Bernadette (Special 150th Anniversary Edition)
by Jean Delannoy
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DVD details
Actor: Michele Simonnet, Roland Lesaffre, Sydney PennyDirector: Jean Delannoy
Brand: Ignatius Press
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); French (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: NTSC, Widescreen
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-08-15
Studio: Ignatius Press
DVD Reviews of Bernadette (Special 150th Anniversary Edition)
DVD Review: the best lack all conviction
Summary: 3 Stars
it was a pretty good film. pretty good acting. pretty good writing. pretty good, but not great like it should have been.
watching this movie gave me the impression that the filmmakers watched the earlier b&w jennifer jones classic and loved it so much that they were desperate to remmake it... but they lacked the vision to do anything more than make an inferior copy of the original. scene after scene was replicated in a murkier, less clear, less dramatic, less faith inspired, and ultimately inferior manner. it seemed like a slavish copy even to the point of hiring an actor to dub bernadette's father who was virtually a sound-alike to the old 20th century fox picture. my favorite thing that this new film adds is the various republican v. royalist political mumblings scattered throughout the picture. it gives you another context for the skepticism against bernadette. the tiny coda showing her incorrupt body is also wonderful, such as it is.
probably the most fruitful thing about this new version would be to compare it to the old b&w to consider how storytelling and the clarity of drama, and the boldness to proclaim a message have changed. the most startling thing to notice is how riddled with skepticism this new film is when compared with the old hollywood effort, even though this new film was created by a catholic film company, for religious purposes, while the old film, though far more supercharged with unapologetic faith, was ultimately made only to sell tickets and make money. yes, there are skeptics, brilliant atheists, corrupt politicians in the old film, but they are decisively defeated one after another, so you have no doubt where the film stands; eg. compare vincent price's defeat at the end of the film, or the corrupt mayor's 'turnaround' to all the characterizations in the new film. the main thing is, they understood in the past that what moves hearts sells tickets, even if the filmmakers had no interest in the subject matter themselves.
i love father fessio and all the books published by ignatius press. i would die for the catholic church if god would give me the grace. but that doesn't mean we must blindly love everything made with pious catholic intent without any critical discernment at all. many modern films in this new independent catholic wave lack the self critical eye that could have made these films classics enough to evangelize, as i was evangelized by 'man for all seasons,' 'nuns story', 'song of bernadette' etc. even skeptical, atheistic, or anti-catholic films like the french 1980 'therese' or the heretical martin sheen/trevor howard film 'catholics', the ultimately syncretist, anti-catholic 'blackrobe' evangelized me more than this film, because at least they were well made films, making strong clear statements of the church and the faith they were trying to undermine. i doubt i would ever have been evangelized by this pious but murky and mildly modernist 'bernadette'. if you want to see what i mean by an anti-modernist treatment that doesn't pull any punches, consider mel gibson's 'the passion', especially the element of jesus explicitly battling satan in the garden, throughout the film, and then literally defeating him and leaving him screaming in the pit of hell at the end. compare this to the vague treatment of our lady never appearing in voice or visual anywhere in this new bernadette film. consider the jennifer jones original where our lady comes both in voice and visual at key moments, especially at bernadette's deathbed. no shyness about depicting the reality of the supernatural by these secularist jews in old hollywood, yet we modernists who call ourselves devout catholics don't have the guts to say what we really mean. in this era it takes a schismatic sedevacantist like mel gibson to carry our faith for us.
i suspect films like this one (like the pious but amateurish new films 'guadelupe' and 'bella') can only preach to the choir. that may be fun, but how useful is it really in the end?
Description of Bernadette (Special 150th Anniversary Edition)
New Widescreen Edition with many new Special Features!From Jean Delannoy, one of France?s foremost filmmakers, comes this top quality feature film production of the story of St. Bernadette and the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes. Actress Sydney Penny gives a beautiful performance as Bernadette, and the rest of the cast is equally superb. Also stars Roland Lesaffre and Michele Simonnet. It is highly recommended by the Vatican as a ?sensitive portrayal of a very moving story that deserves a wide audience.?Shot on location in France with outstanding cinematography and a beautiful music score, this is the film that was chosen to be shown daily at the shrine in Lourdes.
Special Features: Re-mastered new Widescreen edition, Includes French language film version
This movie is Not Rated.
Includes a music CD with acclaimed ?Song of Bernadette? by Oscar and Grammy-winning singer Jennifer Warnes.
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