‘The Brutalist’ is a poignant portrait of post-war America

The Brutalist” is the third film directed by Brady Corbet. The film follows László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a brutalist architect who immigrates to the United States during the rise of the brutalist movement following World War II. The film received its nationwide release on Jan. 17.

The film opens with a Hungarian man on a boat awakening to a commotion. As people frantically mill about the boat’s interior, a voice off-screen bids the man to follow. While the man and the unknown voice struggle through a tumultuous crowd, a woman speaks in voice-over narration: “I make no mistake, we are not yet free.” Bathed in blinding sunlight, the two men emerge on the deck accompanied by bravado fanfare. The camera whips to reveal the Statue of Liberty — upside-down. The woman concludes: “I am certain now that there is nothing left for us here. Go to America and I will follow you.”

This sequence perfectly encapsulates the main idea of “The Brutalist”: the American dream has been perverted. Corbet’s ambitious American epic wrestles with this topic over the course of 3 hours and 35 minutes, channeling fury, sorrow and fleeting moments of happiness through the experience of Hungarian-Jewish emigrant Tóth.

Tóth has a profound sadness behind his eyes. The horrors of the Holocaust are never shown in the film, but they endlessly haunt Tóth, his face seemingly frozen in despair. Before the war, he was a respected architect and educator in Budapest, known for his modern designs. In the United States, he is simply Jewish. The film often highlights the wealth disparity between Tóth and those around him, as well as their disapproving glares in his direction. There is a sense that he is not welcome in America — especially by those in positions of power.

After settling into his American life, Tóth and his interior designer cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) are commissioned to redesign the study of wealthy industrialist Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce). Though he is initially enraged by Tóth’s innovative design, after Van Buren is dubbed a “forward-thinking man” for the redesigned study in a lifestyle magazine, the magnate spontaneously hires Tóth to design a community center in Pennsylvania. The two men share an instant and enigmatic connection, which Van Buren hilariously states on multiple occasions that he finds “intellectually stimulating.” Their paradoxical relationship highlights an important theme in “The Brutalist” — the relationship between artists and their financiers.

Tóth may be the architect, but he has no agency over the construction of the community center. Van Buren and his associates hold all the financial power and the ability to alter Tóth’s plans whenever. The conflict between Tóth’s artistic integrity and Van Buren’s penny-pinching advisors call to mind the counterintuitive yet indelible intertwinement of art and capitalism. Many viewers will recognize the parallels between Tóth’s struggle and the struggles faced by artists behind independent films like “The Brutalist.” This aspect of the film feels overstated at times but relates strongly to the socio-political critiques at the center of the film.

“The Brutalist” also attempts to answer a more oblique question: What drives upper-class individuals like Van Buren? According to “The Brutalist,” it comes down to class division and ego.

Van Buren holds a thinly veiled loathing of “beggars.” He disregards the systematic buffers to success ingrained in American society and instead asserts that the working class simply doesn’t work hard enough. In the spirit of American capitalism, Van Buren views life as nothing more than a sadistic game that he must win, and Tóth as a “beggar” — someone to dominate and dispose of. Van Buren’s interest in Tóth’s work began only once he gained recognition and stature for the redesign. Constructing the community center — a deeply personal artistic venture for Tóth — is merely an opportunity for Van Buren to fuel his ego and exploit another man’s hard work.

Films like “The Brutalist” are often criticized for stereotypical depictions of women. In these films, the husband is framed as a passionate but troubled genius while the wife is framed as a cautionary voice that holds him back from achieving his full potential. “The Brutalist” makes an honorable effort to subvert this trope with the character Erzsébet Tóth (Felicity Jones). 

Erzsébet — a Hungarian-Jewish journalist — holds equal standing with her husband Lázsló, both within their relationship and professionally. She plays an essential role in determining their family’s future, instantly recognizing Van Buren’s ulterior motives and understanding the toll the project has taken on her husband. Though Lázsló is certainly the central character, Erzsébet has a genuine impact and importance that is rarely achieved in these stories.

A conceptually massive film like “The Brutalist” needs visuals that match its enormous scope. A major factor that allowed “The Brutalist” to achieve this was the VistaVision format. 

VistaVision is a high-resolution film format that allows filmmakers to capture larger images in greater detail. In the film, cinematographer Lol Crawley uses the format to its greatest potential, capturing landscapes and architecture with incredible depth and scale. A particularly striking scene takes place in the marble mines of Carrara, where the uniformly cut quarries are showcased in such a way that they resemble Tóth’s brutalist creations. Crawley’s memorable and transformative images elevate “The Brutalist” as an authentically artistic rendering of mid-century America.

“The Brutalist” is a film that feels truly monumental. It successfully synthesizes decades of film and art. It blends American and world history to illuminate the immigrant experience, the realities of artistry and the void at the center of the American ethos. “The Brutalist” recently won best motion picture drama at the Golden Globes and is predicted to receive numerous nominations at the Oscars later this year. Only time will tell where “The Brutalist” may rank among the extensive canon of American epics, but there’s no doubt Corbet has announced himself as one of the next great cineastes.

Drew Askeland is an Arts & Entertainment Staff Writer. He can be reached at daskelan@uci.edu

Edited by Alaina Retodo

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