Despite her austere image, the nun has long been a comedy character very appreciated by the public. Of sister Clotilde (France Rumilly) in HE Saint Tropez Gendarme In 1964 in sister Marie-Clarence (Whoopi Goldberg) in Sister act In 1992, the nun figure made several generations of spectators shout laughing.
Last example: Sweet JesusA comedy with Isabelle Nanty and Marilou Berry launched this Wednesday, April 9. The French public’s proof of the Nun’s character, this family film, in the cinemas for spring holidays, has already attracted almost 30,000 spectators during their first day of operation.
“When we wrote comedies, we try to find a sand that can be a pretext for comedy. My idea was to find a character and take it out of its surroundings to discover the world, a bit like in Hibernatus. A convent was perfectly lent, “said director Frédéric Quiring to BFMTV.
In Sweet JesusMarilou Berry plays Sister Lucie, a nun who escapes her convent to find her first love. After 20 years dedicated to God, he decides to find this child whom he knew in adolescence, and who is now wrongly accused of being a bank thief.
A very different world
His superior mother, embodied by Isabelle Nanty, leaves for her kits to put her back on the right path. But sister Lucie begins an extraordinary adventure that will put her faith in the test and confront her with today’s world full of surprises and temptations …
If movies like My parish priest in nudists is cult, and if The shame of choice It contains a memorable cameo of Franck Dubosc in Scottish pastor, the nuns fascinate comedy directors than priests. And for a long time, as evidenced by the delusional situation comedy of the 1960s The flying sister. And the nun figure always inspires, as in Only heaven! (2023) With Valérie Bonneton.
“These are women who live outside society, in Autarky. They take a look at the world that is very different from ours,” analyzes Frédéric Quiring. “And we really do not know what is happening behind these walls. There is a mystery, also linked to this idea of virginity, of women who make their lives to the Lord …”
For Isabelle Nanty, who has already played a nun in an episode of Don’t do this, don’t do thatThe Nun is a formidable comedy character. “It is the seriousness of the nun, and the seriousness of her disguise, in situations where we would never have imagined them, which makes you laugh.”
Nanty raised by the sisters
However, the nun figure does not make her laugh at the filming. “Little, from CP to fifth, they raised me in the sisters. It’s not an experience that I liked,” he said. What to understand the filming of Sweet Jesus. “At first, I didn’t have fun to put a sister costume.”
But he quickly perceived the character’s potential: “The uniform is interesting. In a community, when everyone is suddenly dressed, suddenly, the personality is a little more. While one might think that he is there to mitigate him.”
Frédéric Quiring wanted a rather “elegant” costume, “highlighted” his actresses, to offer them freedom of movement, necessary in comedy. “My costume is very poetic,” he says. “I also wanted it to be pretty. Because a nun’s costume is not always very lovely. I find them quite modern.”
No more than Sister act EITHER Only heaven!, Sweet Jesus It is not a film about religion, he still insists the director. “It is above all a film about a woman who wants freedom and wonders if she made the right decision in her life. He did not want to make a comedy about religion. Religion is divided and wanted a unifying film.”
Source: BFM TV
