Bernadette of Lourdes
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Robert Darène
Danièle Ajoret
Nadine Alari
Robert Arnoux
Blanchette Brunoy
Jean Clarieux
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In 1858, while gathering wood in a grotto near Lourdes, Bernadette Soubirous, the sickly, uneducated daughter of a poverty-stricken family, sees a white-clad "lady" who speaks to her in a soft voice. When news of this vision circulates throughout the village, the girl's parents forbid her to return to the grotto. But her friends persuade her father to allow her to go back, and each time she does so the vision reappears. On a subsequent visit, Bernadette follows the lady's instructions and scratches at the earth until a spring bursts forth. Opinion remains divided, however, as to the validity of Bernadette's reports, and the local priest questions her about the identity of the lady. Bernadette again goes to the grotto and returns with the lady's response, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Later, a sick child drinks from the spring and is cured. As word of this miracle spreads and thousands of believers journey to the spring to pray and be cured, the governor erects barricades around the grotto. However, Emperor Napoleon III eventually decrees that free access to the miraculous spring is to be granted to all. Bernadette retreats to a convent at Nevers and becomes Sister Maria Bernarde. Even here, she is the object of curiosity and misunderstanding as well as reverence. Her delicate health gradually weakened by asthma attacks, she dies on April 16, 1879.
Director
Robert Darène
Cast
Danièle Ajoret
Nadine Alari
Robert Arnoux
Blanchette Brunoy
Jean Clarieux
Lise Delamare
Jean-jacques Delbo
Françoise Engel
Michèle Grellier
Bernard Lajarrige
Renaud Mary
Charles Moulin
Henri Nassiet
Françoise Saint-laurent
Madeleine Sologne
André Reybaz
André Chanu
Véronique Deschamps
José Steiner
Jean Morel
Annie Sinigalia
Grégoire Aslan
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in France 1960
Released in United States 1962
Shown at the Venice Film Festival September 13, 1960.
b&w
dialogue French
subtitled
Released in France 1960
Released in United States 1962
