Those already familiar with Robert Lepage are well familiar with why the new short film Danse Macabre is worth being excited about. For those who don't, here's a quick primer. Lepage is a multidisciplinary artist and one of Canada's true treasures. He works in experimental theater, painting, dance, film and bizarre, surprising fusions of all of the above. In his more commercial moments he has worked closely with the likes of the Cirque Du Soleil and directed films like Far Side of the Moon but Lepage's vision is entirely too wide ranging to be locked in to any one project or medium for too long.

Though he hasn't directed for the screen himself since 2004, Lepage is now credited with conceptualizing Danse Macabre, a new short film directed by Pedro Pires under tte auspices of the Phi Group, a Quebec arts collective that also lurks behind Denis Villeneuve's Next Floor. Here's the synopsis:

For a period of time, while we believe it to be perfectly still, lifeless flesh responds, stirs and contorts in a final macabre ballet. Are these spasms merely erratic motions or do they echo the chaotic twists and turns of a past life?

Danse Macabre is screening as part of the Worldwide Short Film Festival and you can find the absolutely gorgeous trailer below the break.

As much as this short ponders the beauty and delicacy of life it also views it in it's natural glory. Though it be art it also be au natural. Tastefully NSFW.