The Brutalist is the hot new entry at the 81st Venice Film Festival. Brady Corbet, with László Tóth and Adrien Brody, is gunning for the Golden Lion. It's a 215-minute epic that keeps everyone glued to their seats.
“The Brutalist” showcases a director in full command, laying bare both heart and soul. Adrien Brody delivers an Oscar-worthy performance in this masterful exploration of perfection’s complexity. Read our full review here.
The Brutalist, The Plot
In 1947, László Tóth, a successful Jewish architect (Adrien Brody), flees Hungary to escape the haunting scars of Nazi atrocities. Stripped of his identity and plunged into poverty, he rebuilds his life from scratch after a fateful encounter that forever alters his pursuit of the American Dream. But at what cost?
The Brutalist, The Review
Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, vying for the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice Film Festival, is certainly not your typical Hollywood fare. It’s a demanding, intricate film, as fragmented as Corbet’s directorial style, laden with symbolism, metaphors, excesses, and occasional redundancies. Yet, it is a vital work born from an urgent need to tell a story. Returning to the screen six years after Vox Lux and collaborating once again with Adrien Brody, Corbet dives deep, exposing the full extent of his creative vision.
Corbet, visibly moved, reveals that it took him a decade to develop a film of this magnitude, shot magnificently in 70mm and spanning three hours and forty minutes. This time is crucial for exploring the profound impact of the trauma and turmoil that defined the twentieth century. With an anti-American edge, the film opens with a strikingly epiphanic sequence: László makes his way through a crowd of immigrants, emerging from darkness and multicultural chaos into the “promised land” of America. For the Jewish architect, the inverted Statue of Liberty becomes a chilling symbol of an endless nightmare of persecution.
The Brutalist, – Adrien Brody e Alessandro Nivola
Adrien Brody gives an Oscar-worthy performance
Adrien Brody delivers an exceptional performance that feels like a culmination of his role in The Pianist, positioning him as a strong Academy Award contender. His portrayal of László is that of an artist deeply scarred by time, having lost both his personal and professional identity. With a Bauhaus background, László’s mission goes beyond creating art; he seeks to infuse it with political and social significance, aiming for something that endures through history. It’s a quest driven by the betrayal and isolation he’s faced from a society that rejects what is foreign.
Brody also shared in the press conference that his personal experiences heavily influenced his role. His mother, Sylvia Plachy, a celebrated New York photographer, immigrated to America in 1956 to escape the Hungarian Revolution’s horrors. Brody has felt the impact of this event on his family and himself, which has deeply shaped his creative work.
The Brutalist, – Adrien Brody e Isaach de Bankolé
Capitalism, a reverse American Revolution, and liberation from Nazism
Losing everything to start anew: this is the essence of László’s character, who remains true to the ethics and morality of his work—a political and revolutionary act amid the excesses of capitalism. The title The Brutalist captures not just the architectural style but also the “brutality” of a consumerist society that welcomes you only to devour you.
To escape the trauma of his past and the horrors of concentration camps, László turns to opium and the rigidity of his vision, finding himself ensnared by the American Dream (perfectly represented by Guy Pearce’s patron). America, in this view, destroys rather than rewards, homogenizes, and divides. It’s a “reverse American Revolution” that liberates only to imprison, seeking to dominate those who resist.
The harrowing scene of the wealthy landowner Harrison Lee Van Bure assaulting László starkly depicts a moralizing, arrogant benefactor—a blend of angels and demons, with evil masked by a smile. “If you live as a social parasite, how can you expect anything different?” the magnate taunts László during the assault. In this world, the culture of difference is unacceptable, and beauty remains out of reach. To exist, you must constantly be reminded of your identity and place in society.
The Brutalist, – Adrien Brody e Felicity Jones
The journey and the destination: remembering to understand
As the harsh and impersonal elements dig beneath the surface, the beauty and grandeur of an architectural style shine through, blending the past with a vision for the future. Art, as Brody emphasizes, simply “exists”: ambition, persistence, and suffering combine to create something that endures. This captures the essence of the journey and the importance of the destination.
“The greatest love stories always come with a sense of urgency,” notes Felicity Jones, playing László Tóth’s determined wife. It’s the urgency to tell not just a heart-wrenching love story amid ruins, but also the story of loving oneself and one’s passion, and how this can influence others.
Inspired by Jean-Louis Cohen’s Architecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for the Second World War, the film is a tribute to artists who never had the chance to fulfill their vision. “When you start writing, everything becomes fiction,” says Corbet, “but it’s the only way to access the past, and it feels strikingly real.”
This film is the most successful work of a director known for his uncompromising vision, much like his character László. “Don’t miss the moment, as dreams can slip away,” the protagonist clings to until the final act—the 1980 Biennale exhibition—of an extraordinary work.
The Brutalist, The Cast
Adrien Brody: László Tóth
Felicity Jones: Erzsébet Tóth
Guy Pearce: Harrison Lee Van Buren
Joe Alwyn: Harry Lee Van Buren
Raffey Cassidy: Zsófia Tóth
Stacy Martin: Maggie Lee Van Buren
Emma Laird: Audrey Miller
Isaach de Bankolé: Gordon
Alessandro Nivola: Attila Molnár
Michael Epp: James T. Simpson
Jonathan Hyde: Leslie
Peter Polycarpou: Michael Hoffman
Maria Sand: Michelle Hoffman
Salvatore Sansone: Orazio
Ariane Labed: adult Zsófia
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