Mourir auprès de toi

Director: Simon Cahn, Spike Jonze
English Title: To Die By Your Side
Written by: Olympia Le-Tan
Soko's role: Mina
Released: 14 May 2011 (France)
Length: 6 minutes 9 seconds
Genre: drama

In Greece, the title is "Pethainontas dipla sou" (Dying Next to You).

The stop-motion film took a year and a half to make, uses 3000 pieces of felt, and is set in the famous Left Bank bookstore SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY once frequented by Hemingway. A romance develops between book illustrations who become detached from their dust jackets. Mina (voiced by Soko) becomes intimately involved with the skeleton (Spike Jonze) and gets to punch Moby Dick in the face. All the felt pieces are hand-cut by Olympia Le-Tan.

To Die By Your Side video thumb
To Die By Your Side

In an interview with Chris Tinkham of Under the Radar Magazine, Soko describes how she met Jonze: "He did this film called 'I'm Here', about robots, this short film, and he cast me for the part of the girl, and then I didn't end up being able to do it, because I was 23, and it was sponsored by Absolut Vodka, and so people had to be over 25 on set, so I couldn't do it. We ended up being really close friends, and then I met his brother and played music with his brother, and his brother is now my best friend that I live with in L.A. So his brother, Sam Spiegel, is in my video, 'I thought I Was an Alien', that I was directing, and my brother, Max, was having me film. Max and I were staying at Sam's place, and Sam was going surfing with Spike."

Spike Jonze and Olympia Le-Tan
Spike Jonze and Olympia Le-Tan

Olympia Le-Tan is the daughter of French illustrator Pierre Le-Tan (the voice of the bookseller in the film), she was born in London in early October and raised in Paris. Le-Tan studied Italian at the University of London, and then went to art school in Paris. At the age of 19, she was hired by the Chanel design studio, where she began a seven-year collaboration with designer Gilles Dufour.

Le-Tan was also working alone on her eponymous handmade handbag label. The bags were sold in selected fashion shops. As a sound designer, she was part of the successful Paris nightclub Le Baron, and was the regular DJ for Louis Vuitton aftershow parties.

An admitted bibliophile, Olivia Le-Tan is best known for creating unique handbags resembling literary classics (e.g. Catcher in the Rye, Doctor Zhivago, and For Whom the Bell Tolls).

Her autobiography, THE STORY OF O.L.T., was published in 2016.

Spike Jonze was born Alan Spiegel in Rockville, Maryland on 22 October 1969. He was the founder of DIRT Magazine and co-creator of MTV's JACKASS, and JACKASS THE MOVIE. In 2010, he made a short film called SCENES FROM THE SUBURBS, inspired by an Arcade Fire album. Scenes from this short were used in the music video to the song THE SUBURBS (from the album).

In 2020, he directed THE BEASTIE BOYS STORY.

CAST

To Die By Your Side - poster