1943 – Jennifer Jones
The Song of Bernadette
Jones turned in an incredible performance, there’s no doubt about that. And the Academy agreed. She won the Best Actress Oscar. This was the perfect marriage of a great actress and a well-written script. The character of Bernadette Soubirous, a poor peasant girl who has a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, performs a few miracles, and eventually becomes Saint, though the movie didn’t actually cover her canonization. Jones’s inspired performance had a wonderful innocence about it that seemed to perfectly capture the extremely humble nature reportedly possessed by the real Bernadette of Lourdes.
Jones was only 23 years old when The Song of Bernadette was filmed, so she had youth on her side. She was actually quite beautiful, but they made her look plainer and more like a girl of peasant stock. But the simple-minded, uneducated nature of the character was all Jones. She never acted too clever or too wise. Some of her best scenes were ones in which even she seemed confused by what was happening to her. But the core of her performance, which Jones played to perfection, was the unwavering faith of the young girl, and the honesty with which she spoke of it.
There were very few scenes where Jones was able to show a smile or display happiness, which was actually one of the prominent themes of the film. Several times, Bernadette reported that the Lady in her visions told her “I cannot promise to make you happy in this world, only in the next.” And the actress held true to that idea. She rarely smiled. The one scene where she did was when the visions were over and she looked forward to the prospect of working as a maid and marrying a young man who loved her. But the notion of an ordinary life was quickly squelched by the priest, telling her that her duty was to become a nun and spend the rest of her life in a convent.
Jones really turned in an inspired and inspiring performance and I’m glad she won the Oscar. The Academy made the right decision. And kudos to whoever cast her in the role. She was perfection. She captured the innocence and humility of the Saint and elevated the already wonderful script to a higher level.