The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet, is the favourite to win the best picture Oscar, yet it tells a completely fictitious story. The film follows László Toth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor, who arrives in New York in 1947 to start a new life in America. In the opening scene, the Statue of Liberty appears upside down, a visual warning that this is no traditional 'American dream' success story.
Toth, who survived Buchenwald concentration camp, was forcibly separated from his wife Erzsébet during the war. Before the conflict, he studied at the Bauhaus in Germany and designed modernist public buildings in Budapest. In the US, he works as a labourer before being taken under the wing of Pennsylvanian entrepreneur Harrison Lee Van Buren, who commissions him to build a grand monument. However, Toth soon realises that he remains an outsider in this rural white Protestant society, enduring emotional and physical brutality. 'We tolerate you,' Van Buren's son Harry tells him, leading Toth to despair that 'they do not want us here'.
The concept of the American dream was popularised by writer James Truslow Adams in 1931, during the Great Depression. Corbet, an American himself, said he wanted to challenge this myth. 'The American myth is something that is not frequently undressed, especially in this coming to America fable that we have seen rehashed again and again,' he told the BBC. He proposed a story that starts in familiar territory but 'ends up in more unchartered places'.
The film's title and central metaphor draw on the Brutalist architectural movement of the 1950s, which originated in the UK and is known for its concrete structures, rough textures and geometric angles. Corbet explained that he believes the immigrant experience and artistic struggle march in lockstep. He cited Jean-Louis Cohen's book Architecture and Uniform as a key influence, saying it examines the relationship between post-war psychology and post-war architecture. Toth's painful attempts to build a lasting monument in a hostile land mirror the reception that many Brutalist buildings initially received.
The Brutalist, nominated for ten Oscars including best picture, best director and best actor for Adrien Brody, also features Felicity Jones as Erzsébet and Guy Pearce as Harrison Lee Van Buren. Corbet developed the film over seven years with his writing partner Mona Fastvold, and has used his platform to call for directors to have greater creative control over their work.
