Dead Wedding

Fade from black.

A view of a large meadow, mountains in the background. The picture is not quite black-and-white, more like a sad sepia. The meadow is full of grass, with a few white daisies interspersed. Two people, a young man and woman, pass under the camera, running towards the middle of the meadow. There is no sound at all. The day is sunny, with no clouds in the gray-colored sky. They leave their footprints on the grass as they run, barefoot, holding hands. The camera cuts first to the boy's face, who is smiling, and then the girl's, who is also smiling and happy, in slow motion. The camera reassumes its overhead position, and the motion keeps getting slower, until the film burns to black and the new image emerges from the burned hole.

It is night, and the camera shows an abandoned, half-wrecked Gothic-style church. There is a dead sycamore outside the church, its bare branches casting a gloomy shadow on the dirt below. Two crows are sitting on the branches. The camera cuts to the inside of the church. The music, a slow requiem, fades in. The viewpoint is three meters above ground, and the full moon casts its anaemic light on the many rows of empty, weathered pews. The curtains, black and tattered, flow gently in the light breeze, and there are a few burnt out candles in the candleholders. There are only two people in the church, the groom and a priest. The groom is wearing a black tuxedo and a gray shirt, both of which are slightly worn and torn, but his face and skin are clean. The priest is also wearing torn robes, and holding a dusty, weathered bible with ripped pages. Both the groom and the priest look forlorn, though not overly so. A female figure passes under the camera amidst the many rows of pews, stepping on a torn black carpet. The colors are silvery gray, as illuminated by the moonlight. The bride is wearing a raven black, lacy dress, with a long train and a black coronet, which has a black veil extending backwards over her ebon hair. The camera cuts to her face, which is a beautiful pale white colour. Her skin is perfect, and tears are rolling down her face, although her expression is not one of weeping. She walks slowly and unhappily down the aisle, holding a bouquet of dead roses.

The camera cuts to her reaching the groom, who has been looking at her all this time, a saddened look on his face. He turns slowly to face the priest, who begins the ceremony reluctantly, though no dialogue is heard. When he reaches the vow part, the bride and groom turn to each other, and each say "I do", though again no dialogue is heard. The camera cuts to the bride who is stretching out her hand, the groom holds it, and with his other hand he produces a ring of thorns and the camera zooms out to show both their faces and hands as he puts it on her finger. A few drops of blood start to flow from her hand onto the ring and finally on the ground, but she shows no signs of pain. She does the same for the groom, who again retains his facial expression, one of infinite sadness. The priest is seen to utter the words "you may now kiss the bride", and the couple slowly lean towards each other, in a weak but tender kiss. Just as their lips are about to touch, the bride looks upwards and begins to faint, falling towards her left side, away from the priest. The camera cuts behind the groom's shoulder, to show her as she falls in slow motion. She lets go of the bouquet, and the camera cuts to the ground, where the bouquet falls, followed by the ring of thorns and an empty wedding dress.

Cut to the groom and priest, again both having the same expression, as if they expected this all along. They look sadly to the ground, and the camera zooms out, over the nonexistent roof, and zooms in again on the side of the church where we see a single toombstone. The camera lowers, slowly exposing the writing of the tombstone. We first see the names of a man and a woman that share the same last name, and below it is an inscription: "Though separated in life, together in death." As the camera lowers still, we see the soil in front of the grave, upon which rests a bouquet of dead roses and two rings of thorns, touching each other.

Fade to black.