Periwig Maker

Periwig Maker is a short claymation film, 15 minutes, released in 1999 and based on the novel, A Journal of the Plague Year, written by Daniel Defoe. The film was produced by Ideal Standard film, directed by Steffen Schäffler and narrated by Kenneth Branagh.
The short film utilizes several characteristics of the Gothic style. It includes the physical terror that the Periwig Maker experiences as he shuts himself in his house in order to prevent contracting the plague, while also the psychological terror of observing the sickness and death through his window and being unable to aide the victims and secure his own health. The mystery of the cause of the spread of the plague pervades the short film, the periwig maker rhetorically records in his journal his speculations of the cause but is never able discover the answer. The young orphan, another common component of the Gothic, takes center stage of the story when we see her mother's corpse being carried away and her subsequent death inducing contraction of the plague. The supernatural is incorporated into the story with the apparition of the young redhead, it remains unclear if this is a construct of his psyche or an actual occurrence. Death dominates and lingers not only with the plague victims but also in the air that transmits the illness and then finally in the wigs that contain the hair of the deceased. Though the Periwig maker has escaped the clutches of the plague, the last scene of him wearing the red-haired wig indicates that he has lost some semblance of sanity. Therefore, far after the plague has dispelled, his psychological degradation and madness remain.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Periwig
• Maker

[eshakunamatata]

That Bubonic Plague in London in 1665 world

give me some terrifying nightmares.

[tima87lp]

thanks 4 the share :)