The floating nuns?
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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
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overlord_chaos — 10 years ago(November 28, 2015 12:07 PM)
the floating nuns are "cryers" (lloronas in spanish) it was used for rich people from the middle age up untill now. they dressed all in black (not with the habit as the nuns, that is something from the movie) and they where hired to cry exactly as in the movie but all around the funeral service without stop. it is a fake cry of course. even now adays they are used and they charge alot as in the time. this was used so the people attending to the service gets extra sad. or to make it appear that the person that was lost was very dear to one. and also show off even dead your relatives can pay such a luxury.
the scene its weird, but it goes along the movie witch its awesome but a bit weird sometimes. i guess the nun habit in their heads was because they where extras, or for some special effect that would get screwed up if their faces where shown up. and for the reason perhaps a joke or a criticism that if madeleine was acutally dead she probably would have leave behind instructions to hire cryers. and also the whole deal of the "crime against humanity" etc etc. -
LemonTastic — 10 years ago(December 02, 2015 04:58 PM)
The nuns aren't criers. That makes absolutely no sense. I've seen a documentary on them in Japan and they only really attend the funerals. Not within 10 minutes of a person dying. It also doesn't explain why they float.
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reece-26 — 9 years ago(May 06, 2016 06:36 PM)
It's just another bit in a vaguely supernatural movie, such as the scene where Helen first arrives at chateau. It was an impulse in the middle of the night but she's greeted at the door by name because "we were expecting you". Two Dobermans arrive by themselves in an elevator at the foyer. Familiars? The zombie-like hunks in tights. Etc.
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uruseiranma — 9 years ago(May 10, 2016 08:28 AM)
Much of the movie it seems isn't to be taken too seriously.
I mean, look at the people in the waiting room when Ernest goes looking for a doctor, and there's the lovely tennis couple with the guy with skin torn off his knees from a tennis accident.
Though I just recall when watching the film on VHS, my Dad just cracking up at the 'floating nuns.'
"Thanks, guys." "So long, partner."- Toy Story 3 (9/10)