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A young woman visits an undertaker to organise the funeral of her father. Unusually cheerful and self-possessed for someone freshly bereaved, she catches the eye of the friendly young undertaker and they go out for a drink.
Over a glass of wine she asks if she can see her father's body and they go to the embalming suite where the undertaker, in a spectacularly ill-judged moment, shows her a special trick with disastrous consequences.
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Years ago, when I was at art school I paid a visit to my local funeral parlour with a view to writing a magazine story about the life of an undertaker. He was about thirty, wore a black AC/DC T-shirt like a roadie and had a huge handle bar moustache. He claimed the job freaked him out so much the only way he could cope was by smoking and watching cartoons. In cartoons nobody ever dies.
The other thing he liked to do was fiddle with the bodies, manipulating their tendons to make arms move, hands clench... I asked him if he believed in ghosts and he went pale and whispered: "Don't ever ask an undertaker a question like that."
He appeared to me to be the most freaked out person I'd ever met in my life. Years later when my dad died I dreamt for months that he had come back to life.
I wanted to write something about the madness that afflicts us when brought into close proximity to death. It engenders desolation, but also, paradoxically a lust for life - in fact a lust for all sorts of things: laughs, sex, drink, human contact in all its forms.
I wanted my first film as a director to be personal to me and at the same time inclusive. I wanted it to be strange and unpredictable, in the way that life often is.
I wrote it very quickly. Liza Marshall raised the money very quickly, asking the BBC for donations. The Beeb decided to treat it as a training exercise and so I had a sizable squad of extremely eager runners, editor and the best post-production facilities.
In the end it was probably nothing like the usual short film experience. I was surprised by everybody's dedication and generosity.
Lots of directors had advised me against directing. Some said it was a bad idea for writers to direct, some said it was just no fun. They were lying.
Here's the big secret: it's the most fun I've ever had without breaking the law.
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- director Joe Penhall
- writer Joe Penhall
- producer Liza Marshall & Matthew Vizard
- editor Victoria Stevens
- director of photography Mike Eley
- sound John Taylor
- music Rob Lane
executive producers David M Thompson & Tracey Scoffield
line producer Sarah Best
production designer David Roger
hair & make-up Anita Brulee
on-line editor/colourist Steve Jamison
1st assistant director Charlie Leech
production co-ordinator Kathleen McLynn
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- The Undertaker Rhys Ifans
- Young Woman Natalie Press
- Widow Tessa Peake-Jones
- Body Steve Hunt
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49th London Film Festival 2005
© 2005 Joe Penhall
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