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Jennifer Jones sees visions of the Virgin Mary in the moving The Song of Bernadette |
Director: Henry King
Cast: Jennifer Jones (Bernadette Soubirous), Charles
Bickford (Abbé Dominique Peyramale), Williem Eythe (Antoinie Nicoleau),
Gladys Cooper (Marie Theresa Vauzou), Vincent Price (Vital Dutour), Lee J. Cobb
(Dr Dozous), Anne Revere (Louise Casteror Soubirious), Roman Bohnen (François
Soubirous), Mary Anderson (Jeanne Abadie), Aubrey Maher (Mayor Lacade), Linda
Darnell (Virgin Mary)
“For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary.
For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.”
With these words, this worthy religious epic from the Golden
Age of Hollywood kicks off its retelling of how visions of the Virgin Mary from
one poorly educated peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, turned Lourdes from a
backwater near the French-Spanish border into one of the most important
Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. It’s material that you could fairly
expect to be pretty dry and sanctimonious stuff. But, surprisingly, it’s rather
affecting and engaging work – and, although made with a certain workmanlike
competence, carries enough touches of grace to lift it up into the second tier
of the Hollywood firmament.
Bernadette Soubirous is played by Jennifer Jones – in one of
her first screen roles, for which she became at 25 one of the youngest Best
Actress Oscar winners ever. Until her visions begin, she is just an average
peasant child, struggling with asthma, her parents (Anne Revere and Roman
Bohnen) struggling with poverty, failing at religious school under the strict
tutelage of Sister Marie Theresa (Gladys Cooper), and generally looking ahead
to a life very much like any other. But visions of the Virgin Mary (played by
an unbilled Linda Darnell) bring belief and devotion into her life, and she
reports the content of the visions (and her discussions with the Virgin Mary)
with an honest simplicity and consistency that wins many backers, not least
local priest Abbé Peyramale (Charles Bickford). But the local officials of
Lourdes, led by local prosecutor Vital Dutour (Vincent Price), concerned that
these visions will impact plans for the town’s development and anxious about the
hysteria they could encourage in the simple-minded, try their best to restore
what they see as reason over the intoxication of faith.
Faith really is the word of the day in Henry King’s at-times
stately, but also shrewdly worldly drama that mixes divine intervention and
belief with a fair-hearing for the doubters and the arguments of reason. The
miracles, when they come, are followed with several characters – not least Lee
J Cobb’s coolly rational doctor – outlining the alternative explanations for
why these people may suddenly feel they have been cured. Later Dutour complains
wryly that it only takes a handful of cures among the thousands that come for
everyone to continue to want – or need – to believe.
But the film sides squarely with the truth of Bernadette’s
visions, not least by stressing at every turn her honesty, guilelessness and
principle. Questioned by various church officials – many of them terrified of
being duped by a con, having been stung in the past – she sticks with an honest
openness to the same version of the story over and over again. Peyramale –
initially just as sceptical – is won over to belief by Bernadette’s sudden
knowledge of such matters as the immaculate conception, when she seemed barely
aware of what the Holy Trinity was while studying at school.
King – a largely middle-of-the-road director, but who
marshals his resources well here – clearly takes inspiration from Carl Dreyer’s
films on similar topics of faith and visions in his shooting of Bernadette.
Bright light and intense close-ups that study every inch of her rapture help
convey the spirituality of her visions. When Bernadette leads groups to her
visions – none of whom can see what she sees – light radiates around her and
over her, but seems to barely touch those she is with. The cinematography by
Arthur C Miller is beautiful, a brilliant use of light and darkness to
skilfully sketch both the poverty of Bernadette’s background and the radiance
of her visions.
The mood of the film is also helped be Jennifer Jones’
impressive performance. Bernadette is, in many ways, potentially one of the
least interesting and dynamic characters in the film, but Jones pulls off the
immensely difficult task of making someone stuffed with decency, innocence and
honesty into an actually compelling and endearing character. A protégé of David
O Selznick (whom she later married), Jones earned her place in the film with
her ability to invest Bernadette with humanity, avoiding any hint of cynicism
in her performance while never becoming grating either.
It contributes to a beautiful telling of the story, backed
by a series of excellent supporting performances. Charles Bickford landed an
Oscar nomination as the kindly, decent priest whose initial scepticism and
concern that the crowd is being manipulated is washed away by growing belief.
Lee J Cobb is very good as a stoutly rationalist doctor. Anne Revere (also
nominated) has a protective warmth as Bernadette’s mother.
The film’s finest supporting roles though come from Vincent Price
and Gladys Cooper. Price is superb as the man of science and reason who worries
over the implications of fanaticism and the damage hysteria can cause, but is
never simply prejudiced or Dawkinsish in his religious doubts. King’s film
treats his concerns with a genuineness that makes both the character more
interesting and the film more balanced. Cooper is brilliant as a Salieri-like
nun, enraged with envy and jealousy that after years of devotion and suffering
it is not she but Bernadette who gets the visions.
And why did Bernadette get those visions? The film is not
crude enough to suggest why – Bernadette herself apologises for the trouble she
has caused and her unworthiness – but it’s clear that it’s her very innocence
and sincerity that makes her worthy of them. The design – and impressive score
by Alfred Newman – helps to make the film feel as profound as it does, but it’s
the balance that the film handles its characters with that makes it engrossing.
There are no simple heroes or villains, just as there are no simple solutions.
Like the film says at the start, it’s a question of faith. Those who do not
wish to believe can marshal as many arguments in their favour as those who want
nothing more than to trust in faith. It makes for a fine, balanced, engaging
and well-made classic.
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