Fatal Flying Guillotine

Digital video montage dealing with guillotine executions in the early part of the 20th century; most notably that of Eugene Weidmann in 1939. The enthusiasm of the crowd, as well as the fact that the event was filmed from an apartment window, became major factors in the French governments decision to ban public executions. As a result, the Weidmann execution was the last public guillotining in France before the death penalty was finally abolished in 1981. Musical setting is the viola solo "Elegie" by Igor Stravinsky.