The “voix d’or” on silent film: the case of Sarah Bernhardt

Sarah Bernhardt is a paradigmatic case study for the joining of voice and silent film. This is because she was famous for her \u27voix d\u27or\u27 on the theatrical stage and because she was highly visible in the nascent period of the cinema\u27s development. Traditionally considered an example of actress in the silent period who was \u27silenced\u27 by film, she has also been considered an anachronistic and ineffective on-screen performer. I argue instead that Bernhardt\u27s films were not mute records of her live stage action but works that further promoted and developed her polymorphous body at the opening of the twentieth century