Plot Intro
Lourdes, Imperial France, 1858. A poor young woman named Bernadette Soubirous (Jennifer Jones) is out with her sister and friend one day when she sees a vision of a strange woman. Although the superstitious townsfolk are sceptical about this, her repeated visions and various miracles occurring at the sight of the visitations convince them that the woman is none other than the Virgin Mary herself. But men in authority led by Monsieur DuTour (Vincent Price) are out to debunk Bernadette’s claims.
Oklahoma-born Jennifer Jones had an early entry into the movie world, winning her only Best Actress Oscar on her 25th birthday which, at the time, made her the third youngest actress to win it, although she has now been pushed down to sixth place. It was her first nomination and she was subsequently nominated 3 times for Best Actress and once for Supporting although she did not win these.
In fact, it was her first role under the name “Jennifer Jones”, for she had previously only starred in two movies in 1939 under her real birth name, the less catchy Phyllis Isley. The role of Bernadette Soubirous, who is a real historical figure, was a much coveted one due to her historical notoriety being reborn after Franz Werfel’s 1941 novel on which the movie is based, so it was a massive coup for her and her performance was extremely well received.
She does, indeed, commit fully to the role and it’s not an easy one to do because Bernadette is so insufferably saintly. She does what every good Catholic girl does- she atones for her sins (even if she hasn’t committed any); she embraces her inferiority to God or any authority figure who claims to be the voice of God; she never raises her voice even when threatened with imprisonment; she never speaks out when she is ill or in pain because, according to her, suffering is the path to Heaven. It’s a credit to Jennifer that Bernadette remains relatively likeable in such a humourless role.
“Humourless” is probably the correct word for this film but that’s not really a bad thing here. It’s not boring at all, and it uses its 2.5 hour running time very well. I also enjoyed many of the supporting performances, such as a young Vincent Price as an atheist sceptic determined to demean Bernadette (although the real DuTour was an ardent Catholic who just thought Bernadette was mistaken); Lee J. Cobb as an exhausted, indifferent doctor; Charles Bickford as the local priest who gradually comes to believe Bernadette; Anne Revere as Bernadette’s hard-nosed, survivalist mother; and Gladys Cooper as poor Bernie’s strict and formidable nun/teacher combo. On top of that, the film successfully conveys the sense of a poor and disregarded French village, full of people desperately trying to survive in the face of unemployment, poverty and potential starvation. These people need a miracle and it’s entirely feasible that Bernadette’s visions are the salvation they need. Just ignore the American accents and full faces of make-up…
Where the film outdates itself is how it depicts the miracles that occur at the sight of Bernadette’s visions as unquestionably pure and miraculous. Every character who doubts her eventually changes their mind due to their own need for a miracle (usually due to their own illness or the illness of others). As far as this film is concerned, these magical things happened and we should all pray and believe in God. No exploration is given to the more viable explanations for these events. Bernadette discovers a water supply by digging in a spot that the “lady” directs her to- but discovering water underground is hardly a gift from God seeing as there are countless underwater springs all around the world. Various drinkers of this water become cured of illnesses that they could have fought off anyway. And when Bernadette names the lady as the Immaculate Conception and claims to have never heard those words before in her life because she is “very stupid”, my sceptical mind couldn’t help but cry out “Bullshit, Bernie!”
There are some suggestions of fraud in Bernadette. A man who claims to have got his sight back in one eye is told by the doctor that he absolutely does not (he, of course, doesn’t listen). And one character points out that since Bernadette has had these visions many gifts of food and drink have been bestowed on her family (although Bernadette herself has not accepted anything), essentially saving them from starvation and homelessness. Was this clever Bernie’s plan all along? We’ll never know.
After this movie, Jennifer Jones proved to be highly versatile, winning nominations for very different roles. Her career stayed stable thanks in part of her marriage to prolific film producer David O. Selznick, who got her the sort of meaty, character-based, biographical roles that Meryl Streep would slay at.
But her later life was not particularly happy. Selznick died in 1965 and her Bernadette co-star and long-time friend, Charles Bickford, died in 1967. As a result, Jennifer tried to take her own life by jumping from a Malibu Beach cliff which put her into a coma but she recovered. She continued taking on some parts (and married again), and her last role was in The Towering Inferno in 1974. She is last seen in that film falling to her death from a broken elevator despite attempts by Faye Dunaway to save her.
Further tragedy struck when Jennifer’s 21-year-old daughter Mary committed suicide by jumping from the roof of an LA hotel. Jennifer and her then-husband, who had also lost a son to suicide, became very active in mental health and established a foundation aiming to provide mental health services and de-stigmatise it in society.
She later lived a very quiet retirement with her family for the remaining 20 years of her life, and died in 2009 at 90 years old.
And Bernadette? She died suddenly at 35, as poor, provincial people tended to do in the 1800s. Whether you believe her visions or not, she was still canonised by the Pope in the 1930s and the Marian Shrine at Lourdes (where her visions took place) is a sight of pilgrimage for many Catholics.
The performances of Anne Revere and Gladys Cooper (mentioned above) deserve a bit of further recognition. They were both nominated for Best Supporting Actress but lost to an actress called Katina Paxinou.
The opening titles ends with the quote, written in overly-flourished cursive, “For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible”, which caused some snorts of derision from us.
I write this in the middle of a prolonged and punishing heatwave and if a random woman popped up out of nowhere and said ‘I’ve seen a holy woman and if we all go worship her then it’ll rain and go down to 23 degrees’, I probably would go and say some worshipful things.
Such is what happens in the deeply religious place of Lourdes where Bernadette and her family are struggling to pay the rent on their tiny hovel when she sees a Miraculous Lady and worships her, and then all the other religious people are like ‘ooh a prophet-type’ and then give her lots of presents and she is happy.
As Paul says, a more cynical take would be to explore what if Bernadette had been lying. But we’re in the middle of the 1940s when such views are heinous and so we are carefully shown that Bernadette is telling the truth, and all the men accusing her of lying are money-grabbing toads and will eventually die of throat cancer (no really).
Jennifer Jones is solid in this, one of her first roles, where she is required to be devout and focused while also interesting. It’s a credit to her and the rest of the cast, that this two and a half hour long film doesn’t ever drag. In fact I enjoyed it immensely. Religious or not, the story of how Lourdes became the religious phenomenal it still is today is fascinating. I enjoyed the moment when Bernadette scrabbles in the dirt and then Lo and Behold - a spring! And then when the mother takes her crippled son and bathes him and Lo and Behold - he walks! It’s all deeply fanciful and while there are some cynical characters in there to ensure we know Hollywood hasn’t entirely drunk the Kool-Aid, it’s mostly shown as truth.
However the real break out star of this film is Gladys Cooper who plays Bernadette’s real opponent, a hard-nosed nun who isn’t here for the frippery and eyelid-batting of Bernadette’s mooncalf like atmosphere. Cooper plays her as a real brick wall, someone who Bernadette tenses up against constantly, and the moment when she begins to change and believe Bernadette is genuinely affecting and powerful, purely for the gravitas and raw emotion Cooper imbues it with. She rightfully garnered a Best Actress nomination for the performance.
Did Jones deserve the win? She fits neatly into the mould of pretty young actress handling a hefty amount of screen-time with skill. But she doesn’t have any stand-out moments. Luise Rainer in the awkwardly white-washed The Good Earth had a similarly passive role, but she still found moments to bring real intention to what she was doing, that lifted her into the foreground and marked her out as a leading actress. Jones, while competent, lacks that energy for me.
But a well told story, and full of quick moving plot, that meant I stayed engaged and interested throughout, learning the origin story of why many people make a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
Gladys Cooper, on discovering Bernadette has been hiding a serious illness, is wracked with guilt at her own cruel actions. She runs to the church and cries out to God in a scene that could be melodramatic, but is in her skilled hands utterly affecting.
As Paul says, there is no attempt to explore Bernadette’s thoughts, intentions or anything. She is a cardboard character, there to build a plot around.
