The thriller "Don't Worry Darling" by Olivia Wilde celebrated its premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Monday evening with much applause. Cast members Harry Styles and Florence Pugh drew a lot of attention on the red carpet. Previously, there had been discussion as to why the protagonist, Pugh, had not attended the afternoon press conference.
"Don't Worry Darling" is a mixture of "Pleasantville" and the series "Black Mirror". We follow characters who live in the desert in the 1950s in a community called Victory - a kind of utopia where men work for the secret "Victory Project" and the women are there to keep the perfectly styled houses in order .
The head of the community, Frank, keeps his residents on their toes with motivational quotes. Everything seems perfect - until Alice (Pugh) begins to question living together. What exactly do the men actually do? Her husband Jack (Styles) tries to put her off like everyone else by saying that it's about "the development of advanced materials".
Mystery surrounding Pugh's late arrival
And why are you not allowed to leave the borders of Victory? As Alice begins to ask more and more questions, the facade of this seemingly perfect place begins to crumble. In between, visions flare up in her that indicate that something completely different is hiding behind Victory. Pugh wows with the embodiment of this growing uneasiness in "Don't Worry Darling".
But why didn't she come to the press conference - unusual for a leading actress? Various media reported, among other things, that she did not feel comfortable on the film set because of an emerging relationship between Styles and Wilde. She also said she didn't agree with the originally planned cast of Shia LaBeouf, which Wilde didn't handle well. Pugh himself did not comment on this.
Ahead of the Venice premiere, Wilde said Pugh was involved in filming the second part of Dune. However, this also applies to Timothée Chalamet, who nevertheless came to the film festival. She continued, "I can't say enough about how honored I am to have her in the lead, she is amazing in the film. And to all the endless rumors and noise out there, I think the internet is feeding itself , I don't feel the urge to add anything to that..."
Styles: Don't stay in the comfort zone
There is no doubt that this film has a strong feminist message, since Alice is the one who questions something that all men follow blindly. And who, against all odds, develops the strength to fight against it. "We thought a lot about the generation of women that came before us, but unfortunately also today's generation of women," Wilde explained before the premiere.
Styles said, "People have their ways of staying in their comfort zone, and I think it's the right thing to do that not so much."
