"The Song of Bernadette" (1943)

The 1943 film “The Song of Bernadette” is a pious, epic treatment of an incredible incident that occurred in Lourdes, France in 1858.  The effects of that occurrence still resonate for millions today. And like much of the world as we know it, the significance of Lourdes is in danger of tragically disappearing.

Bernadette Soubirous (Jennifer Jones in her film debut), a shy and fragile young woman living in poverty with her family, has an apparition of  The Virgin Mary in a trash-laden grotto. Bernadette, who claims only to have seen a beautiful lady, not the Blessed Virgin, returns to the grotto repeatedly, against the protests of her mother (Anne Revere) and the authorities.  After Bernadette, at the behest of the lady who by now has announced herself as The Immaculate Conception, digs and eats the plants and bathes her face in the mud at the grotto, a spring gushes from the ground, with water that miraculously cures the sick.

The remainder of the story cuts between Bernadette’s growing notoriety, the growth of Lourdes into a place of both healing and exploitation, and Bernadette’s final years of suffering in the convent of the Sisters of Nevers.

The movie was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning four, including a Best Actress statue for Jennifer Jones. “The Song of Bernadette” was also the first movie to win at the inaugural Golden Globe Best Picture Award in 1944.

Jones carries Bernadette’s story with quiet strength.  It is a passive performance, but appropriately modulated; she registers so much calm and sadness that we feel protective of her.  Her performance gets better as the film progresses, and she delivers her saintly dialog straightforwardly, like a true innocent, without phony sanctity.

You don’t need to be a Catholic to appreciate the film on its cinematic merits: the stunning, documentary quality of its cinematography, the committed performances, and its complex screenplay, adapted from Franz Werfel’s novel, which examines the personal and political angles of the alleged miracle, along with its religious implications.

But if you are Catholic, or even a former Catholic of a certain age, who watched this movie on television annually, “The Song of Bernadette” is almost impossible to see as a mere film. It is so realistically portrayed and so convincing (aided by a musical score which drips with reverence), I find watching it now to be a complicated emotional, personal, almost spiritual experience in spite of myself.

As millions worldwide await in impatient hope for some sign of a cure for Covid-19, and as churches close everywhere, especially on this Easter Sunday, the film’s message of hope during this uncertain time, whether or not you believe in Bernadette’s story, makes “The Song of Bernadette” compelling, inwardly reflective viewing.  

The movie was released ten years after Bernadette was canonized as a saint, and was a very popular success.  The film’s point of view is on the side of Bernadette.  Hollywood in those days was influenced by the Catholic Church and the Legion of Decency; any stories about the Church were treated with utmost deference.  Also, the fact that a large moviegoing audience was Catholic made for good box office.

I can’t quite imagine how the film plays to those of another (or no history of) faith, so ingrained is the film in my own personal experience.  But the movie successfully explores the occasions of doubt, and the greed of those who might profit from using the waters to attract tourism or bottling and selling the water.

Most effective is the recurrence of the character of Sister Vouzou, a severe and envious nun, Bernadette’s teacher and later the leader of postulants in the convent of the Sisters of Nevers.  Played by the great Gladys Cooper in almost complete stillness, she conveys the character entirely in vocal inflections and facial expressions that register everything from doubt and displeasure to horror and contrition. Cooper’s presence is so strong, that she could make nonbelievers at least question their doubts.

Vincent Price, before he became known as a staple of lurid horror films, is perfect as the Imperial Prosecutor.  Afflicted with a nagging cold throughout, Price is also persuasive as a man of facts and science who nevertheless manipulates them for political reasons.  A flaw that badly dates the film, and stacks the deck in favor of the Church, is the belief that science is, at best, an impediment to faith.  It is troubling that when Price’s true affliction is revealed, his character admits that he is a stranger among the faithful; it is implied that that there are no heroes among nonbelievers.  Even so, Price is sympathetic as a man who wishes he could believe in a miracle that might save him. 

  

I especially liked the subplots involving the authorities’ futile attempts to declare Bernadette a fraud, or insane; or later, these same authorities plotting ways to capitalize on the crowds who come to be cured, to set up souvenir shops and hotels, and to design labels for bottles to be sold. This lends the film an unusual depth and keeps it from being just a recruitment poster for the Church.

Lourdes’ exploitation for profit, with merchandise and more hotels than anywhere in France except Paris, is an unfortunate legacy of Bernadette’s story.  What drew me to watch the film again was an article I read recently, that the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes closed its doors on March 17, for the first time in its history, because of fears of the Coronavirus.  A scene in the film in which the grotto is closed, not for health but for political reasons, and then reopened again due to imperial intervention, reminded me of the stark fact of the Shrine’s indefinite closing.

To me it’s sadly ironic that the Sanctuary of Lourdes, known for miraculous healing, overcrowded now due to the exploitation of hope and faith, is now closed so that even those who fervently believe can no longer place their hopes in this cure.

It made me sad, too, watching “The Song of Bernadette” and realizing that the boy I was, who so completely believed in Bernadette’s miracle, is gone. 

Still, I want to have hope for a miracle against this pandemic, so that we might live our lives again.