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Directed by Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist), below is his 1997 short film The Old Lady and the Pigeons (La Vieille Dame et les Pigeons), which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. It lost the award to Pixar’s Geri’s Game (included below).
An emaciated Parisian policeman discovers an old lady who feeds pigeons in the park excessively. After having a nightmare ending in giant pigeon-men pecking at his stomach, the policeman constructs a pigeon mask, which he wears to the old lady’s home. She welcomes him inside and, despite his rude behavior, allows him to gorge himself. As weeks pass, the policeman grows increasingly fat. As he goes up flights of stairs to the woman’s home each day, he passes a maid sweeping the floor.
Eventually, the policeman discovers the old lady’s other pet: the woman who swept the floor, dressed as a cat. When the old lady spots the police man, she begins to pursue him with a large pair of shears. He tries to remove his fake pigeon head, to reveal himself as human, but it has become stuck around his neck. As the old lady is cornering him, the policeman falls out the window and onto the street, among a small group of pigeons. In the final scene the policeman, skinny once more and without his pigeon suit, is seen behaving like a pigeon in front of the Eiffel Tower.
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via The Playlist
