Does anybody know whether S.P. speaks her own dialogue, or whether she was dubbed? The lip movement matches the French, but it seems strange to me that an American actrees waould be so fluent in French that she could pass for French to a French audience.
shareHi, TJK, Sydney was revoiced (post-synchronized), not "dubbed". The film was shot in two versions. Once the take in French was wrapped, we all went back to our positions and played the very same scene in English. So that there has been two parallel edits and mixes. It was important that Sydney should be able to speak her lines in French feeling enough at ease so as to act convincingly. I think she did a beautiful job. Aged only 15, she was already strikingly professional. She had never acted in French before (that I know of). There was a dialogue coach (Martha des Cars) on the set, helping Sydney with the French and most of the French actors with the English. At some stage, I thought the production would hesitate about revoicing Sydney for the French because her progress had been spectacular. I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the French voice actress who revoiced her.
Only very few actors kept their own voice in both versions: Van Doude (who's Dutch and has very good English, Lucy Airs (born in France of English parents), Marie-Brigitte Andrei (who was faking an austrian accent in both versions), possibly Sylvaine Charlet (I'm not sure) and myself. I played a rural constable named Callet.
Oliver Alain Christie
I was surprised to see her in a French film, knowing her from American films and television. Her IMDb profile says that she is fluent in French and even works for a French film website but having read your comment I would say that she must have become Fluent after making the film. It does make me wonder why she was cast in the role as she does not really resemble the real Bernadette and was not fluent in French at the time, surely there must have been a young French actress suitable for the role, but as you say, at fifteen she had already made quite a few films and perhaps the director had seen her work and liked her. I thought she did a very nice portrayal and I am glad to see that she is still a working actress in 2015.
"Life is uncertain, eat dessert first!" -HOMER J.SIMPSON
there is a special version, released on the 150th anniversary of the first apparition, that has a second disc included. on the second disc, there are two songs-one supposedly about Bernadette, but not in the movie or connected with it, and recent radio interviews with Sydney Penny. in the interviews, she says that there was no dubbing in either version-for instance, since she doesnt speak French, she was taught her lines phonetically.
interestingly, this movie is now the official version of the apparitions of Lourdes, as it is the only one based on research into the original records made at the time. and, just as interesting, Sydney Penny says in all the interviews that while "Bernadette" was so good, she herself thought the sequel "The Passion of Bernadette" is much better. and personally, i agree. in the first movie, you see Bernadette as a young girl caught between heaven of the visits of Our Lady, and the hell of the incessant harassment of people asking her to repeat again and again what she had seen, yet they never really listened. the most glaring incidents of this inattention to what she said can be seen in many photos (where the photographer has her looking up 'as if you see the Holy Virgin",) and in the statue in the grotto. Bernadette herself was very disappointed in the statue, (because 'Aquiro never looked up like that, she looked down at me', and even said the statue had a goiter!!)
in "The Passion of Bernadette", you actually come to know her in a way that you cannot in the first movie, when she is freer to be herself in the convent in Nevers. she was promised that she would not have to on display there, or have to do retelling of the apparitions, but at least they were cut down drastically. so i strongly suggest people get both movies...you will love them both!
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"Ooh!Pass the popcorn! This is gonna be good!"