LA TIMES visits BEGINNERS Home

In the Los Angeles Times "L.A. at Home" section, David A. Keeps's interview with set decorator Coryander Friend "Set Pieces: The Neutra house in Mike Mills' BEGINNERS" takes a tour of the architecture landmark that houses Hal (Oscar-nominated Christopher Plummer). As the piece explains, "Hal lives in the Lovell Health House, the 1927 modernist masterpiece in the International Style by architect Richard Neutra." (To learn about other L.A. landmarks, see our video "Los Angeles For BEGINNERS.") Friend goes on to explain the way they matched the architecture and d'ecor with the character of Hal, and where they got the interiors for the set:

We were lucky enough to have access to a lot of Mike's family furniture -- a mix of turn-of-the-century European design, African and Japanese. Shane Valentino, our production designer, acquired a bunch of mint mid-century Modern furniture from a family friend. The bentwood rocker is Thonet, loaned to us by Todd Cole, our set photographer. We all pitched in. In fact, the couch Mr. Plummer sits on throughout the film is actually from my own collection. It was given to me by a production designer friend who used it in an Orkin commercial. I think he got it from the Salvation Army.