Upcoming film about St. Bernadette seeks to reveal her as 'a real person'

'Bernadette & The Lady of Lourdes,' set for release in 2027, aims to portray French saint in a relatable, down-to-earth light

DETROIT — In April, five weeks of intense production wrapped up on the feature film "Bernadette & The Lady of Lourdes," set for release in spring 2027. 

After working alongside the director and CEO of 10th Hour Productions, Dan Johnson, and a crew and cast of French natives, Detroit-based producer Paul Duda walked away from the production with a deeper appreciation for the real-life person of Bernadette Soubirous, and come 2027, he hopes the film’s audience will as well. 

Duda, who is the co-founder of Frank & Lou Creative alongside his wife, Jamie, grew up watching his family’s VHS copy of the acclaimed 1943 film, “The Song of Bernadette,” the last century’s definitive telling of the life of Bernadette Soubirous, the young French peasant girl whose life changed forever in 1858 when Our Lady miraculously appeared before her. 

In addition to the Academy Award-winning film, there have been several other cinematic retellings of the story over the years, so when Johnson approached Duda about producing their own version, Duda first responded with hesitancy. 

“I was skeptical at first, but then (Dan) gave me homework: he had me read a lot more of Bernadette’s own writing and her own story, translated to English. What I realized is that there are many caricatures and misconceptions about Bernadette as a person, especially in those films.”

Upon reading her own words, Duda discovered that Bernadette wasn’t really the simple, demure and angelic girl as portrayed by Jennifer Jones in the midcentury; her story, told in her own voice, presented a picture of a witty, brave girl full of “grit,” who could be relevant and relatable in the 21st century. 

“We set out to write a film about a real person who lived and became a saint, not because she saw Our Lady, but because of the way she lived her life the entire time,” Duda told Detroit Catholic. “There is a grit and a fight to her despite her physical weakness that I think is really inspiring, which isn’t necessarily depicted in the films that have been made of her up to this point."

However, Duda said, “there is a balance” to St. Bernadette's story. 

“There is spark and fight in her, but she is also a saint, so there was patience there, too. There was kindness and love, all of that mixed in, just like any human being who aspires to that. (We hope) that our love and patience and good qualities overcome our bad ones in the end.”

Saints are often depicted in media and books as perfect, Duda said, making sainthood look unattainable to the average person with their own struggles and faults. 

“One of the things that sold me on the film was a direct quote from her: ‘I would like to know the defects of the saints and what they did to correct these defects. That would help me much more than hearing about their miracles and ecstasies.’ When I read that, I thought, ‘Oh, maybe we would have been friends!’”

Duda and Johnson began to set things in motion in September 2025 with a visit to France. In January 2026, they returned for in-person casting, where they discovered their film's titular actress, Elfie Kluk. 

“Kluk came in and wowed us from a performance standpoint,” Duda said. “She brought some really beautiful subtleties in the way she performed both roles of young Bernadette and the older Bernadette when she became a nun. Her natural self is so kind and warm and friendly in a way you would almost imagine a saint would be.”

By the end, the entire production began affectionately calling Kluk “Bernie,” Duda said. 

Although the crew was entirely French, except for Johnson and Duda, many of them were not familiar with the story of Bernadette, Duda added. 

“They were aware of her but didn’t know the story, and I think a lot of them walked away and were like, 'This is so much more of a person than I imagined,'” Duda said.

While the entire filming was done in France, Duda said they did not film at Lourdes; the majority was filmed in the towns of Sauvetre de Bearn, about an hour from Lourdes and near the Pyrenees Mountains. They did, however, get to include an authentic piece of St. Bernadette’s life: they filmed outside the Convent of St. Gildard in Nevers, France, where St. Bernadette lived and is currently laid to rest.  

Duda said he loves movies, so he tried to make a movie people would love to watch and return to again and again. He grew up with an appreciation for movies his mother and sisters introduced to him, such as "Pride and Prejudice" and "Little Women," and he wanted to give the movie the same sort of feel. 

“There is warmth to these films and sadness, but also joy and love,” Duda said. “Bernadette was madly in love with Jesus, so we wanted it to feel like a romance in a way. We went for a quiet, indie, intimate portrait of a human being that is madly in love with our Lord and our Lady.”

St. Bernadette has experienced a recent surge in popularity; in addition to Johnson and Duda’s film, "Bernadette the Musical" debuted in France with a performance in Chicago, and is set to make its way through other parts of the United States, including a planned stop in Detroit. Additionally, pilgrimages to Lourdes were explored in the 2023 film "The Miracle Club," featuring Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates and Laura Linney.

Duda believes this renewed interest stems from Bernadette’s lifelong suffering and physical ailments, including cholera, asthma, and, later in life, while in the convent, tuberculosis and a painful tubercular tumor on her right knee.

“She suffered in silence in a lot of ways, and I think you can even see it in her writing and the way she wrote. Even the fame and popularity she had, which so many of us in this day and age want in some ways, that weighed on her in a huge way,” Duda said. 

Despite being known for having visions of Our Lady, resulting in a miraculous healing spring, St. Bernadette never experienced that healing herself, Duda pointed out.

“There’s hope in her story; there is love in her story despite the pain, and I think maybe that is some of the revival of interest in her; she is somebody who found so much purpose in her suffering,” Duda said. “And, with everything in the world right now that we are all so hyper-aware of, finding reason and purpose for what we can’t understand and that hurts us huge.”

“The world also wants so much healing,” Duda added. “I want healing for myself, and so many things in my own life.”

On so many levels, Bernadette is a relatable saint with much to teach today's generation, Duda said.

“I hope the audience walks away from the movie with an appreciation for a real person who lived, but also perhaps a sense of, ‘I could live like that,'” he said.