Courtney Love gets animated

Courtney appears in a six-minute cartoon "The Dark Night of the Soul," directed by filmmaker Michael Mouris.

"The only notes she gave me were to take the fan out of Karl Lagerfeld's hand and to give Andre Leon Talley a cape," filmmaker Michael Mouris said of his experience working with Courtney Love. "Other than that, I think I had free reign."

"The Dark Night of the Soul," the six-minute animated short created by Mouris, illustrates — literally — the singer's evolution from kooky poster child of grunge to classy Birkin bag carrier. In just half a year and on a budget of five thousand dollars, Mouris' animated portrayal of Love is spot on, down to the visuals and the madcap personality. Vocals from her latest album, "Nobody's Daughter," echo in the background and all locations are accurate, but the spoof wouldn't be complete without "cameos" from Lagerfeld and Andre Leon Talley. "I don't know if Karl has seen this," Love said, "But it's about him in so many ways."

To avoid looking too "cartoony," Mouris said he always infuses his work with a sense of realism. "My process is called pixilation, which is animated with stop-motion, but uses real people instead of puppets," he explained. "All of the images come from photographs. I hire actors to play the parts, photograph them in stop-motion and then I collage the photographs." He likened his method to making a photo collage and then tracing over it.

"One of the stills was photographed after I had the best sex of my entire life," Love said.

(WWD)