Cover Adrien Brody in ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
Adrien Brody in ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
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‘The Brutalist’, starring Adrien Brody, won three Oscars this year. Here’s everything you need to know about the film before you head to the cinema
Brady Corbet’s 2024 post-war epic film The Brutalist triumphed at the Academy Awards earlier this month with three wins: Best Actor, Best Cinematography and Best Film Score. It also picked up seven other Oscar nominations.
Co-written by Corbet and Mona Fastvold, the film stars Adrien Brody as Bauhaus-trained architect László Tóth, a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor, who migrates from the German port city of Bremerhaven to the US for a better life. He struggles to pursue his American dream until he meets an aristocratic Philadelphia businessman (played by Guy Pearce) who changes his life.
The film has mixed reviews: despite its recognition—in addition to the Oscar wins, Corbet was awarded the Silver Lion for Best Direction—there is a controversy over the film’s use of AI.
As The Brutalist hits Hong Kong this month, here’s what you need to know about it before you head to the cinema.
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1. The meaning behind the name ‘The Brutalist’
Above A still from ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
A still from ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
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Brutalism is a style of architecture characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design. It emerged during the post-war era in the 1950s in the UK. The term “brutalist” comes from the French word béton brut, which means raw concrete.
In the film, Tóth works in this school of architecture.
2. It’s not based on real events
Above Adrien Brody in ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
Adrien Brody in ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
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The film isn’t based on a true story.
Corbet, however, has spoken about how the film draws references from real-world architects, authors and places. For the film, Corbet and Fastvold also conducted extensive research into the Holocaust and the Brutalist architectural movement.
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3. It’s long
Above Adrien Brody in ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
Adrien Brody in ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
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The film is three hours and 35 minutes long, making it the fifth-longest feature film ever nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. It comes with a 15-minute intermission.
The last mainstream production that had an intermission was Quentin Tarantino’s 2015 western action film The Hateful Eight.
4. Its use of generative AI courted controversy
Above From left: Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones and Adrien Brody, stars of the film (Photo: Getty Images)
From left: Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones and Adrien Brody, stars of the film (Photo: Getty Images)
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The film’s Oscar-nominated editor Dávid Jancsó, a native Hungarian speaker, revealed that the film used an AI voice-generation technology developed by the Ukrainian software company Respeecher. Jancsó fed his voice into the software to alter the accents of Brody and Felicity Jones, who played Tóth’s wife, in the film, in order for them to sound more “authentic” when they spoke Hungarian-accented English.
5. The film is shot with VistaVision
Above A still from ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
A still from ‘The Brutalist’ (Image: courtesy of IMDB)
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Corbet shot this epic in VistaVision, a format last used in Hollywood in the 1960s. It provides increased resolution. It was one of the widescreen techniques introduced to Hollywood to compete with the rise of television. Corbet revived this format to encourage the audience to return to the cinema at a time when streaming services are dominating the industry.
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
