The floating nuns?
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DisturbedPixie — 12 years ago(May 18, 2013 10:19 PM)
I thought they showed them to show people who really needed a doctor, whereas she really didn't. Someone else pointed out that the doctor was the one having the heart attack after seeing her dead and talking. I didn't notice that.
I don't know why the nuns were floating though. I guess the best explanation thus far is that it was a spiritual representation regarding their knowledge that she is damned to be a zombie forever. I mean she did say she was screaming and nobody would help her. I would presume the nuns heard her and were disturbed to their core.
Maybe it is a metaphor for how the nuns are above us, so much they don't even touch the same ground as we do. They see how we damn ourselves, and look down on us with pity and sorrow.
But I don't know for sure who has the director's commentary on dvd? -
hanson-allison — 12 years ago(October 16, 2013 10:47 AM)
The doctor having the heart attack is one of my favorite things in this movie. If you notice, while he's examining her, he keeps popping Nitroglycerin tablets and putting them under his tongue (treatment for chest pain in heart patients) and then asks for a swig out of Bruce Willis's flask. A few minutes later they are coding him on the table when Bruce Willis walks by.
I've also thought that the bloody tennis player was weirdand the nuns, well I've written it off as just adding to the "campy" vibe of the movie, but who knows. -
finndian — 4 years ago(November 03, 2021 02:45 AM)
I just googled 'bloody tennis player Death becomes her" for the hell of it and got a few hits. Its hilarious. I'm the actor that did that bit. I didn't think I was on screen long enough for anyone to register my outfit or my twisted tennis racket.
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TimBur77 — 13 years ago(January 05, 2013 09:48 AM)
I was a patient at Rancho Los Amigos, the Hospital they filmed this at. I got the chance to be an extra and saw them filming this scene. That was amazing to see the finished product with them floating, They were just walking casually by Bruce. The next scene I saw filmed was not in the movie. It was Bruce's character attacking an ER Doctor, I am certain it was Matt Frewer playing that role. Maybe someday, we'll get a special edition release with all the deleted scenes.
http://bat115.hubpages.com/ -
Two-HeadedBoy — 12 years ago(October 08, 2013 01:48 PM)
All I know is that those nuns TERRIFIED me when I was a youngster watching this (must've been 8 or 9 the first time I saw it?).
Just watched it again for the first time in almost two decades and it STILL made me a bit uneasy! I like that analogy of them being the "Fates" though, good one that. -
richard.fuller1 — 12 years ago(November 02, 2013 04:32 AM)
As someone else mentioned, the nuns were creepy to be seen. this was to give an idea as to where he had gone to find her. Nuns are summoned to give the last rites and comfort to the dead and dying.
It was either nuns or it could have been a priest. Heavy Catholic joke, which I am not, but I've seen this symbolism overused in movies and on tv, perhaps in American film.
It's all but become a joke unto itself if you ask me for people to see a nun or a priest and automatically think of death.
The scene was supposed to confirm where he had gone to look for her, but I guess if you aren't Catholic, it wasn't so obvious. -
TheBeardedWonder — 12 years ago(December 08, 2013 09:42 AM)
No prob bud, I thought maybe you had a point to make and forgot to get to it or something. But it appears you actually have nothing to say on the topic since you've now posted twice and said nothing about why the nuns are floating. I'm honestly interested in what people have to say about it, you included of course!
So what do you think? Do they represent something? Or was it just there to hit the run-time? I'm leaning towards the latter
"What? Do you wanna just sit around and be wrong?" - Liz Lemon -
CelticRose — 12 years ago(January 07, 2014 10:01 PM)
In the original script (you can see it here:
http://screenplayexplorer.com/wp-content/scripts/Death-Becomes-Her.pdf
), when Ernest enters the morgue to look for Madeline, he runs into two attendants working on the body of a priest. Presumably, the nuns were there either to identify the priest or mourn him. (The script does describe them as looking "eerie" and "sort of floating past him", so yes the floating effect was added just to look creepy.)
There was also supposed to be a moment, right before Ernest retrieves Madeline, where the door of the priest's slab creaks open and the body slowly rolls back out; Ernest interprets it as a sign from God. (This is originally what convinces him that Madeline's resurrection is a divine miracle.)
Corduroy pillows: they're making headlines. -
greenbudgie — 11 years ago(December 15, 2014 04:19 AM)
I have seen nuns in other films. There seems to be a hint of gliding in the way they walk along. Habits down to their feet. Full of grace. I just thought it was an exaggeration of the way that nuns really do seem to be moving. Nice bit of wit and creepiness thrown in IMO.
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LemonTastic — 10 years ago(June 20, 2015 06:58 AM)
I always though it was symbolic. Madeline has committed a crime against nature and could be considered a crime against God and his plan so the nuns, might not exist, maybe they were there to show Ernest not to do the same thing