| The Brutalist | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Brady Corbet |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Lol Crawley |
| Edited by | Dávid Jancsó |
| Music by | Daniel Blumberg |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 215 minutes[2] |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $9.6 million (net)[5] |
| Box office | $50.4 million[3][6] |
The Brutalist is a 2024epicperiod drama film directed and produced byBrady Corbet, who co-wrote the screenplay withMona Fastvold. It starsAdrien Brody as aJewish-Hungarian architect and severely traumatizedHolocaust survivor who emigrates to the United States, where he struggles to recover and get his life back on track. The cast also featuresFelicity Jones,Guy Pearce,Joe Alwyn,Raffey Cassidy,Stacy Martin,Emma Laird,Isaach de Bankolé, andAlessandro Nivola. The film was shot using theVistaVision format which had been originally developed in the 1950s.
A co-production of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Hungary,The Brutalist premiered at the81st Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2024, where Corbet was awarded theSilver Lion for Best Direction. It was released in the United States byA24 on December 20, 2024; in Hungary byUIP-DunaFilm on January 23, 2025; and in the United Kingdom byFocus Features throughUniversal Pictures International on January 24, 2025.
The film received critical acclaim and grossed $50.4 million against a $9.6 million budget. Amongmultiple accolades, the film earned ten nominations at the97th Academy Awards, includingBest Picture, winning forBest Cinematography,Best Original Score, andBest Actor for Brody. At the82nd Golden Globe Awards, it won three awards, includingBest Motion Picture – Drama. It was named one of the top ten films of 2024 by theAmerican Film Institute.
Hungarian-JewishHolocaust survivor andBauhaus-trained architect László Tóth immigrates to the United States after being forcibly separated from his wife, Erzsébet, and orphaned niece, Zsófia. As his ship entersNew York Harbor, he sees theStatue of Liberty.
In 1947, László travels toPhiladelphia and stays with his cousin, Attila. He discovers that Attila hasassimilated, anglicizing his name and converting to Catholicism. Attila reveals to a relieved László that Erzsébet and Zsófia are still alive but stuck in Europe. He offers László work with his furniture business, and the two are soon approached by Harry Lee Van Buren, who wishes to surprise his father, wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, with a renovated library at his mansion nearDoylestown, Pennsylvania. Following a drunken night of merriment where Attila and his wife Audrey both encourage László to sleep with her, Audrey expresses her disdain for László and suggests he live elsewhere. Back at the mansion, Harrison is enraged by the surprise renovation and fires the men; Harry refuses to pay them. Attila blames László for the failed project, falsely accuses him of having made a pass at Audrey, and demands that he leave their home.
Three years later, László, now aheroin addict, works as a laborer loading coal and lives incharity housing with his friend Gordon, an African-American single father. Harrison turns up to tell him the architectural community has lauded his modern library renovation, and that he has discovered László's past as an accomplished architect in Europe. He pays the money owed and invites László to a party, where he commissions a grand project in tribute to his late mother: The Van Buren Institute, a community center comprising a library, theater, gymnasium, and chapel. Work begins immediately with László living on site and employing Gordon. Harrison introduces László to his personal lawyer, who expedites the immigration of László's wife and niece.
In 1953, Erzsébet and Zsófia reunite with László in Philadelphia and he discovers that as a result of theirwartime suffering, Erzsébet is a full-time wheelchair user due toosteoporosis, and Zsófia isunable to speak. During construction, László clashes with contractors and consultants hired by Harrison, who depart from his design in an attempt to stay on budget. He agrees to work unpaid to make up for additional costs. Harry derides László as being merely "tolerated" and makes lewd remarks about Zsófia. Following the derailment of a train carrying materials and ensuing legal costs, a furious Harrison abandons the project and fires the workers.
In 1958, László and Erzsébet have moved to New York City, where he works as a draftsman at an architecture firm, and she writes for a newspaper. Zsófia, having recovered her ability to speak, is expecting a child with her husband, Binyamin. They announce they aremaking Aliyah and moving toJerusalem, much to the chagrin of László and Erzsébet. Harrison restarts the project and rehires László.
While visitingCarrara to purchasemarble, Harrison rapes an intoxicated László, calling him a societal leech whose people invite their own persecution. László begins to unravel, becoming more belligerent and impulsively firing Gordon during an argument back on site. Recalling the prior contempt he received, he laments to Erzsébet that they are not welcome in America. After László almost kills Erzsébet by giving her heroin to soothe her pain, she proposes they move to Jerusalem and live with Zsófia, to which he agrees. Shortly afterwards, Erzsébet confronts Harrison at his home and calls him a rapist in front of his family and associates. An enraged Harry violently drags her out, before his sister Maggie intervenes and helps her leave. Unable to find his father, Harry organizes a search party and tries to locate him within the institute.
In 1980, Erzsébet has died, and aretrospective of László's work is held at the firstVenice Biennale of Architecture. The exhibition showcases various projects built around the world in the ensuing years and includes the Van Buren Institute, finally completed in 1973. Zsófia, accompanied by her young adult daughter and an aging, incapacitated László in a wheelchair, gives a revelatory speech asserting that László designed spaces in the structure to resemble bothBuchenwald andDachau concentration camps. The structure, she implies, functions as a way of processing trauma. Zsófia ends her speech with a phrase she claims László used to tell her as a struggling young mother: "No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey."
In September 2018,Deadline reported that directorBrady Corbet had chosen the period dramaThe Brutalist as his next project following the world premiere of his second feature film,Vox Lux (2018).[7] New York-based Andrew Lauren Productions (ALP) developed the screenplay with Corbet and financed the film.[7] Corbet co-wrote the screenplay with his partnerMona Fastvold, with whom he co-wrote the psychological dramaThe Childhood of a Leader (2015) and the musical filmVox Lux (2018).[8]
The film was originally announced as a co-production between Andrew Lauren andD.J. Gugenheim for ALP and Brian Young for Three Six Zero[7] and later joined by Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon forBrookstreet Pictures,[9] Andrew Morrison of Yellow Bear, the Polish company Madants,[10][11] and executive produced byChristine Vachon,Pamela Koffler, andDavid Hinojosa ofKiller Films.[9]
On September 2, 2020,Deadline announced thatJoel Edgerton andMarion Cotillard had been cast as the film's leads, László Tóth and Erzsébet Tóth, respectively, and thatMark Rylance was cast in the role of László's mysterious client.[9]Sebastian Stan,Vanessa Kirby,Isaach De Bankolé,Alessandro Nivola,Raffey Cassidy, andStacy Martin were also announced in unknown roles.[9] Corbet describedThe Brutalist as "a film which celebrates the triumphs of the most daring and accomplished visionaries; our ancestors", and the project which is so far the closest to his heart and family history.[9] Protagonist Pictures presented the project to buyers at the2020 Toronto International Film Festival.[9] The film takes place in Pennsylvania and was shot in four languages: English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Italian.[8][9]
Director of photographyLol Crawley, editor Dávid Jancsó, and costume designer Kate Forbes were announced on March 9, 2023.[12][13] Production designerJudy Becker was announced on April 11, 2023.[14]Daniel Blumberg composed the film's score.[15]
On April 11, 2023, it was announced thatAdrien Brody,Felicity Jones,Guy Pearce,Joe Alwyn,Jonathan Hyde,Emma Laird, andPeter Polycarpou would star in the film, while Edgerton, Cotillard, Rylance, Stan, and Kirby were no longer attached.[14] It was also announced that the film would be co-produced by the US-based companies Andrew Lauren Productions and Yellow Bear along with the United Kingdom's Brookstreet and Intake Films, and Hungary's Proton Cinema,[14] and financed by Brookstreet UK, Yellow Bear, Lip Sync Productions, Richmond Pictures, Meyohas Studio, Carte Blanche, Cofiloisirs, and Parable Media.[14] CAA Media Finance handles US sales with Protagonist Pictures handling international sales.[14]Focus Features subsequently acquired international distribution rights to the film.[4]
Corbet dedicated the film toScott Walker, who had died in 2019, and who had scored his previous films.[16]
Corbet had long had an interest in architecture. His uncle is an architect who studied atTaliesin West, which Corbet frequented as a child, while Fastvold's grandfather was a mid-century designer.[17][18] Corbet stated that the film is about the parallels between the artistic experience and the immigrant experience, and thatbrutalism, in addition to its highly cinematic nature, would work as the perfect visual allegory for exploring post-war trauma.[17][19] Fastvold's own experience as an immigrant from Norway also informed the writing of the film.[17] Furthermore, Corbet considered architecture and filmmaking to be similar processes, as they are both "forms of artistic expression that require an extraordinary amount of participation from other people, collaboration and lots of money".[17]
The character of László Tóth was inspired by several real-life architects and designers, includingMarcel Breuer,Paul Rudolph,Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,László Moholy-Nagy,Louis Kahn,[19][20] andErnő Goldfinger.[21] During their research, Corbet and Fastvold consulted architectural historianJean-Louis Cohen (who died in 2023); Cohen noted that no actual examples of architects that emerged from the war with a career like Tóth's in fact existed.[22] Alongside Cohen'sArchitecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for the Second World War, Hilary Thimmesh'sMarcel Breuer and a Committee of Twelve Plan a Church: A Monastic Memoir, a book chronicling the construction ofSaint John's Abbey inCollegeville, Minnesota by the Hungary-born, Bauhaus-trained Breuer, was an additional point of reference.[22][23] Corbet further cited the writings ofW. G. Sebald andV. S. Naipaul (whose novelThe Enigma of Arrival lends its name to the first part of the film) as influences.[19]
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Corbet shot the film's epilogue inVenice in September 2020. Principal photography, scheduled to start in Poland in December, was postponed due toCOVID restrictions.[24] Further delays occurred as a result of thewar in Ukraine as well as several pregnancies (including that of lead actress Felicity Jones) and deaths in the families of the film's cast and crew.[24][25][26] Corbet ultimately elected to shoot in Hungary to take advantage of its tax credits, the presence of multiple film laboratories inBudapest, as well as his own familiarity; both Corbet and Fastvold had prior experience filming in the country.[25]
Principal photography eventually began on March 16, 2023, in Budapest.[14][27][28] The Hungarian capital and surrounding countryside doubled as 1950s Philadelphia and rural Pennsylvania in the film, while theAndrássy Castle inTóalmás stood in for the Van Buren mansion.[24][29] Production then moved toCarrara, Tuscany, on April 29, 2023.[30][31] Filming took place in the Bettogli and Bombarda quarries in unexpected thick fog, and in the town of Carrara itself.[29] A small camera unit filmed exteriors in New York City, as well as theStatue of Liberty reveal featured in the opening scene.[32] Principal photography wrapped after 34 days on May 5, 2023.[33]
The film was shot using theVistaVision process and cameras equipped with Leica-S lenses. It involves shooting horizontally on35 mm film stock, which was then scanned, with the intention of also making prints for a70 mm release, which has the same height and was the most practical format to show the original size of the VistaVision frame when projecting film.[32] The idea for VistaVision arose while Corbet and director of photographyLol Crawley were scouting the quarries in Italy. The format was originally intended for big vistas, but ultimately the vast majority of the film was shot on VistaVision.[32] Corbet explained that "the best way to access [the 1950s] was to shoot on something that was engineered in that same decade",[34] while Crawley stated that the format, with its wider field of view, allowed filmmakers to photograph architecture without using distorting wide-angle lenses.[35] Crawley also usedArricam ST, LT andArriflex 235 35 mm cameras equipped withCooke lenses for the shoot. AnArriflex 416 16 mm camera equipped with Zeiss Superspeed lenses was used to shoot documentary-style footage, while the TV footage in the epilogue was filmed using aDigital Betacam.[32]
The Van Buren Institute, which was only constructed in portions and as a scale model, was designed by production designerJudy Becker based on the notes of Fastvold and Corbet, who tried to be as descriptive as they could about its features in the script.[22] Not an architect by training, Becker looked to the designs of concentration camps, real-life brutalist buildings, the work of Marcel Breuer andTadao Ando, Louis Kahn'sSalk Institute,Frank Lloyd Wright'sJohnson Wax Headquarters andJames Turrell'sskyspaces for inspiration.[36] She also cited Breuer's Westchester Reform Temple inScarsdale, New York, a synagogue she remembered from her childhood and which had a Star of David overhead, as a point of reference.[22][37]
The film'sscore was composed by English musicianDaniel Blumberg, who had previously worked with Corbet on the short filmGyuto (2019). The two worked together on the film over a span of seven years.[38][39] The album containing the score was released throughMilan Records on December 13, 2024.[39] Blumberg and Corbet wanted continuous music for the film's first 10 minutes, resulting in the opening sequence ofThe Brutalist being choreographed and shot to Blumberg'sdemos.[38] Theoverture features pianistsJohn Tilbury,Sophie Agnel [fr], and Simon Sieger, trumpeterAxel Dörner, and saxophonistEvan Parker, all of whom appear throughout the soundtrack.[38] Synth-pop musicianVince Clarke plays the synthesizer on "Epilogue (Venice)".[39]
Theexperimental "Construction" was the first track Blumberg wrote for the score; an early demo was composed on aprepared piano at London'sCafe Oto to create a sound similar to construction noises.[39] "Erzsébet", one of the score'sthemes, was played by Blumberg live on a piano since Corbet wanted the actors tohear the music while shooting; thetrain noises from the scene were eventually incorporated into the track's final version.[39]
Editing was completed by Hungarian editor Dávid Jancsó.[40] In an interview withRedShark News, Jancsó revealed thatartificial intelligence (A.I.) tools fromRespeecher, a Ukrainian software company, were deployed in order to improve the authenticity of Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones's Hungarian dialogue.[41] Both actors receiveddialect coaching, but the filmmakers wanted to perfect their pronunciation "so that not even locals will spot any difference."[41] UnsuccessfulADR work prompted them to record Brody and Jones's voices into Respeecher; Jancsó, a native Hungarian speaker, also fed in his voice to "finesse the tricky dialect".[41]
Director Brady Corbet issued the following statement toDeadline Hollywood after Jancsó's interview sparked backlash on social media:[42][43]
[Brody] and [Jones]'s performances are completely their own. They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed. This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher inpost-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of [Brody] and [Jones]'s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.
Additionally, it was said thatgenerative artificial intelligence was used to conjure a series of architectural blueprints and finished buildings in the film's closing sequence.[41] In a 2022Filmmaker article, production designer Judy Becker claimed the film's architecture consultant usedMidjourney "to create three brutalist buildings quite quickly."[44] However, Corbet denied this in a subsequent interview: "Judy Becker and her team did not use AI to create or render any of the buildings. All images were hand-drawn by artists. To clarify, in the memorial video featured in the background of a shot, our editorial team created pictures intentionally designed to look like poor digital renderings circa 1980."[45] The director concluded by saying "The Brutalist is a film about human complexity, and every aspect of its creation was driven by human effort, creativity, and collaboration. We are incredibly proud of our team and what they've accomplished here."[42]
The Brutalist had its world premiere at the81st Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2024, where it competed for theGolden Lion and won theSilver Lion for Corbet.[46] It also played at theToronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2024.[47] The film's festival run also included selections for screenings at the2024 New York Film Festival, the69th Valladolid International Film Festival, and the31st Austin Film Festival.[48][49][50] It was featured in the Limelight section of the54th International Film Festival Rotterdam to be screened in February 2025.[51]
A week after its premiere at Venice,A24 acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film for $10–15 million in what was described as a competitive situation.[52][53] One distributor that bid for the film wasNeon, although the company's CEO Tom Quinn said that he and Corbet disagreed on whether to delay the film's release to 2025 in order to produce more 70mm prints.[54] It was released in the U.S. by A24 on December 20, 2024,[55] and was released in the United Kingdom byFocus Features throughUniversal Pictures UK on January 24, 2025.[56] In Canada, it was distributed byElevation Pictures.[57] It was screened inIMAX theaters two days prior to its limited theatrical release for New York and Los Angeles before being screened in IMAX nationwide throughout January.
The Brutalist grossed $16.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $34.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $50.4 million.[6][3]
The Brutalist made $266,791 from four theaters in the US in its opening weekend, and then $211,164 in its second weekend and $244,341 in its third.[58] In its fourth weekend, the film expanded to 68 theaters and made $1.38 million. Its figure was noted as outperformingBetter Man, which made $1.1 million from 1,291 theaters over the same frame.[59][60] The following weekend it grossed $2 million from 338 theaters (and a total of $2.4 million over the four-dayMLK holiday).[61] After earning 10 Oscar nominations, the film expanded to 1,118 theaters, and made $2.9 million over the weekend.[62]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 93% of 337 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Structurally beautiful and suffused with Adrien Brody's soulful performance, writer-director Brady Corbet's immaculately designedThe Brutalist is a towering tribute to the immigrant experience."[63]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100, based on 57 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[64]
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The Guardian'sPeter Bradshaw gave the film five out of five stars, calling it "an amazing and engrossing epic". He continued: "The Brutalist obviously takes something fromAyn Rand, but also fromBernard Malamud andSaul Bellow in its depiction of the US immigrant adventure and the promise of success – but maybe Corbet and Fastvold go further and faster into how dizzyingly sensual and sexual it all is". Bradshaw concluded: "It is an electrifying piece of work, stunningly shot by cinematographer Lol Crawley and superbly designed by Judy Becker. I emerged from this movie light-headed and euphoric, dizzy with rubbernecking at its monumental vastness."[65]Owen Gleiberman ofVariety wrote that the film is "paced with a pleasing stateliness" despite its long runtime, and "overflows with incident and emotion (...) as if Corbet were making a biopic about a real person." He favorably compared Brody's work inThe Brutalist to the actor's Academy Award-winning prior role as an Holocaust survivor inThe Pianist (2002), writing that "his performance, even at its quietest, is suffused with tumultuous feeling." He also highly praised Pearce's performance, writing, "Pearce is often a riveting character actor, but it's been a long time since he popped in a role the way he does here. In thick wavy hair and a mustache, speaking with a booming stentorian bluster that's plummy and irresistible, he's likeClark Gable playingCharles Foster Kane."[66]
Brian Tallerico ofRogerEbert.com gaveThe Brutalist four out of four stars, describing it as "a film that turns inward into itself, winding its themes around its characters like a great American novel." He called Brody's performance "the best work of his career" and felt Pearce "balances him perfectly" in his portrayal of "a wealthy monster who discards anyone around him once he's used them up," while finding Jones "a bit miscast". He also called the film "a technical marvel" and praised its cinematography, editing, and score.[67] David Sims ofThe Atlantic interpreted the film as Corbet's "grand canvas to explore his own frustrations with the limits that commerce places on the arts", positively comparing it to the director's previous feature,Vox Lux (2018). He wrote: "Vox Lux was a film that had me crying out 'I get it!' in frustration; withThe Brutalist, I said the same line with more satisfaction." Sims called Brody's performance "pained and lived-in" and Pearce's "an excellent performance of a preening cartoon character". Though, he described the second half of the film as "something of a slog" and "unrelenting in its despair", but felt it "plays both better and worse on a second viewing, because the blatant contours of the plot are less jarring."[68]
The New Yorker'sRichard Brody was more critical of the film, writing, "Brady Corbet's epic takes on weighty themes, but fails to infuse its characters with the stuff of life."[69]
The film's use ofVistaVision led to a revival of industry interest in the format,[70] withPaul Thomas Anderson using it to film his 2025 filmOne Battle After Another,[71] as well asYorgos Lanthimos'sBugonia (2025),Alejandro González Iñárritu'sDigger (2026),Greta Gerwig'sNarnia: The Magician's Nephew (2026) andM. Night Shyamalan'sRemain (2027).[72][73][74]
Upon its premiere at the81st Venice International Film Festival,The Brutalist won five awards, including theSilver Lion.[75][76] It was subsequently nominated for nine awards at the30th Critics' Choice Awards,[77] ten awards at the97th Academy Awards includingBest Picture.[78] It ultimately won three of these, which wereBest Cinematography,Best Score, andBest Actor. It had seven nominations at the82nd Golden Globe Awards, winning three forBest Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama,Best Director andBest Motion Picture – Drama.[79][80] In addition, theAmerican Film Institute namedThe Brutalist as one of thetop 10 films of 2024.[81]
NPR included the film in their list of the best movies and TV of 2024, with criticBob Mondello writing thatThe Brutalist is: "Gorgeous, conceptually stunning, and dizzying in its savagery about cracks in the foundation of the American dream."[82]
RogerEbert.com writers namedThe Brutalist to the top slot of the site's Ten Best Films of 2024, which is determined byBorda count of the site's writers.[83]
FilmmakersTim Fehlbaum,Drew Goddard,Reinaldo Marcus Green,Don Hertzfeldt,Matt Johnson,Karyn Kusama,David Lowery,Lance Oppenheim,Paul Schrader,Celine Song,Oliver Stone,Denis Villeneuve,Malcolm Washington,John Waters andShea Whigham have cited it as among their favorite films of 2024.[84][85][86][87][88][89]
In December 2024,The Brutalist toppedCollider's list of the "10 Best Drama Movies of the Last 25 Years", with Liam Gaughan writing: "Brady Corbet crafted a deeply thought-provoking story about the collapse of the American dream, the inescapable greed of capitalism, and the aggressive anti-Semitism that is still pertinent today ...The Brutalist is an unforgettable film, and serves as a reminder that true innovations within the industry are still possible."[90]
In January 2025,Coachella Valley Independent named it "One of the Best Films of the 21st Century", with Bob Grimm writing: "You'll realize you are seeing genius and historic filmmaking in progress — a sprawling, majestic, 3 1/2-hour epic in which every frame is well-played."[91]
Vulture also included it on its list of "The Best Movies Over 3 Hours Long", calling it: "A film as colossal as the building at its heart."[92]
In April 2025,Urban List included it on its list of "14 of The Best Cinematography Movies Ever Made".[93]
In June 2025,IndieWire ranked the film at number 76 on its list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far)."[94]
In July 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition ofThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 241.[95]
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Corbet starts talking aboutThe Brutalist at the 1:11:48 mark.
