Spike Jonze’s Stop-Motion Animated Short – ‘To Die By Your Side’

Here is Spike Jonze’s new short “Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die By Your Side).” The felt cut-out stop-motion short film was co-directed with Simon Cahn and inspired by the work of fashion designer Olympia Le-Tan.

The film is extremely well done (in typical Jonze style) and tells the morbid tale of book covers coming to life, their adventure and finding love. Here’s what Jonze had to say about the short and how the film came together.

I met Olympia in Paris through friends of mine. She was just starting to make the bags for her friends. She had a bunch of the scraps in her bag, all of the cut-out pieces of felt. I just loved it… 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.

For this one the feeling definitely started with the handmade aesthetic and charm of Olympia’s work. Instantly I had the idea of doing it in a bookstore after-hours, imagining the lights coming down and these guys off their books. Me and Olympia both wanted to make a love story, and it was fun to do it with these characters. It evolved naturally and it all just started with the feeling. From there you entertain yourself with ideas that excite you.