To Have and To Hold (2000)

Motorists beware: the perils of not keeping your eyes on the road are explored to gruesome effect in John Hardwick's BFI-produced short film.

Distracted by her boyfriend larking about and startled by a deer on a remote country lane, a woman (played by German actress Susanne Lothar, star of Michael Haneke's original 'Funny Games') crashes the car. Trouble is, by the time she regains consciousness, her other half has succumbed to rigor mortis and his hand remains clamped around hers, offering an ironic twist on the phrase 'Til death us do part'. The fact the crash happens in a lonely forest straight out of 'Grimms Fairy Tales' only adds to the macabre ambience, making this the perfect bite-size chiller for more ghoulishly-inclined viewers. (Simon McCallum)

You can watch over 1200 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge in the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank, London and at the new QUAD centre for art and film in Derby -
http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque
http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/bfi-mediatheque

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• BFI
• horror
• short
• car
• accident
• funny
• games
• susanne
• lothar
• john
• hardwick
• dead
• til
• death
• us
• do
• part
• hand
• corpse
• rigor
• mortis
• forest

[Blackroachs]

Great video work

[lllamlll]

Amazing work.

[Algernon483]

omg :O it's GREAT ! My fav actress Susanne Lothar ;)

[PoPoNellie]

2:50 Isn't that just like a woman....Getting all hysterical.

[2012GreenGhost420]

BEYOND CREEPY, BRITISH PEOPLE ARE SO FUCKED UP!

I LOVE IT :p

[AnotherWayToDie14]

the car looks alright to  me :L

[eynesprayer]

Don't know if you're still waiting for an answer, but the song is called "Leise, Peterle, leise" and it is a traditional German lullaby. She's singing an altered version with "Leise, mein Kindchen, ganz leise".

[brousseaua]

thank you. Your explanation was good. So I guess if the woman in the film waited, the body would have relaxed enough so that she could remove her hand. Of course, she wasn't keen on waiting around! thank you again.

[Peyton8593]

rigor mortis sets in about 3 hours after one becomes deceased. It is simply a reaction of the enzymes in the muscles after death. THe body naturally relaxes after 24-36 hours, however, if there's a time crunch to prepare the decedent, then you can massage and draw and retract the muscles, and massage them back into place and make them loose. do u understand that? its kind of complicated and Im not the best at explaining things. :)

[brousseaua]

I am not very well versed on what happens to the body after an accident such as this. Is the man in rigor mortus which as caused his hand to be so stiff? Is that what it is called when the body gets stiff like that? Was it the shock of the accident that caused his had to be so stiff? Doesn't rigor mortus set in and then after awhile the body relaxes? Thank you to anyone who can just fill me in the these details.

[PoPoNellie]

What is the song she is singing at 6:50

[janab26]

i saw this at the IFF Karlovy Vary in 2002 and remember it since then! i was searching for this film, thx for uploading!