The Song of Bernadette (1943)

Jennifer Jones won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her screen debut in this true story. Jones plays young French peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, who sees a vision of a "beautiful lady" near her home in Lourdes in 1858. Based on the novel of the same name by Franz Werfel, THE SONG OF BERNADETTE explores Bernadette's trials and tribulations from her impoverished family to her difficulties at school to the derision her visions bring upon her and at last to her affliction with bone-marrow cancer. Under the incisive eye of director Henry King, the film is seen through Bernadette's perspective but at the same time focuses upon the effect that Bernadette has upon her family, her champions, and her detractors. The acting is excellent, and no detail has gone untouched in the art direction, costumes, and cinematography. Best of all, THE SONG OF BERNADETTE stands among a rare group of Hollywood films in which visual integrity is matched step for step with thematic zeal.