Nowness brings us this short animation by Spike Jonze, who created the film in collaboration with French designer Olympia Le-Tan: “Designer Olympia Le-Tan’s embroidered clutch-bags spring to life in director Spike Jonze’s tragicomic stop-motion animation Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die By Your Side). On a shelf in famed Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Company, the star-crossed love story of a klutzy skeleton and his flame-haired amour plays out amidst Le-Tan’s illustrations of iconic first-edition book covers.” Mourir Auprès De Toi is a beautifully crafted work, and does much to show off Jonze’s inimitable style. The short used over 3,000 pieces of felt cut by hand by Le-Tan, and was simply a labor of love. As Jonze explains in the interview, “We joked about making a film and just went for it. It was this thing with no schedule, no pressure and no real reason to be—other than just that we thought it would be fun.” Enjoy!
