PREVIEW – László Tóth, the brilliant architect, arrives in America after World War II to start a new life. He has to put everything in order, especially his marriage to his wife, Erzsébet, after the chaos of the war has torn them apart. László tries to put down roots in a strange country for him: he settles in Pennsylvania, where the influential industrial tycoon, Harrison Lee Van Buren, sees in him the brilliant architect. However, there is a high price to pay for power and success…

Screenwriter-director Brady Corbet tells the story of László Tóth, a Hungarian architect of Jewish origin, who wants to try his luck in America after the Holocaust, while waiting for his wife, Erzsébet, who is stranded in Eastern Europe with her niece, to arrive. However, László is forced to be disappointed, because what awaits him in the promised land is not what he had hoped for: despite being a much-admired architect in Budapest, the Pennsylvanian elite is not impressed by his reputation in Europe.

“The Brutalist attempts to draw a parallel between the fate of the immigrant and the creative person: to show that when someone is truly bold and capable of creating something new – such as the Institute that László created – they immediately find themselves in the crossfire of criticism,” explains Corbet, who spent seven years working on the film. “Then, over time, they are put on a pedestal for their achievements.”

“Our story is about a refugee who cannot get rid of his past, even though he was recently stripped of his past,” says Adrian Brody, who plays László Tóth. “He tries to put his life together in a new world, adapting to new rules.”

“We fell in love with the story of The Brutalist because László and Erzsébet are true friends and creative partners, while their relationship is an unadulterated love story – takes the floor Mona Fastvold, the film’s other screenwriter, Corbet’s longtime creative partner, with whom they are also a couple in private life (their previous films together were Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux). – This human relationship was the starting point for our film.”

From a dream to a nightmare

The Brutalist architectural style began to spread in England in the 1950s, when the country was burning with the fever of post-war reconstruction. Its characteristic features are the use of exposed concrete, strict, monumental forms, and the use of technical and functional details as architectural visual elements. The most significant creators of the movement were Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, William Pereira, Moshe Safdie, Denys Lasdun, and Alison & Peter Smithson.

Corbet and Fastvold became interested in brutalist architecture because they were captivated by its physical and psychological vibrations. “The post-war perception of life and architecture, of which brutalism is an integral part, are closely linked to us, and this is symbolized by the Institute established by László Tóth, which is a manifestation of thirty years of trauma and the experiences of the two world wars,” explains Corbet. “We found it eerily poetic that the raw material of war, the reinforced concrete of the bunkers, was later incorporated into the bodies of residential buildings, office buildings, and factories in the fifties and sixties by such brilliant creators as Marcel Breurer and Le Corbusier.”

Corbet’s two feature films to date have both been historical in nature: The Childhood of a Leader (2015), about a young American living in France between the two world wars who becomes a fascist dictator, and the modern-day Vox Lux (2018), about an up-and-coming American pop singer who experiences the ravages of gun violence and the shock of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Corbet deals with the fate of the twentieth century. The Brutalist is his largest-scale work to date, examining the problems of mid-century America and Europe. To make The Brutalist, he spoke extensively with Jean-Louis Cohen, a renowned architectural historian and professor at Princeton University, whose works on Le Corbusier and Frank Gehry are a compass for those interested in the subject. Corbet asked Cohen if he knew of any historical figures who founded an architectural firm but were forced to flee due to war to start over in another part of the world.

Cohen replied that he had never heard of such a person, so Corbet and Fastvold set about inventing the characters of László Tóth and Erzsébet. “Our story spans 30 years and is about an architect who had a great career before World War II,” Corbet explains. “László and Erzsébet’s lives are disrupted by the war, and they go to America separately—László in the forties, Erzsébet in the late fifties. The Brutalist is mostly about how László tries to start his life over in America while being separated from his wife for a decade.”

László Tóth is a fictional character, but his story is woven with the experiences of prominent figures of the American Brutalist movement. Louis Kahn, Mies van der Rohe, and most of all, the Hungarian-born Marcel Breuer, inspired the filmmakers. Breuer designed the Whitney Museum in New York City, now known as the Met Breuer.

“Most of the Jewish architects from Central and Eastern Europe did not survive the Holocaust,” Corbet explains. “But Breuer was an exception, because his reputation led Walter Gropius to invite him to America in 1937.”

While writing the script, Corbet and Fastvold realized they needed to explore the special relationship between Breuer and his wife, and they also found it fascinating how he dealt with his critics, who relentlessly attacked him in Europe and America. “Breuer was not a very well-respected architect after his mid-life,” says Corbet. “But now he is considered one of the greatest architects of the twentieth century.”

The Brutalist is mostly about how the American dream turns into a nightmare after the Tóth couple accepts the support of industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, who commissions the architect to design a monument for his Pennsylvania estate in honor of his deceased mother.

The cast

It was a huge task for the film’s creators to find actors who could meet the expectations of The Brutalist at the right emotional and professional level.

“We were incredibly lucky because we had a company that understood what the film was about and came to us prepared,” says Corbet. “It was easy because everyone contributed to moving forward with what seemed like a complicated and almost impossible process.”

The characters speak in many languages ​​and dialects, including Hungarian, and one or two monologues go on for pages in the script. The two leads, Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, had to learn Hungarian, a notoriously difficult language, and they had to speak in a distinctive Hungarian accent for most of their dialogue in English.

This was not Brody’s first encounter with Eastern European history and strange accents, as he won an Oscar® in 2003 for The Pianist, in which he played the Polish Jewish composer and Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman. “To portray László Tóth, I needed to grasp the truth,” says Brody. “I drew on two defining experiences in my life: growing up as the son of a Hungarian refugee mother, and I thoroughly familiarized myself with Szpilman’s life story before playing him. Of course, these are two completely different characters, but after spending months researching Szpilman’s past and the horrors of the era, I feel like I gained enough emotional background to understand the terrible burdens László was carrying when he came to America to start a new life.”

Brody’s mother was born in Budapest and fled to America as a young girl during the 1956 revolution. She, like László, dreamed of becoming an artist. “The Brutalist is a story of the quiet perseverance that perhaps lies within all of us, and of our desire to strive for perfection,” says Brody. “Even when everything we could hold on to has been destroyed, that desire lives on in us. In our film, I find it absolutely amazing that thanks to storytelling, we can experience an entire life with our hero in its totality, because that’s what Brady and Mona were trying to do with The Brutalist. In other films, we are suddenly thrown into the maelstrom of events, and one twist follows another, and we don’t really know who the miracle is. This film, however, tells the story of 30 years of one man’s life.”

Felicity Jones felt like she could relate to Erzsébet Tóth when she read the script. “This woman lived in a different era than I did, but I could immediately feel all her joys and pains,” says the actress, who was nominated for an Oscar® for her performance in The Theory of Everything. “The story also highlights the impact that spending years in a concentration camp can have on a person’s life. There’s a lot of violence in this film – both emotional and physical – but alongside the violence, there’s also humanity and romance, and because of all of that, I was able to connect with The Brutalist right away.”

“Erzsébet appears about halfway through the film, after not being able to see László for years,” the actress continues. “It’s a cathartic moment when they collapse into each other’s arms at the train station, because it was Erzsébet’s love for László that helped her survive the horrors of the Holocaust.”

Jones spent months practicing her Hungarian accent and delving into Erzsébet’s story to bring out the immense suffering and pain she endured. But what really helped her to portray this complex character so well was the deep and loving bond between László and Erzsébet.

“There’s a huge change in her life when she arrives in America and is reunited with her husband,” says the actress. “You can watch her come to her senses, she becomes more confident, and she has a zest for life. She really blossoms because of her love for László.”

“Felicity brings a sustaining force to her character that László would falter and fall without,” says Brody. “She creates a companion who can hold the family together through the almost unbearable tensions of an artist who has had to leave his entire career behind. Elizabeth is able to support Laszlo wholeheartedly while also suffering herself, and Felicity is able to convey all of this with a shocking authenticity.”

Until she can reunite with Laszlo, Elizabeth is looking after her sister’s sensitive, young daughter, Zsófia, played by Raffey Cassidy. “They are an emotional support for each other, and Elizabeth definitely needs that more,” says Jones. “They have such a strong bond that it doesn’t even require words.”

It’s no exaggeration to say that Raffey Cassidy grew up on Corbet’s films. She played two roles in Vox Lux: a young Natalie Portman and Portman’s character’s daughter in later scenes. “She was one of the main characters in Vox Lux with Natalie, and now, six years later, it’s so exciting to see her as an adult, playing a very complex and disturbingly dark character,” says Fastvold. “This transformation is amazing.”

Ominous gloom is a common denominator among many of The Brutalist characters, but there is one among them who disguises this trait with diabolical skill: the unfathomably capricious industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, played with his characteristic elegant depravity by Guy Pearce. The successful businessman builds a vast empire in Pennsylvania and becomes both Tóth’s mentor and inquisitor during their decades-long relationship.

“I really enjoyed the fact that this character is never really adaptable, because he’s constantly switching from one extreme mode to the other,” says Pearce. “He’s a typical figure of the era: smart, extremely motivated; he knows what power means and how to abuse it in the most painful way possible.”

At the same time, Pearce also took care to show Harrison Lee Van Buren’s gentle features, which are manifested in small gestures – according to the actor, at such times the tycoon emerges as a repressed innocent little child. “One of the sources of his power is that he can be charming and thus win people over,” explains the Australian actor. “But deep down he has serious storms raging, while he can empathize with others, which is why he supports László, the impoverished immigrant, in whom he sees the architectural genius with a positive eye. He has a refined taste, and if he can dominate everyone around him, the world is already round for him.”

By presenting the relationship between Harrison Lee Van Buren and László Tóth, The Brutalist also seeks to answer the difficult question of how art crumbles under great pressure, that is, to what extent patronage shapes the development of the artist and the creation of the works themselves. “We wanted to tell the story of how complicated the relationship is between the investor, or rather the generous patron, and the supported, or rather the hired artist,” Fastvold points out.

To understand Van Buren’s complex character, Pearce had to think carefully about what an American industrialist was like in the middle of the last century. At first glance, the Van Buren in the film is a cordial gentleman, but he is prone to unexpected, wild outbursts of anger, thus becoming a symbolic figure of the cruel capitalist.

“Van Buren’s demeanor and appearance are very expressive, and Kate Forbes’s artfully tailored costumes are a great way to accentuate her, as she has a sophisticated elegance,” explains Pearce. “Our makeup artist, Gemma Haff, also designed a wig and mustache for me, and I also added a touch of silver to my hair to make me look older and more dignified. Van Buren is a classic, slightly mannered Hollywood charmer, with a constant glow that emphasizes her power. I just had to slip into my costume and I was in character.”

The Institute

The Brutalist is a brilliant way to capture the rural and urban environments of mid-century Pennsylvania. In this landscape, László’s masterpiece, the Institute, a hauntingly symbolic architectural vision that he worked on for many years, rises on a hilltop.

Production designer Judy Becker is familiar with the era, having worked on a similar setting in Todd Haynes’ Oscar®-winning film Carol. “Before the script was even written, I was already excited about this production, because it’s a dream come true for a production designer to make a film about an architect,” says Becker. “Plus, I’m a fan of brutalist architecture, so the biggest challenge in this film wasn’t to create a look that was true to the era, but to create the Institute, which embodies the history and all of László’s struggles in iron and concrete.”

Becker was given a difficult task. He had to dream up a Brutalist building that would authentically evoke the movement while also showing that the architect had originally emerged from the Bauhaus. And to top it all off, he had to create a quasi-Brutalist structure that could be filmed in, even though it didn’t actually exist. This goal could only be achieved with true cinematic magic.

“Perhaps the greatest drama of the story comes from the problems that Laszlo encounters in designing and building the Institute, but this is not strictly an architectural-technical issue, but much larger stakes are at stake,” Becker explains. “The question arises: if someone pays for the creation of your life’s masterpiece, as Harrison Lee Van Buren financed Laszlo’s creative work, how much power can they have over you.”

To design the Institute, Becket studied the history of brutalist and modernist architecture, but also conducted broader research. “The building had to resemble the appearance of a concentration camp, so I looked through a lot of these photos and film footage, which was shocking, but I had to chew through them to understand Laszlo’s story. A childhood experience was crucial. I grew up in New York, where the synagogue near us had a Star of David on the roof that you couldn’t see from below. This is where the enlightenment came from: the upper structure of the Institute should be cross-shaped, towering over the lower structures, which in turn should be reminiscent of the buildings of concentration camps.”

 Filming in Budapest, with special technology

The film’s plot is predominantly set in America, but the filming took place in Budapest – the main character Adrien Brody’s family is from here. “My acting here could have had a completely different atmosphere than in Pennsylvania, where the story actually takes place,” explains Brody. “Budapest is a wonderful city, the buildings are impressive, there is a new surprise waiting for me around every corner, which is a huge inspiration for me.”

There was another compelling argument in favor of Budapest as a filming location. Corbet shot The Brutalist entirely on celluloid, and the Hungarian capital was very necessary for this. “There are two celluloid labs in Budapest, so we could develop the footage on site, which gave us great peace of mind, because half an hour after the day’s shooting we could see what we had done,” explains the director.

The Brutalist was shot with the legendary VistaVision format cameras and lenses, the same technology used for Hitchcock’s classic North by Northwest (1959). “It’s a large-format technique, and quite sophisticated, and requires specially trained professionals,” explains Corbet. “There’s still a big culture in Hungary of making films on celluloid, unlike the rest of the world, where they’re more likely to use digital tools, which I have to say is quite sad. It’s really cool that Hungarians are so attached to celluloid, that was one of the main reasons why we wanted to shoot in Budapest again.”
(Corbet shot A Leader’s Childhood in Budapest in 2014, the editor was Dávid Jancsó, as in the case of this film; the technical crew was also almost entirely Hungarian professionals. – a translation.)

László and Van Buren are looking for building material for the Institute in one of the Carrara marble quarries, and in this scene, Corbet wanted to show the destructive effect of capitalism on every corner of the globe. “Carrara is a landscape wound for me that symbolizes the evil of capitalism, and in our film this landscape also symbolizes the wounds inflicted on the souls of the characters,” explains the director. “Our entire film is about the characters’ psychological wounds, which take shape in the objects created by László, as well as in the spaces where he spends his life. The landscape wound in Carrara is also the most beautiful memento of Van Buren’s greed – it warns us how these people unabashedly devour everything in their path.”

Director’s Recommendation

“All three of my films suggest, among other things, the message that history repeats itself cyclically,” says Corbet. “For me, The Brutalist is not a political film, but a historical work, where the characters are defined by their circumstances. This film is largely about what it feels like to be an immigrant in America, and how Erzsébet Tóth and László end up disappointed in the American dream.”

-theGeek-