The Brutalist

 

Why did I think I might avoid The Brutalist? Well it is over three and a half hours, far too long for me. I had thought that I might duck out at the interval and see the second half the next day. But no, the first half went so quickly and the reports (misguided as it turns out) were that the second half after the fifteen minute interval was even better. Mark Kermode in his review was right in that it needed every minute in this epic saga and his mate Simon Mayo was wrong that it needed twenty minutes cutting out. 

Director Brady Corbet has fashioned a superb story with co-writer Mona Fastvold about the American dream that is as gripping as it is intelligent. (Oscars await). It starts with Adrien Brody's Laszlo in the Prologue or Overture arriving in New York just after the second world war. A bravura performance if not a little forced. Part 1 is called The Enigma of Arrival and follows Laszlo (a famous architect in his native Budapest) in his first difficult months. His cousin Attila wants his help for a covert transformation of a rich man's library. Joe Alwyn plays the son whose idea it is. The room they found had to be dark and fully curtained as it faced the sun and the valuable books were on exposed shelves. Laszlo creates vertical shutters that move with no effort behind which the books are stored. I loved the whole concept. (I always preferred refurbishment projects in my career - see Nuneham Courtney and St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy on this blog).

But the owner is highly unimpressed with the surprise. Guy Pearce below (in his Oscar worthy best performance to date) as the wealthy Harrison, kicks them out with no compensation. Laszlo is blamed by his cousin and so has to leave his house.

However, things turn around and Laszlo is commissioned to design a community centre at the top of a hill in Harrison's huge estate. One of the best scenes in the whole film is when Laszlo presents his plans and model to a meeting of the town's hierarchy. This is when the director's choice of filming in Vista Vision really takes off. Just a shame there is no photo of the presentation. (I remembered one like it when we were awarded the contract to build the Croydon Holiday Inn). 

There are pictures of the project underway.

There were, in fact, very few shots of Laszlo doing what he does best and that is preparing plans and drawings for the building. Just like the one below.

After the interval comes a different human drama in Part 2 The Hard Core of Beauty. Laszlo's wife arrives, Felicity Jones is always good, along with her niece. But things become difficult for all concerned and the project looks doomed. However, after time, it gets back on track. Laszlo and Harrison are off to Tuscany and the Carrara Marble Mine (below) to select their final materials. ( I can only remember such an excursion to choose some slate in the Lake District and bricks for another project). 

There is one great photo of the Vista Vision camera there.

The relationship between the wealthy Harrison and the immigrant Laszlo is central to the whole film. But their trip to Tuscany is the source of of one awful moment between the two. After that, things are never the same. Laszlo's drug abuse and his wife's condition are the background to the final scene at Harrison's home. The building has been completed, though we never  see it. Which was a shame. 

There is then the Epilogue: The First Architecture Biennale in 1980. Laszlo has obviously been busy. 

I did like the cinematography, as I said the Vista Vision came into it's own for the presentation and that "dazzling wide angle tableaux" as well as "intimate close ups". I thought I was going to hate the music or more specifically the abstract sound, but in the end Daniel Blumberg's score was completely right for this film. The costumes from Kate Forbes might also get her the big prize. I'm not going to pretend that the film is perfect, as is often the case in these epics, there are times when the plot becomes blurred, especially the final scenes of Part 2. But I was hooked from the start and gripped from beginning to end. Unlike many of today's movies that have less than half this running time. I will be surprised if it dose not win best film and director at the Oscars. Am I a fan of brutalist architecture? Certainly not, although those buildings on London's South Bank are dramatic. The interiors are better than the exterior.

I agree with Guy Lodge in the Sight and Sound Winter Edition when he says "the film feels fleet and nimble, charged with emotional urgency". And he calls Guy Pearce "riveting".