Stefano Baisi on Designing the Dreamlike World of Luca Guadagnino's 'Queer'

Stefano Baisi, an architect and designer who joined Luca Guadagnino's interior design studio in 2017, makes his feature film debut as production designer on 'Queer', Guadagnino's adaptation of William S. Burroughs' novel. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2024 and was released in Italian theaters on April 17 via Lucky Red. Baisi and Guadagnino focused on translating the characters' inner worlds into environments, emphasizing duality, mirrors, and symmetry. The color palette was crucial to evoke the dreamlike, drug-altered state of the story, using acid, vivid hues to amplify desire and claustrophobia. For the reconstruction of 1940s Mexico City, the team traveled to Ecuador, Panama City, and Mexico City to study proportions and historical references. The third act, not in the book, was developed by Guadagnino and Justin Kuritzkes with input from Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris. Baisi describes the experience as transformative and is now considering further work in cinema.