45/33
between March 16 and May 5, 2023
Plot
When visionary architect László Toth and his wife Erzsébet flee post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern America, their lives are forever changed by a mysterious and wealthy client. Filming lasted a total of 34 days. It was shot in Budapest, Hungary and Carrara, Italy. Referenced in Close-Up: Why Do We Need the Venice Film Festival?
The Brutalist is full of surprises
(2024). The characters are not who you expect – not in the sense of the ending of Scooby Doo, but in the more subtle and gradual way that real people reveal themselves – they unfold over time, in a new context or when forced by circumstances. Here, the circumstances are the horror of post-World War II. Adrien Brody’s Laszlo, a Jewish architect who escaped the clutches of bloody Europe, throws himself into—or is confronted by—the welcoming arms of America in a frenetic opening sequence that evokes the literal birth of the Statue of Liberty.
What is the lesson?
His journey is one of perpetually navigating the variety of horrors of life: existential, professional, familial, intimate—never taking his eyes off the prize of great achievement, and never assessing the value of that prize to begin with. Is it the shameful discovery that his achievement was born not in spite of his trauma, but because of it? Do we owe a debt to abuse? To the forces of culture, country, power and those who wield it, in the construction of our brutal legacies (and our homelands)?
But there is no novel
Does the essence of our lives that is burned en route to a place have any more meaning? The movie is charming, cool, and not boring (did you hear it was long?). It feels like it’s based on an old novel – a mysterious tome that I’d like to mine for details the movie refuses to share. This Aging Man’s quest for meaning becomes ours as well.
