While the rest of the world continues to buzz about yesterday’s 87th Academy Awards (Lady Gaga can sing! Meryl Streep’s reacts to Patricia Arquette’s acceptance speech!), architects have something else to add to the conversation: a nominated film that captures life with modernist architect parents.
Nominated for Best Animated Short Film, Me and My Moultan is a short film by Academy Award-Winning director Torill Kove which looks at the life and struggles of a seven year old girl and her siblings when they have “hopelessly unconventional” parents.
The film is inspired by Kove’s own experiences. Growing up in Hamar, Norway in the 60s, Kove’s parents were modernist architects who crafted their daughters’ dresses out of flamboyant fabric from Finland, and gave them a made-in-Britain Moulton bicycle.
Me and My Moultan Trailer:
“It’s inspired by actual events, but the way I pieced the story together is fictionalized,” says Kove, whose favourite moment in the film features the sisters struggling to stay upright in the family’s three-legged dining room chairs. Those Ant chairs are actually quite famous: created in 1952 by Danish furniture designer Arne Jacobsen, they’re named for their ant-like shape.
“We fell over all the time,” laughs Kove. “I think that scene is really funny, with the parents just sitting there oblivious to what’s going on. They were engagement presents to my parents from my grandparents in the ’50s; I still have two of them.”
Find out more about Me and My Moultan here.
