刚开始我还以为是范霍文那个伯内黛特故事,后来才发现是19世纪法国小镇的伯内黛特!
刚开始还觉得无聊,当看到当地官员在探讨修铁路和圣迹对之影响,然后开始恐吓女主后,我才觉得这片真是太好了!虽然这里人人都是天主教徒,但是当一个人看到圣迹时,并没有人相信她,不仅不相信,还要审问她;最后还要强行把她关进修道院;在修道院里她还要受到前辈修女的霸凌!这里面除了女主外,每个演员都演得好好啊!前半部分是母亲这个演员,她好维护自己的孩子啊,令人动容的母爱。后半段是教区长的转变,他最开始是不信任女主的,后来公平地看待她,最后维护她,临行前的小卡片约定,最后教区长看到小卡片时,我心都碎了!还有就是女主爱慕者这条线,最后他在路边许下我不会再娶的诺言,唉,太伤了,联想到女主并不想到圣女,她还想着结婚组建家庭!
欧仁妮皇后这条线,真是太讽刺了,权势的力量!但想到那个被治愈的小男孩是欧仁妮皇后唯一的孩子,这个孩子还战死了,欧仁妮皇后白发人送黑发人,又让人唏嘘不已,感觉世事无常啊!
A vintage Hollywood faction of the incredible story of Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879), at the age of 14, her self-purported visions of a lady in white who identified herself as “Immaculate Conception” sparked national controversy and debate, and subsequently founded the pilgrimage site in Lourdes. Starring Jennifer Jones as Bernadette, this 2-and-a-half-hour tome, based on Franz Werfel’s popular eponymous novel published in 1941, and directed by veteran hand Henry King, won 4 Oscars out of its overall 12 nominations, notably winning Jones BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE for her first attempt at the age of 25, which also heralded her second marriage with dignitary producer David O. Selznick. Jones’ beatific, ingenuous countenance and diffident but well-honed locution compellingly reflect Bernadette’s down-hone modesty and indubitable piety of what is bestowed only to her eyes and ears, that she will never gainsay whoever her interrogators are. And most convincingly Jones dispels any semblance of self-martyrization which might theoretically undermine Bernadette’s saintly iconography. Alongside the voyage from Bernadette’s first vision in a grotto near Lourdes to her untimely demise in the convent, the saga corrals a formidable cast of talents embellishes it in the supporting roles, among which three are rewarded with an Oscar nomination, two strong female characters leave indelible marks respectively in the first and second half. Anne Revere’s Louise is the stony-faced mother of Bernadette, afflicted by the household’s immiseration (her husband François, played by a commendable Roman Bohnen, is a jobless mill worker earning pittance with demeaning odd jobs and they are four children to feed), who does swing from scolding-prone to heartfelt supportive of her daughter’s ordeal without toning down the ferocity ingrained within her persona; then there is the holier-than-thou Gladys Cooper as Sister Marie Therese Vauzou, whose stern deportment and self-willed disbelief divulge the obverse from Bernadette’s male-exclusive, higher-ranking naysayers, she is not driven by an ideological reason but a pure elemental demon, the green-eyed monster to which we can all relate (why you, not me?), and Ms. Cooper emanates sheer intensity through her hard-hitting tête-à-tête, albeit crimped by the wimple, excels in actualizing one hell of an about-face entirely on the strength of her facial expression near the end. As Abbé Dominique Peyramale, who denotes the pragmatical policy of the Catholic church on the prickly matter of commoner’s holy visions, Charles Bickford (likening an aging Joseph Cotten, anyone?) appreciatively embeds a more lenient, beneficent and high-minded personification and also delivers with a sincere avuncular amicability towards Bernadette. On the entirely different optics, Vincent Price’s debonair mien and oral cadence also strike a vehement chord as Vital Dutour, the Imperial Prosecutor who is bent on discrediting Bernadette’s enlightenment, mirroring the agnostic/atheist angle on benighted religious fools. Were it not for the occasionally functional spring water which possesses a miraculous healing power (whether it is psychosomatic or not, the film leaves it equivocal), and a divine intervention involving the henpecked Emperor Napoleon III and his wife (cameos by Jerome Cowan and Patricia Morison), Bernadette would not stand a chance to justify her flimsy story. Rarely subjected itself towards preachiness or loftiness, what is remarkable about THE SONG OF BERNADETTE lies in its matter-of-fact narratology, dialectical approach towards its subject matter and a life-affirming positiveness rising above any religious discord, as proven by Vital Dutour’s plea in the end, religion always requires a certain degree of blind faith, someone are equipped to accept that while others cannot, or at least not yet, discrimination is never the cure. A pristinely restored Hollywood flagship, this one has immensely wholesome value for anyone who cares to savor. referential entries: Henry King’s THE BLACK SWAN (1942, 6.5/10); William Dieterle’s PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948, 6.7/10).