01/09/2024 - VENICE 2024: Brady Corbet goes big and dark, delivering his best film to date, which is fascinating, exhausting and profoundly sad

Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones in The Brutalist

This writer still has no idea what Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist [+see also:
trailer
film profile] really is. A period drama with recognisable celebs? A film about architecture – and designer furniture? A love story? Is it about trauma, hope, obsession or maybe war? Who cares. It’s pretty damn impressive.

Shown in Venice’s main competition, it starts optimistically enough: László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Jewish architect from Budapest, has managed to survive the war. He’s not waiting around to see what happens next – he emigrates to the USA in the 1940s. He’s alone, but his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), is apparently also alive. He hopes she’ll be able to join him one day, but building a new life isn’t easy. Accused by his cousin of trying to seduce his American lady, and of costing him his wealthiest client (Guy Pearce), László’s brief Jules and Jim fantasy is over.

Another one begins in no time, when that very same wealthy client comes knocking again. It turns out that his new library built by László (the very same one that got him fired) is a hit – he’s even being praised in architectural magazines. What’s more, he finds their conversations “intellectually stimulating”. He might have another, even bigger, project for László. The kind that makes or breaks you.

Corbet, who wrote the script with Mona Fastvold, proves you really don’t need flashbacks. You can communicate so much through the actors, through what these characters say and what they decide to ignore. After a few encounters with high society, it’s clear no one will ever truly understand László and Erzsébet’s experiences anyway. After initial curiosity, their newness wears off. “They don’t want us here,” says the man who, for a minute, was the toast of the most elegant party in town. And now? Everyone’s bored. And they would like to start saving money on his crazy designs.

Brody can do period dramas in his sleep. He was The Pianist [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and now, he’s The Architect: it’s full-on, Hungarian-accented, single-tear-running-down-his-cheek mastery. His László is kind, crazy, obsessed. He’s finally building his own Xanadu that’s supposed to be a spiritual oasis – instead, it just reeks of death. László was trying to run away from whatever almost destroyed him back home, and it hasn’t worked out. He just reconstructs it all over again and builds himself another prison for free – this time, with that pretty Carrara marble.

Corbet’s The Childhood of a Leader [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was another odd period drama, but this one’s undoubtedly more engaging. Also, with the war further away, things get really interesting. Who’s the victim and who’s the oppressor? It’s not that clear any more, and so it comes down to money. Money can buy you bodies and souls, and sometimes The Brutalist feels like a dirty version of Citizen Kane. The scope is the same, and so is the madness, but László’s clean architectural vision is almost a joke compared to failing, addicted bodies. His perfect, empty library, drowning in heavenly light with all the mess neatly stored away – it’s his dream about finally controlling the world.

You can’t do that, but seeing somebody try once again is truly touching. Is it exhausting? Sure, but it might be the most immersive experience in these air-conditioned Lido cinemas this year. This reviewer never says it, ever, but this time it actually makes sense for this film to be so long. Maybe except for that misjudged, clunky ending.

In short, Corbet went big, and he went dark. But he also treated the audience to an actual intermission, separating the two halves of the film. Suddenly, the whole room erupted, with viewers running outside for drinks, snacks or, hardly believing their luck, happily smoking for these 15 or so minutes. It was a joyful party in the middle of a deep, sad spectacle, and a proper festival experience this writer didn’t know she needed. For that alone, thank you Brady Corbet. It’s still unclear what The Brutalist really is, but it’s one of a kind.

The Brutalist is a US-UK-Hungarian co-production staged by Brookstreet Pictures, Kaplan Morrison, Andrew Lauren Productions, Protagonist Pictures (which is also handling international sales), Intake Films and Proton Cinema.

Photogallery 01/09/2024: Venice 2024 - The Brutalist

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Brady Corbet, Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce
© 2024 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it