The Periwig-Maker (1999)

Europe; the plague years. A wigmaker, locked in his shop, observes the events and writes about them in his journal. Mostly, we see shrouded bodies, and a young girl who lives in the tavern ... See full summary »

Director:

Steffen Schäffler

Writers:

Annette Schäffler, Steffen Schäffler

Stars:

Kenneth Branagh, Alice Fairhall, Roger Law

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 17 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Kenneth Branagh	...	Periwig-maker (voice)
Alice Fairhall	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Roger Law	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Daren C. Evans	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Storyline

Europe; the plague years. A wigmaker, locked in his shop, observes the events and writes about them in his journal. Mostly, we see shrouded bodies, and a young girl who lives in the tavern across the way that gets progressively sicker. When she dies, the wigmaker goes to the mass grave where she's buried and cuts off her luxurious red hair; he makes himself a wig from it, and soon dies.

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Plot Keywords:

plague | writer | vision | orphan | medical | 

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Genres:

Animation | Short | Drama

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Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 November 1999 (UK)

Also Known As:

A parókakészítő

Filming Locations:

Three Mills Studios, Three Mill Lane, Bow, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ideal Standard Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

15 min 15 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Periwig-maker: So in the plague it came to such violence that the people sat still looking at one another, and seemed quite abandoned to despair. But the near-view of death would soon reconcile men, one to another, so that another plague year would reconcile all differences. A close conversing with death would scum off the gall from our tempers, remove the animosities among us, and bring us to see with different eyes than those with which we looked on things before.

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Crazy Credits

And it is a wonder what will be the fashion after the plague is done as to periwigs, for nobody will dare to buy any haire for fear of the infection - that it had been cut off of the heads of people dead of the plague. Samuel Pepys, 3.9.1665

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Connections

Edited into Short6 (2001)

User Reviews

This Isn't Wallace and Gromit

Not being a schooled film critic, I'm not entirely certain what to call this kind of animation; but I think of it as a sort of "claymation," and I associate it with the Wallace and Gromit films or, more recently, "Chicken Run." These are, of course, highly entertaining films and technically very impressive. But they're not films one takes as seriously as, say, "The Seventh Seal."

"The Periwig-Maker" shows that this kind of animation can be used for much more serious purposes. The film threw me. I knew from the publicity that it was about the plague; but given the precedent of Wallace and Gromit, I expected a sweet, ultimately upbeat, family-values kind of narrative. Isolated, distrustful man opens his home and his heart to a young girl in need and learns that love triumphs over all obstacles--we've seen this kind of thing before, and that's what I went into this film expecting to see again.

I'm not making any revelations when I say that this movie is DARK. The final voiceover tries to put a positive spin on things by expressing hope for future generations. But still, it's dark. It's heavy. It's about guilt and atonement. It's an art-house film, not "family entertainment." And I'm extremely impressed that the filmmakers managed to accomplish that using this kind of animation. "The Periwig-Maker" is a pioneering film, and I'm eager to see what filmmakers do with this medium in the future.