By Socratis Santik Oglou,
In order to construct Victory, the fictional, utopian society of the 1950s that is the setting of the film Don’t Worry Darling, Kate Byron drew inspiration from the design and architecture of numerous modern buildings that dominate the landscape of Palm Springs, California.
The Olivia Wilde–directed film Don’t Worry Darling follows a couple, played by Florence Pough and Harry Styles, as they transition from a troubled world of secrets, control and manipulation to an earthly paradise. Richard Harold Bissner Junior and Albert Frey are the two main characters in the film.
While the residence of the protagonists Alice and Jack was constructed in a Los Angeles studio, other scenes, including a cocktail party held by the leader of Victory that took place in Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House, were filmed in actual modernist structures.
Through the use of components like color, Byron —who studied architecture at Berkeley— incorporated more subdued modernist characteristics into the interiors of Don’t Worry Darling. The couple’s home was furnished with old artifacts that Byron bought from shops and houses in Los Angeles. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the fact that the movie was produced in the fall of 2020, many vendors were either unavailable or had lengthy delivery dates and a lot of the furniture we see was created from scratch.
By integrating amusing elements throughout the environment, Byron sought to subvert the audience’s expectations of a thriller while giving the city a sense of familiarity. Byron used a variety of materials, primarily glass, stone and brick, but there were also tiny allusions hidden within them. In the meantime, the set decorator paid homage to Neutra’s storage cabinets, which the production crew filled with objects like business cards, cleaning supplies and pictures of Alice and Jack to give the actors a more realistic sense of the set.
One of the most significant architectural creations is the “Volcano House,” which is situated at Newberry Springs, west of Barstow. Built on top of a volcanic cinder cone, the late 1960s Volcano House was formerly owned by television host Huell Howser. Pugh rushes up to the home, the Victory Project base led by Frank, in one dramatic sequence that takes place on a winding gravel road.
Another famous house is the so–called “Kaufmann Desert House,” which was designed by the well–known American modernist architect Richard Neutra in 1946 and immortalized in Slim Aarons’ photograph “Poolside Gossip”. Barry Manilow was among the residence’s previous owners, however, shooting rarely takes place there.
The “Canyon View Estates” is another significant piece of architecture. The Canyon View condominiums, which were constructed in the 1960s by well–known L.A. and Palm Springs architects Palmer & Krisel, had the ideal utopian appearance to serve as the Victory neighborhood’s focal point. They were located on a cul–de–sac off of South Palm Canyon Drive.
There are other movies that are based on complete architectural movements than Don’t Worry Darling. The sets of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs and Black Panther were strongly influenced by metabolizing architecture and Zaha Hadid’s designs, respectively, but Don’t Worry Darling this time really takes us on an architectural trip to the Palm Springs mid–century modern architecture.
References
- Kate Byron designs modernist Don’t Worry Darling set as “a playful and debaucherous take on the 1950s”. dezeen.com. Available here
- ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Is a Dazzling Tour of Palm Springs’ Greatest Mid-Century Architecture. variety.com. Available here
