Unveiling the Inside-Out Construct of Architect László Tóth, nicknamed 'The Brutalist'
Years after, the building remains incomplete in reality yet towers high in László's thoughts. A second chance to complete the project surfaces. "Swear you won't let it drive you insane?" Erzsébet begs. Despite his promise, the madness, the obsession, is already firmly embedded within László, residing deep within his very bones.
Director Brady Corbet's film "The Brutalist," an extensive and impressive depiction of fictional architect László Tóth, a Holocaust survivor starting anew in America, has garnered almost unanimous praise. A Venice Film Festival winner and an Oscars contender, including for Corbet and the movie's lead actor Adrien Brody, it is equally a fresh American epic and cinematic homage, spanning over three-and-a-half hours, including an intermission, and filmed on VistaVision (a film stock last used by an American film in 1961).
The primary focus of the movie revolves around Tóth being commissioned to design a public institute for industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). Tóth, a renowned Jewish architect in Europe before World War Two, was interned in a concentration camp and relocated to America in 1947 at the film's start. Once there, he discovers his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) has survived the camps as well, longing for reunion. Van Buren can aid in this and rejuvenate Tóth's career, but their alliance and the imbalance of power come at a high personal cost.
Design a new architect
Corbet's film, co-written with Mona Fastvold, required two people to embody Tóth. Alongside Brody, production designer Judy Becker was tasked with envisioning and constructing the architect's work.
"I'm fortunate to possess an understanding of the immigrant experience and the numerous similarities of an artist's journey," said Brody during an interview with CNN.
"My mother is a Hungarian immigrant, fleeing to the United States after 1956 and the Budapest revolution. There were remnants from my childhood of my grandparents, textures and memories that were readily accessible to help shape him," he added.
Brody was "the outward projection — but I was the person writing the lyrics," Becker joked during a separate interview.
Everything for Tóth in the movie, from furniture to a library for Van Buren and his institute, was designed by Becker. "I employ method design generally," said the designer. "I truly considered what (Tóth) would have learned and experienced in his life at each moment, and I took that seriously. It's always a dual process, me and the character, like it is for actors, except I don't simply vanish."
"Some of it won't show on screen," she added. "But I believe it helps give the illusion of reality to those on set, and that aids in making it look genuine on screen."
"(Becker) brought so much to the table," said Brody. "The material, the form, and the structure, something tangible to represent all these other layers of Tóth's storytelling — it's really significant and very artistic."
Constructing the institute
In the film, we learn Tóth attended the Bauhaus art school. "The Bauhaus was the starting point" for Becker. She researched Bauhaus alumni and subsequent Brutalist architects, including Tadao Ando and Marcel Breuer.
"He went through one of humanity's most horrific experiences," she said of the Holocaust, adding researching concentration camp photographs and blueprints "was the hardest part for me."
Both Tóth's personal and the professional aspects merge in Becker's design for the institute, which carries deep symbolic significance.
The institute, a massive concrete structure situated atop a hill, needed to be daring, as befitting a designer capable of telling his patron bluntly, "You were not prepared for what you saw — it's understandable."
Becker said she drew inspiration from Breuer's Hungarian-German modernist work and Ando's contemporary Japanese architecture, among others, to create her construction, which is only glimpsed sparingly, preserving its enigma while keeping costs in check. (The movie was filmed mostly in Hungary on a budget for a feature film, with estimates at $10 million or less.)
Two models were created, one two-foot high and constructed of card, which Tóth presents to Van Buren, and the other an in-camera miniature, approximately three feet tall and five feet long. In the third act, as we approach the institute, various real locations were integrated, including the József Gruber Water Reservoir on Gellért Hill in Budapest, and a concrete silo.
From above, the building appears to be shaped like a cross, featuring a chapel in its center and wings serving varied community functions.
"The concentration camps were divided by a road, with barracks on either side and a rectangular design," said Becker. "Everything was in the shape of a cross." Tóth, she added, "was Jewish and perpetually forced into a Christian world, even in America. So I wanted that to form a significant part of the symbolism, overt or subtle."
The silhouette only offers part of the story, however. The building's interior proportions — odd, impractical — are crucial, to the point Tóth refuses to relent when advised to change them.
" beamen expressed, 'I pushed boundaries further than most realize. I intentionally crafted it as an immersive experience for anyone visiting that building.' Walls enclosed with high ceilings, windowless spaces and narrow staircases were constructed to resemble 'the barricaded cells they were imprisoned in.' Meanwhile, the central chapel, featuring an opening in the ceiling, represented a path to freedom."
She Freeman added, "There were countless references to imprisonment and liberation, and the visitor themselves is essentially trapped within the building. This concept significantly influenced the design of the building, despite knowing it wouldn't be included in the movie."
A spiritual journey
The institute transformed into a representation of Tóth's struggles, love, and confrontation of his traumas. It also served as a subversive act, incorporated into the passion project of Van Buren, a man Tóth eventually findings himself loathing.
For Tóth, an addict and unrefined, architecture served as his most eloquent form of expression. 'This brutalist structure symbolizes the broken man he has become,' mentioned Brody, yet representing a 'spiritual quest.'
Architecture in cinema has been a frequent subject, but the creator and creation are frequently misaligned. Characters such as megolomaniac architect Howard Roark in King Vidor's "The Fountainhead" (1949) surpass their on-screen architectural accomplishments. Anthony Royal in Ben Wheatly's Ballard adaptation "High Rise" (2015) exemplifies free market capitalism more than creativeness. Frank Lloyd Wright in "Nocturnal Animals" (2016) is an example of an artist whose genius was never truly explored on-screen.
Tóth posed the question, "What is there to say about a cube unless referring to its construction?" This question highlights the challenges of using art form to depict another – and explains why cinema sometimes struggles to accurately portray architecture. All too often, what is portrayed is but a pale shadow of reality. "The Brutalist" succeeds in part by showcasing truly impressive architecture. Yet, it also succeeds in envisioning a structure that encapsulates its subject – a man otherwise unable to describe himself.
Despite the emotional rollercoaster of creatives navigating their creative processes throughout cinema – and there is an abundance of that in "The Brutalist" – Corbet and his collaborators also make room to highlight the elegance, catharsis, and redemption creativeness can offer.
Freeman had a strong affinity for his character. 'Part of what makes this film special is that it mirrors the creative journey and yearnings of an artist,' mentioned the actor.
'Every artist, be it an architect or a photographer or an actor or a painter, is constantly pushing boundaries and aiming to create something eternal and meaningful to leave behind,' he continued. 'What drives me is the pursuit of material that resonates with people on a deeper level than mere entertainment.'
'The beauty of cinema is its ability to leave a lasting impression.'
Concrete or film; the artist simply needs to choose their medium. We see them either way.
"The Brutalist" is set to premiere in US cinemas December 20, and in the UK on January 24.
The film's production designer, Judy Becker, drew inspiration from Brutalist architects like Tadao Ando and Marcel Breuer for Tóth's institute design, aiming to create a daring and symbolic structure that reflects Tóth's personal and professional struggles.
The institute's design incorporates a spiritual journey, with its odd proportions, high ceilings, and narrow staircases representing the barricaded cells and the path to freedom that Tóth experienced throughout his life. The building's cross-like shape and chapel center also symbolize Tóth's Jewish identity and constant struggle against a Christian world.
