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.

One of the greatest films of the golden era of Hollywood was a religiously themed film about the private revelations of the Blessed Virgin to Bernadette Soubirou, an illiterate peasant girl from the town of Lourdes in the year 1858. It made a star of Jennifer Jones, and won her the Oscar that year. The film was nominated for Best Picture as well as 10 other Oscars, and won for best score (Alfred Newman) and cinematography as well. One of the intriguing things about the movie is how it came to be made. The writer, Franz Werfel was living in Germany with his wife, Alma (the widow of the great composer Gustav Mahler) when they had to escape to France to escape the Nazi terror. Settling near Lourdes in the south of France in the shadow of the Pyrenees, they became acquainted with the 'miraculous' spring of Lourdes, where the Catholic faithful had been coming for nearly a hundred years.Inspired by the faith and hospitality of the French peasantry who flocked to the shrine, Werfel vowed to God to write about them if He saved the couple from annihilation. Though a Jew, Werfel was impressed by the humility and goodness of the people among whom he had settled.Escaping finally to America, and settling in California, he set to work in 1942 writing The Song of Bernadette. Upon publication, it was immediately recognized by David O. Selznick of 20th Century Fox as a great property, and was purchased for the rights to adapt it to the screen.One of the singular things about the film is how closely it hues to the book, which was an historically accurate novelization of the phenomenon of Lourdes. It presents in stark terms the disbelief of the political, religious and scientific leaders of the day, and the grief they caused Bernadette Soubirou and her family. Further, it presents Bernadette's visions without explanation or judgment, and leaves it to the viewer to make his own mind up about them.Made in 1943, at the height of WWII, when the world was in turmoil such as it had never been before, and faith in God was severely put to the test, few films have been as appropriate to their time and place as this was. It is one of the greatest films of all time. It has recently been digitally restored on DVD, with commentary and other extras.

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.

no explanations is necessary .For those who don't ,no explanation is possible.The lines which opens the film are repeated towards the ending by Father Peyramale.Few legends have been woven from humbler stuff,and this particular encounter between one of the poorest peasant girls in a tiny village of the Pyrenées and "the Lady" led to events that shook not only my native France but the entire Christian world.Lourdes has become the second Christian pilgrimage place in the world after Rome,the second hotel town in France after Paris.Like in the book,the film begins with the humble life of the Soubirous.The first pictures show Bernadette's father taking infectious clothes from the hospital to the dump.And the family was housed in a dark place which the inhabitants of Lourdes used to call "le Cachot" ("The dungeon").Henry King's film is absolutely inspired.Jennifer Jones (who would play another -fictious- French character ,"Madame Bovary" and who would become the par excellence romantic heroine ),thoroughly deserved the AA she won.The characters she would play later in her career ("Duel in the sun" ,"Ruby Gentry" "Gone to Earth" and MInnelli's Flaubert's adaptation)and Bernadette are worlds apart.Her metamorphosis was extraordinary: her portrayal of the young illiterate peasant girl ,her look,her sweet humble voice,her self-denial ("I don't promise you happiness in this world but in the next one") made her the absolute French saint.French words have been introduced in the dialog (Bernadette always uses:"Monsieur" ) To a hostile world (the bourgeois,the Church),Bernadette puts forwards her faith ,her beaming smile and her moving clever answers which will remind you of those of Joan of Arc during her trial;the two heroines were chosen among the humble few.That's what Sister Vauzous (a sublime Gladys Cooper)did not understand : and however,hadn't Bernadette suffered from TB ,her childhood in a room as dark as a dungeon,her humiliations when she was at school ,the exhausting questionings she had to cope with ,wasn't it enough? "The Song of Bernadette" is so intense a movie it can appeal to atheists too.Prosecutor Vital Dutour cannot enter Bernadette's world cause it takes a lot of faith and he realizes that he will die a lonely man too late.Like this ?Try these....(great religious movies about French saints) "Monsieur Vincent" Maurice Cloche 1947 (Saint Vincent de Paul) "Thérèse "Alain Cavalier 1986 (Sainte Therese de Lisieux) "Bernadette" Jean Delannoy 1987 (Although despised by most of the French critics and inferior to KIng's version,it's essential viewing for anyone interested in Bernadette's story;it's to my knowledge the only recent French film dealing with the subject)