Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

deickos One of the best films of all time and maybe Henry King's best - the real story of Saint Bernadette. Henry King tells the story as should be told - no more no less. We should remember France was under the Nazi yoke at the time - making such a film was a real message of hope and faith for the suffering French. This is great art beyond any doubt.

weezeralfalfa Based on the novel of the same title written by Franz Werfel , just the year before, provided with a lavish budget, and a stable of excellent supporting actors to interact with the star: Jennifer Jones, in her first film with her new name. Jennifer was, at this time, switching her romantic affiliation from actor husband Robert Walker to wealthy producer David O. Selznick, who loaned her to Fox, to star in this film. Reportedly, she was chosen partly because of her innocent youthful-looking beauty, and her superior ability to look as if having a mystical experience.Werfel was a Jewish playwright refugee from Nazism, who fled from Paris, initially to Lourdes, near Spain, during the unexpectedly quick conquest of France by the Germans. Several families in Lourdes protected his family from the Germans, while he learned about the most famous local historical resident : Bernadette Soubirous, whose story somewhat resembles that of Joan of Arc: another illiterate obscure peasant teen, whose apparently divinely -inspired visions eventually excited the French people into celebrating her as chosen by God to have special gifts relevant to others. In appreciation, Werfel vowed to write a novel based on her life. This he did not long after escaping to the US, incorporating some fictional events and persons.As reproduced in this film, Werfel sought to use the example of Bernadette in an attempt to somewhat restore the credibility of tales of supernatural interventions and visitations against the scathing skepticism of non-believers, most clearly represented in this film by Vincent Price's Imperial Prosecutor: Vital Dutour. The latter is probably largely based upon the French novelist Emile Zola, whose "Lourdes" provided a scathingly negative view of the many claimed miracle cures from drinking water from the seemingly magically-appearing spring in the grotto where Bernadette experienced her visions.The film is quite long at more than 21/2 hours, for a screenplay that seems better suited to a play than for a film audience. Initially provoking marked skepticism and suggestions of intent to profit from notoriety, Bernadette eventually wins over nearly all her doubters, including the jealous Sister Vauzous: her school teacher, who labeled her a lazy stupid girl, and who later reenters her life when Bernadette joins the same convent. There is the local doctor(played by Lee Cobb), who tries to keep an open mind as to whether she is suffering from a mental condition, faking her visions, or is really experiencing divine visitations. He is also involved in assessing some of the reported cases of apparent cures from drinking or bathing in water from the grotto spring. The most celebrated claimed cure comes from the empress, in regard to her feverish son. Interestingly Bernadette is unable to cure herself of her debilitating asthma, or her later lethal bone TB problem. She states that "the spring is not for me", an interpretation of the statement by 'the lady in white' that she could not promise Bernadette happiness in this life, only in the next. Bernadette is also denied the opportunity to live the normal life of having a husband and children, partly because of her asthma, and partly because her protector: Father Peyramale convinced her that "since heaven has chosen you, you must chose heaven", meaning that she was meant to serve God and her community by becoming a nun rather than a wife and mother. Her repeating "I love you", during 'the lady's' last visitation, as she is dying, sounds almost lesbian. Father Peyramale had initially been skeptical of the validity of her visions, but came to be her chief non-peasant supporter against her doubters, who tried to have her declared insane or having criminal intent. Clearly, Jennifer developed a close relationship with Charles Bickford, who played Father Peyramale. When he died, several decades later, the then reclusive Jennifer immediately tried to commit suicide, apparently by a combination of drugs and drowning. That she very barely survived was a miracle worthy of being include in this film!This film is not for everyone. As I said, it's overly long for a mostly grim drama, and was filmed in B&W, which will put off many viewers today. If you don't believe in miracles and divine interventions, that won't help appreciating this story. Jennifer's Bernadette isn't terribly charismatic, like Joan of Arc: being very soft spoken and humble throughout, although being very persistent about the validity her visions. Jennifer isn't really called upon to do a lot in her acting to earn her Oscar. It does give a reasonable snapshot of provincial French society during that era. and a dramatization of the events which led to Lourdes becoming a major pilgrimage destination for Christians throughout the world.Yes, I believe some people have special spiritual attributes. For example, my wife once was put into a trance by an Indonesian shaman, in an attempt to find an American who had not returned from a solo trek on a volcano. Supposedly, the American's soul was called to enter her body and speak through her where he was. Well, this worked. He had fallen down a ravine and had a broken leg. Previous searchers had missed him, not searching in this unexpected area.

Steffi_P In the midst of World War Two, a strange trend began to appear in the Hollywood movie. The success of Gone with the Wind in 1939 had made long movies popular and viable, but wartime shortages meant that massive sets and thousands of extras were simply not feasible. As a result we got a lot of pictures that were big in length but not in scope or budget, other examples including For Whom the Bell Tolls and Since You Went Away. The Song of Bernadette is also one of a number of Christian religious pictures from the war period.Playing the eponymous saint is Jennifer Jones in one of her earliest roles. Jones accurately captures the innocent manner of a young girl, as well as the earnest naivety of her character, and as such does a good enough job for the picture's requirements. A great supporting act comes from Anne Revere who, as she often did, anchors the movie with the sober naturalism of her performance. It seems however that the makers of the picture were a little unimaginative in their casting of many of the smaller roles, especially the villainous ones. Vincent Price is always good fun to watch, and he is actually at his most restrained here. However Charles Dingle sounds like the guy who does Richard Nixon's voice on Futurama, and it's hard not to chuckle at him. And is comedy ham actor Sig Ruman really appropriate for this kind of picture? Maybe he is – at least he brings a bit of jollity to what is largely a rather po-faced movie.In the director's chair is Henry King, Fox Studios' long-serving veteran who was currently at the high point of his career. King is in many ways ideal for a picture like this. While the religious epics of the 20s and the 50s would emphasise the spectacle of the gigantic, King is a master of bringing beauty and personality to smaller settings. Look at, for example the outdoor scenes where Bernadette has her visions. The setting is not expansive and we don't see any horizons (it's probably a small patch of backlot) but King shows it off as a landscape nonetheless, making every rock and tree part of a rich visual tapestry. The Soubirous home is small but with it is certainly not plain. The government offices are shot (and lit, thanks to Arthur Miller) like a Gothic mansion, rather appropriately given Price's presence. King shows us people framed amid their environment, and in so doing gives us some elaborate yet subtle optical illusions. In the scene where Vincent Price has his talk with Jones, the bay window behind seems to project him outwards, making him seem more imposing.There's nothing wrong with making a longer movie on a small budget, but I think the problems with The Song of Bernadette lie more in the type of picture it is. This isn't just a religious movie, it's a movie about miracles. And all faith or lack thereof aside, a picture like that should have a bit of showmanship. That's why DeMille made the best religious movies in town – he was a showman and he gave his work the necessary pizazz of a bible story. The Song of Bernadette tries to portray the events at Lourdes in almost realist terms, and in spite of an attempt at grandeur in the blaring Alfred Newman score, and in spite of King's fine handling of the small canvas, it just doesn't seem to work.

Robert J. Maxwell It's a fine example of the kind of reasonably accurate, historical biographies that studies like 20th Century Fox were turning out in the 30s and 40s. The acting is professional, the mise en scene convincing, the characters recognizable, and the determinedly middle-brow story easy to follow. If the movie and its premise go unchallenged, it can be moving. You must overlook some minor discrepancies between history and a recent movie. For instance, Bernadette Soubirous (Jones), who is better looking than the original, not only washed her face in the mud when advised to do so by "the lady" but she actually ate some of it. It would have been as commercially offensive to show that as it would have been to show the tubercular infection of her leg that killed her in her 30s. Today, of course, it would be different. The camera would linger lovingly on the mouth full of mud and the pustular wound.As Bernadette, Jennifer Jones won an Academy Award. She's pretty, and she progresses from a teen ager to a mature woman believably, but she's not really required to do very much except, as one character (a mean nun) observes, act and speak "disarmingly." When the vision appears, Jones' face lights up brightly, just as Denzel Washington's did in "Malcom X" when HE sees the light. Anne Revere is outstanding as the tough mother who holds the family together. Charles Bickford as the village priest is gruff and hard to convince. Vincent Price does a villainous turn as the Prosecutor but in the end is converted. Gladys Cooper as a bitter, jealous, unbelieving nun is splendid -- what a face! From a scientific point of view it can be said that -- well, there IS no scientific view. This is around 1860. Freud was only four years old. His cases don't look anything like those we see today. Yet, Bernadette Soubirous herself aside, social psychologists would recognize the pattern of crowd behavior. Lourdes attracted hordes of followers during the period when Bernadette was having her visions. The pattern is typical of a certain kind of collective behavior -- begun by a young girl who serves as the index case. The conformation to the template would have been more convincing if some of the other children claimed to see the same or similar visions. Such an event is the subject of savage parody in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" and is taken well over the top -- to some distant, unimaginable planet -- in "The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima" in which the sun is made to stop and dance around.Lourdes today doesn't look much like a small village near a filthy grotto. As I recall, it's built up considerably, not just the town but the various chapels, and it's surrounded in summer by hundreds of pilgrims hoping for something. It all seems as commercial as this movie.But none of that should keep a viewer from seeing the film. As I say, it's a good example of its period and its genre and is in no way insulting. Poor Bernadette.