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The Brutalist
Brady Corbet’s THE BRUTALIST is a three-and-a-half-hour immigrant epic that owes a debt to forebears such as THE GODFATHER, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA and THERE WILL BE BLOOD, but tells the story in a more modern, fragile, elliptical, and ...
THE BRUTALIST, Brady Corbet’s third film after CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER and VOX LUX, which the director developed together with his partner, Norwegian screenwriter Mona Fastvold, is an exceptional film, not just for US film production. THE BRUTALIST is a three and a half hour immigration epic which owes a debt to forefathers THE GODFATHER, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA and THERE WILL BE BLOOD, but is told in a more modern, fragmented, elliptical, and intelligent way. Corbet shows that another, more complex cinema is possible, without betraying the tradition of the epic film narrative.
THE BRUTALIST begins with an "overture", initially just a musical prelude in which a swelling dissonant sound mixed with screams and sirens gradually develops into a hint of a melody. THE BRUTALIST is dedicated to Scott Walker, the legendary ex-pop star and avant-garde musician who composed the music for Corbet's first two films. Daniel Blumberg took over for Walker, who died in 2019, on THE BRUTALIST.
The first scene begins: László Tóth (Adrien Brody) walks out of the dark ship interior to the deck and looks at the Statue of Liberty of New York. However, Corbet places it upside down in the image, it begins to tip over and hangs at an angle in the frame. The images already foretell that this won’t be a conventional immigration story, even though, at first, the film seems to follow the typical American story of an unstoppable rise.
The film tells the story of fictional Hungarian Jewish Bauhaus architect László Tóth, who immigrates to the US after the war and tries to build a new life for himself in Pennsylvania. But first, he has to get his wife and niece out of Europe. Like the letters read from off-screen by László's wife Erzsébet, the film leaves out a lot. It remains unclear where Erzsébet is and Soviet soldiers are “interested“ in her niece Zsófia, she says, and she’s trying to protect the girl but also the soldiers are useful. What happened to the married couple, why László has a bloody nose, remains unclear. Again and again, camera movements can be seen along country roads, racing across the road surface; at one point, even a journey along train tracks. Similar to David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY, the journeys seem to herald doom, but there is more at play here, an underlying tone of uncertainty and motion, a crossing of times and spaces that themselves seem to be escaping reality, a kind of frenzied forlornness.
László doesn’t find security with his brother, who runs a furniture store in Pennsylvania with his Catholic wife. The elegant cantilever chair/table combination with curved steel frames designed by László looks strange and lost in the shop window of the old-fashioned furniture store. But the brothers get a commission to design a library for the rich Harrison Lee Van Buren. The tycoon is initially appalled by the elegant design in his conservatory, but when LIFE magazine publishes an article about the modern style of the library, he realizes the image boost that could be generated from László's designs. Van Buren becomes László's patron and commissions him to build a community center in memory of his deceased mother. The story of this building, which was fought over and interrupted several times, takes up most of the film. The architectural concept seems to be increasingly more puzzling over the course of the film: why is there a huge columned hall that’s constantly underwater? Why are the rooms so narrow and high? Where is the library and the sports hall that were planned? Why are there so many narrow corridors?
Van Buren helps László get his family out of Europe. László, and later on Erzsébet and Szófia, live on Van Burens’ grounds. The Van Burens keep them like decorative prize intellectuals: their very own Bauhaus architect. László didn’t fit in this world before. His housing in the conservatory remains unfurnished, just like the storage room in his brother’s furniture house that he lived in. When his family finally arrives, it is immediately clear that they can’t blend in 1950s Pennsylvania either. László's wife Erszébet (Felicity Jones) has severe arthritis in her legs due to malnutrition, is in a wheelchair, and suffers excruciating pain at night, and László's niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) does not speak. László numbs his pain with heroin. A trip to a marble quarry in Carrara turns into a trip to hell.
If the film has a thesis, it is that the trauma of Jewish immigrants has been inscribed into US post-war architecture. But that reduces its complexity which doesn’t do justice to Corbet’s monumental masterpiece..
THE BRUTALIST was filmed in VistaVision, a 35mm widescreen film format that allows for a particularly high resolution because the image on the film strip is rotated by 180°. The format has only been used for special effects scenes in US productions since 1961, the most famous being the VistaVision scenes in STAR WARS (1977), but VistaVision was also used in places in POOR THINGS (2024), INTERSTELLAR (2014) and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012). There will be analog copies of the film, and if it’s possible, it is certainly nicer to see the film in its original format rather than in digital facsimile.
Translation: Elinor Lewy
Original title: The Brutalist
Großbritannien 2024, 215 min
Language: English, Hungarian, Italian
Genre: Drama
Director: Brady Corbet
Author: Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
DOP: Lol Crawley
Montage: David Jancsó
Music: Daniel Blumberg
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Cast: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Alessandro Nivola, Isaach De Bankolé
FSK: 16
Release: 30.01.2025
Website
Screenings
- OV Original version
- OmU Original with German subtitles
- OmeU Original with English subtitles
- OV Original version
- OmU Original with German subtitles
- OmeU Original with English subtitles

The Brutalist
(The Brutalist) | Großbritannien 2024 | Drama | R: Brady Corbet | FSK: 16
Brady Corbet’s THE BRUTALIST is a three-and-a-half-hour immigrant epic that owes a debt to forebears such as THE GODFATHER, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA and THERE WILL BE BLOOD, but tells the story in a more modern, fragile, elliptical, and ...
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