The Brutalist


The Brutalist is a 2024 epic period drama film directed and produced by Brady Corbet, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mona Fastvold. It stars Adrien Brody as a Jewish-Hungarian architect and severely traumatized Holocaust survivor who emigrates to the United States, where he struggles to recover and get his life back on track. The cast also features Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach de Bankolé, and Alessandro Nivola. The film was shot using the VistaVision format which had been originally developed in the 1950s.
A co-production of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Hungary, The Brutalist premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2024, where Corbet was awarded the Silver Lion for Best Direction. It was released in the United States by A24 on December 20, 2024; in Hungary by UIP-DunaFilm on January 23, 2025; and in the United Kingdom by Focus Features through Universal Pictures International on January 24, 2025.
The film received critical acclaim and grossed $50.4 million against a $9.6 million budget. Among multiple accolades, the film earned ten nominations at the 97th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning for Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Actor for Brody. At the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, it won three awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama. It was named one of the top ten films of 2024 by the American Film Institute.

Plot

Overture

Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor and Bauhaus-trained architect László Tóth immigrates to the United States after being forcibly separated from his wife, Erzsébet, and orphaned niece, Zsófia. As his ship enters New York Harbor, he sees the Statue of Liberty.

Part 1: The Enigma of Arrival

In 1947, László travels to Philadelphia and stays with his cousin, Attila. He discovers that Attila has assimilated, anglicizing his name and converting to Catholicism. Attila reveals to a relieved László that Erzsébet and Zsófia are still alive but stuck in Europe. He offers László work with his furniture business, and the two are soon approached by Harry Lee Van Buren, who wishes to surprise his father, wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, with a renovated library at his mansion near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Following a drunken night of merriment where Attila and his wife Audrey both encourage László to sleep with her, Audrey expresses her disdain for László and suggests he live elsewhere. Back at the mansion, Harrison is enraged by the surprise renovation and fires the men; Harry refuses to pay them. Attila blames László for the failed project, falsely accuses him of having made a pass at Audrey, and demands that he leave their home.
Three years later, László, now a heroin addict, works as a laborer loading coal and lives in charity housing with his friend Gordon, an African-American single father. Harrison turns up to tell him the architectural community has lauded his modern library renovation, and that he has discovered László's past as an accomplished architect in Europe. He pays the money owed and invites László to a party, where he commissions a grand project in tribute to his late mother: The Van Buren Institute, a community center comprising a library, theater, gymnasium, and chapel. Work begins immediately with László living on site and employing Gordon. Harrison introduces László to his personal lawyer, who expedites the immigration of László's wife and niece.

Part 2: The Hard Core of Beauty

In 1953, Erzsébet and Zsófia reunite with László in Philadelphia and he discovers that as a result of their wartime suffering, Erzsébet is a full-time wheelchair user due to osteoporosis, and Zsófia is unable to speak. During construction, László clashes with contractors and consultants hired by Harrison, who depart from his design in an attempt to stay on budget. He agrees to work unpaid to make up for additional costs. Harry derides László as being merely "tolerated" and makes lewd remarks about Zsófia. Following the derailment of a train carrying materials and ensuing legal costs, a furious Harrison abandons the project and fires the workers.
In 1958, László and Erzsébet have moved to New York City, where he works as a draftsman at an architecture firm, and she writes for a newspaper. Zsófia, having recovered her ability to speak, is expecting a child with her husband, Binyamin. They announce they are making Aliyah and moving to Jerusalem, much to the chagrin of László and Erzsébet. Harrison restarts the project and rehires László.
While visiting Carrara to purchase marble, Harrison rapes an intoxicated László, calling him a societal leech whose people invite their own persecution. László begins to unravel, becoming more belligerent and impulsively firing Gordon during an argument back on site. Recalling the prior contempt he received, he laments to Erzsébet that they are not welcome in America. After László almost kills Erzsébet by giving her heroin to soothe her pain, she proposes they move to Jerusalem and live with Zsófia, to which he agrees. Shortly afterwards, Erzsébet confronts Harrison at his home and calls him a rapist in front of his family and associates. An enraged Harry violently drags her out, before his sister Maggie intervenes and helps her leave. Unable to find his father, Harry organizes a search party and tries to locate him within the institute.

Epilogue: The First Architecture Biennale

In 1980, Erzsébet has died, and a retrospective of László's work is held at the first Venice Biennale of Architecture. The exhibition showcases various projects built around the world in the ensuing years and includes the Van Buren Institute, finally completed in 1973. Zsófia, accompanied by her young adult daughter and an aging, incapacitated László in a wheelchair, gives a revelatory speech asserting that László designed spaces in the structure to resemble both Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. The structure, she implies, functions as a way of processing trauma. Zsófia ends her speech with a phrase she claims László used to tell her as a struggling young mother: "No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey."

Cast

  • Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp who immigrates to the United States
  • Felicity Jones as Erzsébet Tóth, László's wife, a journalist and Holocaust survivor of the Dachau concentration camp
  • Guy Pearce as Harrison Lee Van Buren, a wealthy, handsome, snobbish industrialist who becomes László's primary client, but is envious of his artistic creativity
  • Joe Alwyn as Harry Lee Van Buren, Harrison's entitled and pompous son
  • Raffey Cassidy as Zsófia, László's orphaned teenage niece, who has become mute after surviving the Holocaust, also at Dachau
  • * Cassidy also briefly as Zsófia's young adult daughter
  • * Ariane Labed as adult Zsófia
  • Stacy Martin as Maggie Van Buren, Harry's kinder twin sister
  • Alessandro Nivola as Attila Miller, a furniture store owner in Philadelphia and László's cousin, who immigrated to America before the war and is more assimilated into the culture
  • Emma Laird as Audrey Miller, Attila's Catholic wife originally from Connecticut
  • Isaach de Bankolé as Gordon, László's friend, a single father
  • Michael Epp as Jim Simpson, a mundane architect
  • Jonathan Hyde as Leslie Woodrow, a builder hired by Harrison to realize László's design
  • Peter Polycarpou as Michael Hoffman, Harrison's Jewish attorney
  • Maria Sand as Michelle Hoffman, Michael's wife, a converted Jew
  • Salvatore Sansone as Orazio, László's friend in Carrara, an Italian anarchist who fought against Mussolini

    Production

Development

In September 2018, Deadline reported that director Brady Corbet had chosen the period drama The Brutalist as his next project following the world premiere of his second feature film, Vox Lux. New York-based Andrew Lauren Productions developed the screenplay with Corbet and financed the film. Corbet co-wrote the screenplay with his partner Mona Fastvold, with whom he co-wrote the psychological drama The Childhood of a Leader and the musical film Vox Lux.
The film was originally announced as a co-production between Andrew Lauren and D.J. Gugenheim for ALP and Brian Young for Three Six Zero and later joined by Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon for Brookstreet Pictures, Andrew Morrison of Yellow Bear, the Polish company Madants, and executive produced by Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, and David Hinojosa of Killer Films.
On September 2, 2020, Deadline announced that Joel Edgerton and Marion Cotillard had been cast as the film's leads, László Tóth and Erzsébet Tóth, respectively, and that Mark Rylance was cast in the role of László's mysterious client. Sebastian Stan, Vanessa Kirby, Isaach De Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola, Raffey Cassidy, and Stacy Martin were also announced in unknown roles. Corbet described The Brutalist as "a film which celebrates the triumphs of the most daring and accomplished visionaries; our ancestors", and the project which is so far the closest to his heart and family history. Protagonist Pictures presented the project to buyers at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. The film takes place in Pennsylvania and was shot in four languages: English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Italian.
Director of photography Lol Crawley, editor Dávid Jancsó, and costume designer Kate Forbes were announced on March 9, 2023. Production designer Judy Becker was announced on April 11, 2023. Daniel Blumberg composed the film's score.
On April 11, 2023, it was announced that Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Jonathan Hyde, Emma Laird, and Peter Polycarpou would star in the film, while Edgerton, Cotillard, Rylance, Stan, and Kirby were no longer attached. It was also announced that the film would be co-produced by the US-based companies Andrew Lauren Productions and Yellow Bear along with the United Kingdom's Brookstreet and Intake Films, and Hungary's Proton Cinema, and financed by Brookstreet UK, Yellow Bear, Lip Sync Productions, Richmond Pictures, Meyohas Studio, Carte Blanche, Cofiloisirs, and Parable Media. CAA Media Finance handles US sales with Protagonist Pictures handling international sales. Focus Features subsequently acquired international distribution rights to the film.
Corbet dedicated the film to Scott Walker, who had died in 2019, and who had scored his previous films.