The Brutalist hast won Best Picture from the N.Y. Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) and other groups, thus inches closer to the Oscars.
My Oscar Book:
Corbet won an award for his direction and Brody for his lead performance.
Corbet directed this film based on a screenplay he wrote with his partner, Mona Fastvold.
Since the film is more three and half hours long, it is screened with an intermission. It becomes another award-winning long film after Chris Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
While the film revolves around real historical events, it is not based on a book or a true story.
The official IMDb synopsis for this film reads: “When a visionary architect and his wife flee post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern US, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious, wealthy client.”
At the end of the film, Zsófia gives a moving speech during an exhibition of her uncle, László Tóth’s architectural work. She speaks about the painful inspiration behind László’s work and makes a powerful point about the connection between art and life.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers
Structure of Epic
Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist is divided into two chapters. It begins with a short promising prologue and ends with a poignant epilogue.
Part 1: 1946-1953
The first part called ‘The Enigma of Arrival’ follows the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, László Tóth (Adrien Brody), who is forcibly separated from his wife and niece.
László immigrates to the United States and gets a job renovating the house of industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) from Harrison’s son, Harry (Joe Alwyn). Harrison, displeased with the work, fires László. Later, László moves into a charity house, where he befriends Gordon (Isaach De Bankole) and becomes a heroin user.
Harrison reunites with László after the architectural community praises his renovation. He realizes László’s history as a renowned architect and hires him for a grand project. He also instructs his lawyers to help László’s wife and niece move to America.
Part 2: 1953-1960
The second part titled ‘The Hard Core of Beauty’ shows László reuniting with his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), and niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) in 1953. Erzsébet is wheelchair-bound and Zsófia becomes mute due to suffering during the war.
László gets fired from Harrison’s construction site. So, he moves to New York with Erzsébet and Zsófia and starts working for an architecture firm. Zsófia overcomes her muteness and plans to move to Israel with her husband.
László and Harrison Fate
Erzsébet visits Harrison’s house and accuses him of being a r*pist. After this incident, Harrison likely disappears out of guilt and shame for his horrible actions.
Tree decades later, Zsófia attends a retrospective of László’s architectural work. She notes that his traumatic experience during the Holocaust inspired his later work. During her speech, she says: “No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey.”
Zsófia’s words reveal the close relationship between the artist’s work and their life experience. Despite the hardships László faced, what matters in the end is his work.
While László becomes renowned for his creativity, Harrison leaves his normal life. The end reveals the shifted power dynamic between a wealthy businessman and a tortured artist. The former traumatized the latter upon realizing his wealth amounts to nothing compared to the latter’s creative work.
Erzsébet’s Confrontation with Harrison
There is a powerful scene where Erzsébet Tóth (Felicity Jones) confronts Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce) about the wealthy industrialist raping her husband, after years of emotional and mental abuse. This is the only scene in the movie where Erzsébet uses a walker instead of a wheelchair.
Felicity Jones is nominated should earn af Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod for this, and many ther strong, scenes.
Crucial Scene
Prior to receiving his commission to build an ambitious community center, László Tóth (Adrien Brody) participates in a “stimulating” conversation with his future benefactor, industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce).
Via personal anecdotes, the two men lay out their competing world views. For László, the endurance is a defiant testament to the perseverance of the human spirit; for Van Buren, a request from estranged relatives offers him opportunity to showcase his success and punish those he considers insufficiently impressed by it. In many ways, they’re opposite sides of the same coin.
Inspiration
Debtable Epilogue: “It’s The Destination, Not the Journey”
In a rapid, but unconvncing turn of events, after Erzsébet confronts Harrison, he disappears and is presumed to have killed himself.
The movie then jumps from the late 1950s to 1980, to a retrospective of László Tóth’s in Venice. During the presentation, his niece, Zsófia (Ariane Labed) talks about his work and the inspiration behind it, which boils down to his experience surviving the Holocaust and quest to reunite with his wife.
The last line–“No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey”–which presumbaly reflects the film’s message, is debatable, as others may argue that for many artists, it’s the journey, not the destinmation, that matters the most.
