Dialogues des Carmélites, screenplay by Georges Bernanos, published posthumously in French as a drama in 1949 and translated as The Fearless Heart and The Carmelites. In Dialogues des Carmélites, Bernanos examined the religious themes of innocence, sacrifice, and death. Based on Gertrud von Le Fort’s novel Die Letzte am Schafott (1931; The Song at the Scaffold) and on a scenario by Robert P. Brückberger and Phillipe Agostini, it tells the story of the martyrdom of 16 Carmelite nuns from Compiègne, France, who were executed by guillotine on July 17, 1794, during the French Revolution.