to her old life, even when she learns that her finance, Ronald Colman is alive. In The Song of Bernadette, Antoine, the young man who many assume will be the man Bernadette will marry, sees her before she goes to the convent. Antoine states his intention not to marry under the guise of taking care of his aged mother. It is clear that Antoine chooses a presumably celibate life to mirror Bernadette own celibacy imposed by the church. Again, as in some of his other films, Henry King is interested in the characters who either defer or sacrifice the easier or more expected life for the more difficult to attain ideal.

Faith in The Song of Bernadette is something personally realized rather than imposed. In the final half hourof the film, with Bernadette in the convent, there is the suggestion, hinted at in other scenes, that the institution of the church stifles belief even more than it encourages faith. As Henry King has mentioned, Jennifer Jones was cast in the title role because she appeared to be seeing rather than simply looking. It certainly aided the audiences that Jones looks almost plain, and had little hesitation in smearing dirt and mud over herself in one scene. The character of Bernadette is so humble, so plain spoken and without guile, that the distance between Jennifer Jones and the young women who have portrayed Robert Bresson's saintly characters is not all that far.

I have often explored religious themes in my pictures but I've never tried to be preachy