The Song of Bernadette
Release date: 1943-12-21
Votes: 122
Genres: Drama
In 1858 Lourdes, France, adolescent peasant Bernadette has a vision of "a beautiful lady" in the Massabielle grotto - the townspeople assume this lady to be the Virgin Mary. Pompous government officials think the girl is insane, doing their best to suppress her and her followers, while the church wants nothing to do with the matter. But as Bernadette attracts wider and wider attention, the phenomenon overtakes everyone in the town, ultimately transforming their lives.
Reviews
CinemaSerf
Jennifer Jones turns in an engaging performance as the eponymous girl, living in mid-19th Century France, who claims to have received divine communications in a grotto near her local village of Lourdes. Unsurprisingly, she faces a fairly sceptical clergy and state but her fellow villagers lap it all up. That enthusiasm soon spreads and soon - like it or not - she is a phenomenon that has drawn the attention of the Empress Eugenie herself. Her problems only worsen when she is finally accepted, and validated by her church and she takes up residence in a nunnery where she is respected and resented in pretty much equal measure. Cynics may cast aspersions on the reasons behind the casting of Jones in this film, but nobody could argue that her performance is anything other than perfect. She has an innocence that lends well to the plausibility of her charming, unassuming persona and of her pretty turbulent - and short - life too. Charles Bickford also delivers well as her initially suspicious parish priest as do local magistrate "Dutour" (Vincent Price) and doctor "Dozous" (Lee J. Cobb). The writing is maybe not the most significant element of the story, indeed it is a bit vapid at times, but the story quite successfully captivates even now, 80 years later.
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