A Place of Miracles. The Artistic Representation of Lourdes by Two Contemporary Directors

After the Holy Virgin had appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, Lourdes in the south of France grew into the most popular and most visited place of pilgrimage in the western Christian world. Today millions of pilgrims come to Lourdes each year for various religious reasons. Quite a few of them suffer from a physical or mental illness. One of the reasons why they come to Lourdes is the possibility of a miraculous healing, for instance by drinking the healing water of Lourdes, or even bathing in it. Recently, two directors created works of art about and at the holy place of Lourdes, which reflect their convictions concerning miracles and healings. In 2009 the young female Austrian director Jessica Hausner shot her French movie Lourdes, in 2011 the renowned French male director Robert Hossein presented his spectacle Une femme nomme Marie. Jessica Hausner was raised in a Catholic family, but lost her faith and became an atheist, whereas Robert Hossein grew up in an atheist family and converted to Catholicism later in life. Their works offer rather opposite interpretations of (Christian) conceptions such as supernatural healings and salvation

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