100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #76: The Song of Bernadette (1943)

Directed by Henry King. Starring Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, Vincent Price, Gladys Cooper.

On Monday, I told you that hagiography rarely makes for a great film. Yet here I am on Friday recommending you a saint film. But The Song of Bernadette is no ordinary saint film. When done lazily, the biopic of a holy person can be trite and preachy; when done well, it can be a transcendent meditation on beauty and holiness. The Song of Bernadette only occasionally feels preachy, and mostly falls into the second category, especially during its magnificent third act. It is a story of struggle and triumph; a story of abundant grace and great suffering; a story of faith and doubt; in short, a deeply human story played out in the life of a saint, rather than the story of a saint floating gracefully through the life of mere mortals.

The Song of Bernadette follows the story of Bernadette Soubirous, a young French girl who is visited by a beautiful lady in Massabielle, the dump of the small rural town of Lourdes. She is initially ridiculed but her conviction eventually convinces more and more people that she is indeed receiving heavenly visions, especially once she discovers a spring of water which has miraculous properties. Rumors spread that she is seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary, but Bernadette never herself claims this until the Lady reveals her name: “I am the Immaculate Conception”. It is a story familiar to many Catholics, perhaps in large part due to this film and the novel upon which it is based.

However, the film dwells deeply upon a part of the story that we perhaps did not realize when learning about Bernadette in childhood: her deep and constant perseverance in the face of adversity and suffering. She suffers great ridicule when she first tells her story, from the townspeople, her own family, and even public ridicule from the nun teaching her catechism class. This ridicule turns to anger and opposition when it becomes clear that this is no passing whim of Bernadette but a vision she will continue to affirm even in adversity. She is threatened with imprisonment by the anti-religion authorities and punishment by her parents, but she remains steadfast in her confession that the Lady is real and really did speak to her.

This steadfastness is actually quite surprising, because unlike most hagiographies, The Song of Bernadette portrays its protagonist as a flawed character. At the beginning of the film she is rather passive and weak-willed, compelled by her asthma to take frequent rests which have developed her into a somewhat lazy person. She is not particularly intelligent and is not diligent about her studies. By giving Bernadette these flaws, the film accomplishes two narrative goals which set it apart from less-interesting hagiographies: it allows her to grow and change throughout the film, and it makes her steadfastness, wit, and answers in the face of constant questions about and challenges to her visions all the more surprising, lending credence to her story. When a girl who is generally so passive and obedient to her parents, priest, and authorities will not obey them and confess a lie, it reveals something deeper about her character and about the truth of the matter at hand. Her character development across the film is one of the things that truly sets this film apart and shows that the filmmakers truly understood how to use the power of storytelling to tell a saint story in a compelling and interesting manner.

So far, we have a better-than-average classic saint story, one where Bernadette is allowed to be human as well as saintly, but we have yet to arrive at the part which makes the film truly transcendent. In the third act of the film, Bernadette’s visions have ceased and she must decide how to spend the rest of her life. She would like to get married and work as a domestic servant; she even has a bit of a sweetheart, Antoine Nicolau, and envisions a normal life ahead of her. But her parish priest shows her that this will be impossible. She has been chosen by heaven; she must leave behind these normal, earthly desires and choose heaven in return.

Bernadette enters a convent and is put under the tutelage of Sister Marie-Therese, the same nun who taught her catechism, a nun who does not believe Bernadette’s story and is filled with rage and envy because of it. Sister Marie-Therese takes every opportunity to humiliate Bernadette, believing her to be making up the visions for attention and trying to ensure no such attention-seeking enters the convent life. She takes a conventional Catholic view, that the only path to holiness leads through suffering, and distorts it, believing that one must suffer and even inflict great suffering upon themselves to be chosen by God. She longs to see a vision of the Blessed Virgin in return for the great penances she has performed, and is outraged that Bernadette, a girl who has shown no signs of such pious excesses, has been granted visions instead. Imagine her shock when Bernadette reveals a great tumor on her leg which has caused immense pain and suffering, far greater than what Sister Marie-Therese could inflict upon herself. The film does indeed meditate on the power of suffering and the paradox that those who God loves most, He gives the greatest suffering, but also warns us that we must be chosen by God and accept the sufferings He sends, rather than try to force His hand by great acts of asceticism. If these acts are asked of us, we must be willing to undergo them, but to take them on out of a sense of pride or as a Pelagian quid-pro-quo for supernatural grace will merely turn us bitter, consumed by hatred and envy of those whom God has chosen and whose struggles we cannot see. Bernadette’s quiet suffering compared with the prideful practices of Sister Marie-Therese in the third act elevate this film and give it a truly profound aspect which is worth deep thought and meditation.

But the third act has yet another interesting and profound narrative choice to offer: it seems that at the very end of her short life, wracked by pain and nearing death, Bernadette begins to have doubts about her visions. This is never explicitly said, but as she continues to be questioned by the bishop’s commission and others, her repeated affirmations that she did see the Lady take on a more desperate tone, as if she is trying now to convince herself as well as the others. On her very deathbed, she seems to fall almost into despair: she cries out sorrowfully that she will never see the Lady again. But she continues to cling to her affirmations and through her will overcomes whatever doubts might be facing her. And she is joyfully rewarded with one final vision, the Blessed Virgin come to take her home to heaven. These doubts and struggles are just one more way in which The Song of Bernadette breaks out of the mold of most hagiographies and becomes a truly great and classic film.

There is much more that could be said about The Song of Bernadette. The sheer simple beauty of the imagery, the excellent acting, the commentary on belief and hostility to God, the way that humans all try to shift responsibility to others in difficult circumstances; there are many different facets to this film that make it worth watching. But in my mind, its focus on showing struggle, suffering, and human flaws which must be overcome in the life of St. Bernadette are its strongest points. I invite you to watch it and let the beauty and power of the story speak for themselves. And if you get bogged down in the admittedly slow second act, I beg you to hold on for the last 45 minutes of the film; you will not be disappointed.