Based on the novel by Franz Werfel, The Song of Bernadette is a venerative and sympathetic account of the life of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a once pale and sickly (asthmatic) French peasant girl who claimed to have seen 18 miraculous visions of a “beautiful lady” (whom others, not Bernadette, per se, insist must have been the Virgin Mary) near her home village of Lourdes in 1858.
Bernadette had become so happily excited by her initial vision, which she claimed included her having been instructed by this “beautiful lady” to return each day for 15 days*, she became sufficiently rejuvenated to seldom suffer with asthmatic symptoms; she had, indeed, run home ahead of her hitherto more healthy younger sisters, despite her having burdened herself with the largest of three bundles of firewood her sisters had gathered.
While her entire family neither supports nor encourages her claims, Bernadette’s excitement and her sincere insistence that her visions were real eventually attract nationwide interest, luring a never ending stream of the lame to investigate in person. Her family and neighbors, however, are a mixture of mostly skeptics, with just a few believers, and so evoke provocative questions about the Virgin’s alleged messages and even of Bernadette’s own spiritual worthiness.
The Song of Bernadette is a 1943 biographical drama film based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Franz Werfel. It stars Jennifer Jones in the title role, which portrays the story of Bernadette Soubirous, who reportedly experienced eighteen visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary from February to July 1858 and was later canonized in 1933. The film was directed by Henry King, from a screenplay written by George Seaton.
The novel was extremely popular, spending more than a year on The New York Times Best Seller list and thirteen weeks heading the list. The story was also turned into a Broadway play, which opened at the Belasco Theatre in March 1946.
Historical Accuracy and Music
The film’s plot follows the novel by Franz Werfel, which is not a documentary but a historical novel blending fact and fiction. Bernadette’s real-life friend Antoine Nicolau is portrayed as being deeply in love with her and vowing to remain unmarried when Bernadette enters the convent. No such relationship is documented as existing between them. In addition, the government authorities, in particular, Imperial Prosecutor Vital Dutour (played by Vincent Price) are portrayed as being much more anti-religion than they actually were; in fact, Dutour was himself a devout Catholic who simply thought Bernadette was hallucinating.
Other portrayals come closer to historical accuracy, particularly Anne Revere and Roman Bohnen as Bernadette’s overworked parents, Charles Bickford as Father Peyramale (although his presence at Bernadette’s deathbed was an artistic embellishment; in reality, Peyramale had died a few years before Bernadette), and Blanche Yurka as formidable Aunt Bernarde.
The film combines the characters of Vital Dutour and the man of letters Hyacinthe de La Fite, who appears in the novel and believes he has cancer of the larynx. La Fite does not appear at all in the movie. In the film, it is Dutour who is dying of cancer of the larynx at the end, and who goes to the Lourdes shrine, kneels at the gates to the grotto and says, “Pray for me, Bernadette.” The film ends with the death of Bernadette and does not mention the exhumation of her body or her canonization, as the novel does.
Igor Stravinsky was initially informally approached to write the film score. On 15 February 1943, he started writing music for the “Apparition of the Virgin” scene. However, the studio never approved a contract with Stravinsky, and the project went to Alfred Newman, who won an Oscar. The music Stravinsky had written for the film made its way into the second movement of his Symphony in Three Movements.
The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Directed by: Henry King
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, William Eythe, Gladys Cooper, Vincent Price, Lee J. Cobb, Anne Revere, Roman Bohnen, Mary Anderson, Patricia Morison, Jerome Cowan, Aubrey Mather
Screenplay by: George Seaton
Production Design by: William Goetz
Cinematography by: Arthur C. Miller
Film Editing by: Barbara McLean
Costume Design by: René Hubert
Set Decoration by: Thomas Little
Art Direction by: James Basevi, William S. Darling
Music by: Alfred Newman
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: December 21, 1943
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