24/11
Featured on The 7PM Project: Episode December 10, 2024 (2024)
Synopsis
When visionary architect László Toth and his wife Erzsébet flee postwar Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern America, their lives are forever changed by a mysterious and wealthy client. Filming took place over a total of 34 days between March 16 and May 5, 2023. It was filmed in Budapest, Hungary, and Carrara, Italy. Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.: When dogs get sick, they often bite the hand of the person who fed them, until someone mercifully euthanizes them. Austere and bold, “Brutalism” was a name given to a style of modern architecture that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. Its sharp angles were formed from humble materials such as rebar and concrete.
László’s odyssey leads to the boundless optimism of postwar Philadelphia
Light and shadow danced dramatically on its rocky walls and through its bold windows. In a way, “The Brutalist” — nominated for multiple Golden Globes, including best drama — is also a work of architecture. If you can get past its title and its three-and-a-half-hour runtime, it offers epic views of immigrant aspirations and the American dream (both pros and cons) through a highly stylized lens. Best actor nominee Adrien Brody gives a poignant and fearless performance as László Toth, a brilliant Hungarian-Jewish architect who survives the carnage of his homeland in World War II and arrives at the foot of the Statue of Liberty in the hope of starting over. Lady Liberty is upside down on the poster, because that’s how she first appears to immigrants emerging from the third-class holds of steamships. His wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones, another Globe nominee), will follow her a few years later with his niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy).
will change the fate of both men
Meanwhile, the celebrated creator in his own country is relegated to a servile existence in his new homeland. Eating in soup kitchens, sleeping in shelters, shoveling coal to make a living. A cross-over with ultra-wealthy businessman Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. Guy Pierce earns the film’s third Globe nomination, with perhaps the best performance of his career. Urban and handsome, the ultimate patrician WASP, Harrison’s mellifluous voice and carefully chosen words stand in stark contrast to László’s still-strange foreignness. Although their first meeting is disastrous, Van Buren soon admits not only admiration but envy of the immigrant’s genius, asking him to create a monumental cultural center and memorial for his late mother.
and back again
The project will connect them for years, as the monolithic structure slowly rises up a hill on Van Buren’s property. Theirs is a union of opposites, each man possessing a strong will and an unbridled ego. Their relationship, and that of their families, evolves from master and hired help, through the bonds of collaborators to the intimacy of siblings… Director/co-writer Brady Corbet seems to share his characters’ great confidence in their own abilities. At 36, his evolution from actor to top-notch director invites comparisons to the young Orson Welles’ arrival in Hollywood with the groundbreaking “Citizen Kane.” Considering that “The Brutalist” had a budget of less than $10 million, its scale and scope, not to mention its singular sense of style, are astonishing marvels. Along with Lol Crawley’s stunning cinematography, Brady works with historical and industrial imagery from the era in the production design.
The film’s soundtrack is also a work of art in itself
It features perfectly selected songs in its montage of historical radio broadcasts, commercials, and ambient noise. Meditating on the price — and rewards — on an even deeper level, “The Brutalist” shows the price of assimilation.