendant, Pitou.

He is in the firing line for Bernhardt’s fits of pique.

So it is that Laurent Stocker assumes that role with a lilt, recognising Bernhardt’s “cruelties”, but equally dismissing them.

And that is the Bernhardt that we witness on screen, a woman who was self-centred, demanding and needy, but also one who achieved dazzling, unparalleled fame.

Rated MA, The Divine Miss Bernhardt scores a 7 out of 10.