How's your nuns?

This is just a little endorsement of Inquiring Nuns, a 1968 hour-long documentary, which unleashes a pair of nuns (Sisters Marie Arné and Mary Champion) on the streets of Chicago armed with a cameraman, a mic and a simple question: "Are you happy?" The concept is based on the 1960 movie, Chronique dún été (Chronicle of a Summer), in which filmmaker Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin's had two young, non-nun women do the same in Paris.

It's fascinating to take in cinéma vérité of the '60s through our current freak-show norms. The closest thing to a contemporary sensibility is the fish-out-of-water set-up. It's generally hilarious to watch people take on a task that they don't have adequate skills for (see any songwriting challenge on any reality show) and the resulting questions that these nuns ask their subjects for the sake of investigation and/or banter at times verges on hilarious (my two favorites: "Do you think thinking happy makes you happy?" and "What do you think causes you not to do the thing that you believe you should do?"). There's a How's Your News vibe going on as well. Since the nuns were obviously asked to do this because they're nuns, the film is just as much about people's reactions to them as it is their ability. I don't know if it was the times or what, but many of their subjects seem to feel obligated to talk about God (one dude swears on the joy-distributing properties of daily communion). The Vietnam War the most talked-about subject, which is pretty eye-opening (I mean, today a lot of people care or at least will say they do when you turn a camera on them, but not this much). My favorite moments are the rare off-color ones, like when the girl in the picture above tells the nuns her band is named Bubblegum Orgy, and nuns respond with polite laughter.

Anyway, there's a clip of my favorite three-interview stretch below. The first woman reminds me so much of Sifl & Olly's Chester ("I ain't too smart at [math]," is such a crescent fresh thing to say!). The guy in the second spot is the most formal person I've ever heard talk in my life. And all I have to say about the last guy is: "I makin' living and that's all! What the difference?"

Inquiring Nuns is fun and full of amicable quirk, but what really blew me away is the 25-minute update interview included in the DVD's bonus features. Both of the nuns have since left their orders (hearing one talking about wrestling with whether she actually believes in God after obviously being immersed in faith is moving). Most fascinating is their assertion that the sisterhood made them into strong women -- the former Sister Marie Arné attributes her time as a nun to her feminism (!), since women ran everything in their day-to-day dealings. "In a lot of ways, it gave me a lot of faith in myself and my intelligence," she explains. That's a result of a devotion to dogma that I never would have expected, but I don't doubt its truth. Way to tear down the patriarchy from the inside, sisters.

Comments

[Wendi]

What a really neat concept. I'm in a group called The Happiness Project and the idea is to discover what makes us happiest and then sustain it. It sounds dorky, but it's basically what these nuns are doing. I've already added Inquiring Nuns to my Netflix queue (gotta move it higher up the list!). I'm very interested to see the interviews with the nuns in the bonus features.

As always, fabulous post, I love how anything and everything can be part of your blog.

[Kristin]

The British guy is amazing. Also, he looks like a lumberjack, so hearing that accent come out of him is really just kind of disconcerting.

[Birdie]

There is no way the last guy is ever unhappy.

[John R]

Wow - thanks for this! I've never heard of it. Another documentary based on the same movie (or, perhaps, a follow up to it) is LE JOLI MAI (1963) by my favorite-ever Chris Marker. Algeria had just (finally) won independence and, like Vietnam in this film, it's apparent in the subtext of many of the interviews. I'll see if I have a copy. If I do, it's probably not the best quality.

[Vanessa]

I don't know how you find this stuff Rich but I thank you for it.

Also, love the soundtrack. That makes me happy sisters, in case you were wondering.

[fashion your seatbelts]

Okay, um, this is the best thing ever, just so you know.

[MB]

I think the sisters and nuns (there is a difference!) are great examples of feminism in the world. They historically have been the most educated women in their communities, and were/are trusted to live responsibly without male intervention or caretaking. They were also pioneers in the realm of social work and community outreach.

[Jennie at Kartemquin]

Thanks for this awesome review. I work for Kartemquin Films (the group that made Inquiring Nuns way back) and was hoping you wouldn't mind if I threw out our URL www.kartemquin.com. More about Inq. Nuns there, including DVDs, and our other docs (over 40 years of them), which you might like if you enjoyed this.

[Andrea]

I don't know how you find this stuff Rich but I thank you for it.

Also, love the soundtrack. That makes me happy sisters, in case you were wondering.

[carole]

I could swear the British lumberjack said he was a mathemagician, which made me laugh.
Also, he reminds me of Kyle Chandler. And that makes me happy.

[Benjamin W.]

Oh my goodness! That first lady IS Chester. Amazing. Truly amazing.

[lionas]

Very interesting article and the blog is beautifully decorated, where you take the material for publication?

Thank you

[melanie]

love chester. love you.

and that's kind of a hot nun on the left, there.

[Kate]

I fancy the English guy. yummmm.

[Guul]

Dang, the english guy is so fine.

[Matthias]

video removed for terms of use violation :(

[Eleehoxl]

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[Mr. Fleshlight]

Thanks for the clip!

[Sealed Lead Acid Battery Supplier]

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[supermarket equipment]

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[poster frame]

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[poster display]

And your friends over here on the west edge are the happy recipients of your cross-country cookbook-writing adventure. Reinvention is your gig, Patricia. Writing about that will one day happen, I have no doubt at all. Terrific post, woman.