| Director: | Brady Corbet |
| Cinematography: | Lol Crawley |
| Editing: | Dávid Jancsó |
| Music: | Daniel Blumberg |
| Distributor: |
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| Runtime: | 215 minutes[1] |
| Budget: | $6–10 million[2] [3] |
The Brutalist is a 2024 epic[4] historical drama film directed and produced by Brady Corbet, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mona Fastvold. An international co-production between the United States, United Kingdom, and Hungary, it stars Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach de Bankolé, and Alessandro Nivola. It follows the life of László Tóth, a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the United States, where he struggles to achieve the American Dream until a wealthy client changes his life.
The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2024, where it received critical acclaim for its direction, screenplay, score, cinematography, editing, costume and production design, and performances—particularly those of Brody, Pearce, and Jones. Corbet was awarded the Silver Lion for Best Direction.[5] It is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 20, 2024, by A24.
Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth, forcibly separated from his wife Erzsébet and his niece Zsófia in Budapest during World War II and having survived the Holocaust, manages to emigrate to America. He travels to Philadelphia, where his immigrant cousin Attila and Audrey, his American wife, run a furniture store and they allow him to stay in the back room while he looks for employment.
In 1947, as László helps with his cousin’s business, he and Attila are commissioned to renovate the study and library room of wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren by his son, Harry, as a surprise to his father while he is away on business. Harrison arrives home furious at the state of the renovations, ordering László and Attila out. After, Harry refuses to pay for the labor and materials and Attila regretfully asks László to leave his home as Audrey has told him that László made advances towards her.
Years later, László is living in charitable housing within a church, alongside many others including Gordon, a poor African-American man trying to raise his young son. Gordon discovers that László is covertly smoking heroin even before dangerous work together at a shipyard. One day, Harrison locates László at work and takes him out to lunch, where he reveals that his modern study/library has been lauded by the architectural community. He pays László the money owed from the library renovation and László and Gordon go on a binge where they are both now injecting heroin. After being ejected from a porn theater having fallen asleep, László arrives home to find a car to take him to an arrangement he had forgotten at Harrison's estate.
Arriving at an upscale lunch party, László is treated as a guest of honor but also conscious of whispers and jokes. Harrison takes him aside to talk and László's position as an educated and cultured European is clearly at odds with the brash, vulgar American. Harrison tells him a story of dominating and punishing his grandparents, as revenge for their rejection of his mother out of shame at her having him out of wedlock. With the revelation of László’s past in Europe as an accomplished architect and wanting to build and leave a monumental legacy, Harrison commissions him to construct a community center in honor of his late mother featuring a library, a theater, a gymnasium, and, most importantly, a chapel. Work begins immediately with László living and working on site, employing Gordon and ostensibly now a fully functioning heroin addict. For László’s services, Harrison’s personal lawyer is able to expedite Erzsébet and Zsófia’s immigration to America.
In 1953, László greets Erzsébet and Zsófia at the train station, where he discovers that, due to the conditions and traumas suffered in the war and its aftermath, Zsófia has become mute and Erzsébet has developed osteoporosis and is now in a wheelchair. During construction of the center, László learns of changes to the design and materials made without his approval and butts heads with the other developers. There are various hostilities to László as an immigrant, as foreign and as Jewish. Though László intends to pay out of pocket for the necessary materials necessary to his intended vision, Harry warns him to stay in his place, saying he’s merely "tolerated" and making unsavory sexual allusions to Zsófia whom László warns in Hungarian to stay away from Harry, even though he may have already assaulted her. Sometime later, the train carrying László’s materials crashes and derails, critically injuring two brakemen. With the expected legal fees and the cost it would take to transport the materials up, Harrison abandons the construction and lays off all workers and László and his family leave.
Years later, László has been employed by an architecture firm in Philadelphia, where he and Erzsébet now live a metropolitan life. Zsófia, having overcome her muteness, is expecting a child with her new devoutly Jewish husband. She announces to her aunt and uncle that they are moving to Jerusalem in the then-newly established state of Israel, urging them to come with them to no avail as neither László nor Erzsébet can imagine why they would go or what they would do there. One day, Harrison contacts László to inform him that, by forgoing his community center’s library to cover legal expenses from the train crash, they can resume construction while staying on budget.
In order to acquire the stone to complete the building, László contacts an old Italian ally whose antifascist militia has taken control of a quarry in Carrara. During a party the night before László and Harrison return to America, Harrison watches László dancing with a beautiful woman who is clearly trying to seduce him. László staggers away and Harrison descends deep inside the quarry where he finds a drunken (and possibly high) László collapsed in a tunnel. At first seemingly caring, Harrison brutally rapes him as a show of dominance and berates him for wasting his potential, mocking him and calling him a leech whilst the incapacitated László is unable to stop him. Later, an increasingly traumatized and anxious László begins to unravel, aggressively yelling at a worker playing on the scaffolding, firing his friend Gordon, creating a scene in front of his wife and avoiding a meeting with a developer.
After Erzsébet runs out of pain medication for her osteoporosis, László begins injecting her with heroin, which he was given on the boat to America as pain medication for an injury, taking away her pain and they have sex. She nearly overdoses one night and distraught, he carries her to hospital. Though she survives, Erzsébet, sickened by America, proposes to live in Jerusalem with Zsófia, her husband, and their grandniece; László accepts. She asks him if he remembers whst he told her while they were high, and tells him in doesn't need to be ashamed.
One night, Erzsébet pays Harrison a visit during a business dinner at his home, slowly walking herself in on a frame and calmly declaring him a rapist in front of his children and associates. Harry violently attacks her and drags her shouting from the dining room before she is ejected from the house; Maggie tends to her. Harry casually walks back into dinner to continue the meal but the other guests are leaving, appalled, and Harrison is nowhere to be found, and Harry and his father's associates search the grounds.
In 1980 Venice, an exhibition of László’s designs and buildings (including the community center which finally completed construction over a decade after it was halted) paying tribute to a now-elderly László is held, Erzsébet having died sometime earlier. A now adult Zsófia gives a speech highlighting the importance and meaning of László’s work and how his family’s experience with the Holocaust shaped it, particularly with his first work in Pennsylvania, which corresponds so directly to his experience at Buchenwald.
In September 2018, Deadline reported that director Brady Corbet had chosen the period drama The Brutalist as his next project following the world premiere of his second feature film, Vox Lux.[6] New York-based Andrew Lauren Productions (ALP) developed the screenplay with Corbet and financed the film.[6] Corbet co-wrote the screenplay with his partner Mona Fastvold, with whom he co-wrote the 2015 film The Childhood of a Leader and the 2018 film Vox Lux.[7] The film was originally announced as a co-production between Andrew Lauren and D.J. Gugenheim for ALP, Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon for Brookstreet Pictures, Brian Young's Three Six Zero,[6] and the Polish company Madants,[8] [9] and executive produced by Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, and David Hinojosa of Killer Films.
On September 2, 2020, Deadline announced that Joel Edgerton and Marion Cotillard had been cast as the film's leads, László Tóth and Erzsébet Tóth, respectively, and that Mark Rylance was cast in the role of László's mysterious client.[10] Sebastian Stan, Vanessa Kirby, Isaach De Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola, Raffey Cassidy and Stacy Martin were also announced in unknown roles.[10] Corbet described The Brutalist as "a film which celebrates the triumphs of the most daring and accomplished visionaries; our ancestors", and the project which is so far the closest to his heart and family history.[10] Filming was scheduled to begin in Poland in January 2021.[11] [10] Protagonist Pictures presented the project to buyers at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.[10] The film takes place in Philadelphia and was shot in English, Yiddish, Hungarian and Italian.[7] [10]
Director of photography Lol Crawley, editor Dávid Jancsó, and costume designer Kate Forbes were announced on March 9, 2023.[12] [13] Production designer Judy Becker was announced on April 11, 2023. Daniel Blumberg will compose the film's score.[14]
On April 11, 2023, it was announced that Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Jonathan Hyde, Emma Laird, and Peter Polycarpou would star in the film, while Edgerton, Cotillard, Rylance, Stan, and Kirby were no longer attached. It was also announced that the film would be co-produced by the US-based companies Andrew Lauren Productions and Yellow Bear along with the United Kingdom's Brookstreet and Intake Films, and Hungary's Proton Cinema, and financed by Brookstreet UK, Yellow Bear, Lip Sync Productions, Richmond Pictures, Meyohas Studio, Carte Blanche, Cofiloisirs, and Parable Media. CAA Media Finance handles US sales with Protagonist Pictures handling international sales. Focus Features subsequently acquired international distribution rights to the film.[15]
Filming was originally set to start in 2020,[16] but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[16] It was then scheduled to start in January 2021,[11] but it was postponed to August 2021,[17] then it was postponed again to late spring 2022.[16] Corbet said filming was postponed several times due to the pandemic as well as several pregnancies and deaths in the families of the film's cast and crew.[18]
After several delays, filming finally began in Budapest,[19] Hungary on March 16, 2023.[20] Production then moved to the city of Carrara in Tuscany, Italy on April 29, 2023,[21] [22] and wrapped on May 5, 2023.[23]
The film was shot using the VistaVision process and cameras, which involves shooting horizontally on 35mm film stock, which was then scanned, with the intention of also making prints for a 70mm film release.[24] Corbet explained: "It just seemed like the best way to access that period (1950s) was to shoot on something that was engineered in that same decade." In addition, the film is presented in two acts with a 15-minute intermission.[25]
The Brutalist had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2024, where it competed for the Golden Lion and won the Silver Lion for Corbet.[26] It also played at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2024.[27] The film's festival run also included selections for screenings at the 2024 New York Film Festival the 69th Valladolid International Film Festival, and the 31st Austin Film Festival.[28] [29] [30] A week after its premiere at Venice, A24 acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film for "just under $10 million" in what was described as a competitive situation.[31] It is scheduled to be released on December 20, 2024.[32] The film will be released in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2025 by Universal Pictures and Focus Features.[33]
The film received a five-star review from The Guardian Peter Bradshaw who called it "an amazing and engrossing epic". He continued: "The Brutalist obviously takes something from Ayn Rand, but also from Bernard Malamud and Saul Bellow in its depiction of the US immigrant adventure and the promise of success – but maybe Corbet and Fastvold go further and faster into how dizzyingly sensual and sexual it all is". Bradshaw concluded: "It is an electrifying piece of work, stunningly shot by cinematographer Lol Crawley and superbly designed by Judy Becker. I emerged from this movie light-headed and euphoric, dizzy with rubbernecking at its monumental vastness".[34] In a review for Vogue, the cinematography, score, costumes, and production design were described as “sumptuous,” “impressively stylish,” and possessing a “staggering ambition.”[35]
| Award | Ceremony date | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venice International Film Festival | 7 September 2024 | Golden Lion | Brady Corbet | [36] | |
| Silver Lion | |||||
| ARCA CinemaGiovani Award for Best Film of Venezia 81 | [37] | ||||
| Premio CinemaSarà | |||||
| FIPRESCI Award for Best Film from Venezia 81 | |||||
| UNIMED Award for Cultural Diversity | |||||
| Valladolid International Film Festival | 26 October 2024 | Golden Spike | The Brutalist | [38] | |
| Camerimage | 23 November 2024 | Golden Frog | Lol Crawley | [39] | |
| Silver Frog | [40] | ||||
| Gotham Awards | 2 December 2024 | Outstanding Lead Performance | Adrien Brody | [41] | |
| Outstanding Supporting Performance | Guy Pearce | ||||
| New York Film Critics Circle Awards | 3 December 2024 | Best Film | The Brutalist | [42] | |
| Best Actor | Adrien Brody | ||||
| Astra Film and Creative Awards | 8 December 2024 | Best Picture | The Brutalist | [43] | |
| Best Director | Brady Corbet | ||||
| Best Original Screenplay | Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold | ||||
| Best Actor | Adrien Brody | ||||
| Best Supporting Actor | Guy Pearce | ||||
| 8 December 2024 | Best Cinematography | Lol Crawley | |||
| Best Original Score | Daniel Blumberg | ||||
| Best Production Design | Judy Becker | ||||
| Palm Springs International Film Festival | 3 January 2025 | Desert Palm Achievement Award | Adrien Brody | [44] | |
| AARP Movies for Grownups Awards | 11 January 2025 | Best Actor | [45] | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Guy Pearce | ||||
| Best Time Capsule | The Brutalist | ||||
| Santa Barbara International Film Festival | 15 February 2025 | Cinema Vanguard Award | Adrien Brody | [46] | |
| Guy Pearce |