The Brutalist

Does ILX like this movie? I liked it more days later, when I reflected on how we never really get to see what Laszlo was like before. It is that person who Erzsebet is still in love with. Why she forgives him without thinking.

I absolutely loved this, one of my favorite films of the year. There are flaws, but so much of this movie spoke to me on a deep level, particularly drive to create and the vision of an artist. But also how capitalism eats/consumes art and how the American immigrant is abused to build capital to keep the cycle perpetuating.

But it was also just a gorgeous to look at film. Obviously seeing in in 70mm had a lot to do with that, but I think the cinematography Oscar was well earned.

A certain sexual act in the last third was in that OOOH DON'T YOU SEE mode.

Absolutely, it would have been just as good of a film without that, but the rest of the movie just resonated enough to overcome that and a few other flaws.

Xp otm. I was thinking "i got the point an hour ago" when that happened. First half excellent. Second half exists under the cloud of presenting zionism as the solution to the rape of the immigrant. I really don't think I understand the ending. Why end with a smirk? Really seemed to undercut the seriousness of what came before. The zoom in to the half smile and "its about the journey not the destiniation".... I really have no idea how to take it besides a devaluation of all that came before. Somehow help me out here

Credit where it's due tho, the scene with the wife in the mansion following the aforementioned scene was so good that it basicslly nullifies the "too obvious!" complaint

That scene is the heart of the movie. The hidden war made real, truth presented against power, to be absolutely, brutally crushed.

what i liked about the ending is that it suggests that certain aspects of history are unknowable even when we believe ourselves to be omniscient. this cuts in two ways at the end: the attendees of the retrospective think they are getting the real truth about the building in pennsylvania -- that it was a clandestine commentary on the holocaust -- but, of course, they know nothing of the "real truth," the one that we know. however it works in reverse for much of the film -- toth's thesis, as revealed at the end, are shrouded from our view. we know it all, yet didn't know the half

i haven't quite teased it all out yet but it's interesting to me that two big mainstream art films about the holocaust (the other being 'zone of interest' of course) both end w/ epilogues set in museums in the modern day. i think the statements made by each ending are different, but there is something similar in the way that both immerse you in highly stylized grotesque renditions of the past and then spit you out into a cold, gray, sterile contemporary rooms to sort out your thoughts

That scene is the heart of the movie. The hidden war made real, truth presented against power, to be absolutely, brutally crushed.

― H.P, Monday, March 3, 2025 5:40 PM (eight minutes ago)

i respect this reading, however the movie felt like it had derailed a bit by this point. imo

i overall liked it because the first half is basically impeccable to me and i just fuck w/ the artistic vision in general but i have a hard time defending some of the creative decisions made w/ the second half

I think the film was more critical of the Dream of Israel in that post-Leon Uris era than I expected, and I wouldn't have expected it from Brady Corbet.

The sequence around the 45-minute mark in which Toth is homeless and meets Harrison in the cafe and dies odd jobs? The rhythm is masterly; it reminded me of a similar sequence in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

When Felicity Jones enters the film loses some of its intensity imo.

dies = does

DAH-DUNDUNDUN-DAHHHH

(I did like the music and don't mind the Oscar win but talk about a through line.)

Will add I got to see most of the core creative team, minus Blumberg (been announced but couldn't make it, sadly) at a one-off screening in early December here in SF, doubtless part of them making similar rounds across the country. It was a good Q&A and knowing Crawley now won his Oscar kinda makes it fun. I had similar 'hmm, dunno' feelings thanks to various second half doings but as reflexive monumentalism achieved on a budget -- Corbet has been open about how shoestring it was to make it happen -- it sold the event-heavy vibes at least. But yeah, per various comments over the last 24 hours, Pearce is what makes the film truly click. Anyway, photo from that screening:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DDKbvwwvSAK/

A certain sexual act in the last third was in that OOOH DON'T YOU SEE mode.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 3, 2025 5:11 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I went to the bathroom and completely missed the most crucial turning point of the second half.😭

Yeah I could not believe the budget they did this on. Thought it would have cost 10x more, at least.
I didn't really pick up any criticism of the Dream of Israel Alfred. Where did you find that?

Xp when the movies got an intermission, you've only got yourself to blame

with movies like an intermission in them, you can't lose

sorry i should really see this but i hated vox lux so much i sorta can’t believe it’s good

I disagree with the idea that felicity jones was superfluous. Without human connection Toth would have just fried out. She keeps him going. The architecture doesn’t—that is a grind.

I didn't really pick up any criticism of the Dream of Israel Alfred. Where did you find that?

She wanted peace, a space apart from this avaricious capitalism, and Corbet framed rhe last scene as if for a Star Wars film about The Rise of the Neo-Cons.

I disagree with the idea that felicity jones was superfluous

Where did I say that?

Xp I think I need to watch the last scene again to comment on that. I read it as more congratulatory

I’ve heard it. The idea that she was the weak link. I think she was central.

Congratulatory and ironic. The blasting synth music to close, the celebration of a broken man lapped up by an eager liberal audience... there's definitely a lot in that last scene and I can appreciate it for that fact even if it felt a bit cruel and cynical in the light of the very human story that came before it.

Darth Kristol.

sorry i should really see this but i hated vox lux so much i sorta can’t believe it’s good

― ivy., Monday, March 3, 2025

That's what I'm thinking. I will watch it on streaming when I don't have pay extra for it

Childhood of a Leader was promising; it augured a lot of the material that Corbet plays with here.

I couldn't stand Vox Lux.

I didnt think we were supposed to sneer at Zsofia’s speech. A little “neat” in terms if summing up his work but not untrue. The Bauhaus architects really were seeking a design language that was truly universal and not regional.

And the symbolism of the building was def what she said it was. A monument to Erszebet, not the rapist’s mother.

I also thought the Zionist sympathies were intended. America failed to be what it said it was, which made Israel necessary. I think the protagonists all came to think that. How you read that in light of recent events idk

I suppose the ending affirms that whether in Israel or America some people belong and some don't.

Good points

Really IS worth seeing on a big screen fwiw even if not 70mm.

I agree with a lot of what’s been said here. Overall I thought it was good and had a lot of creative energy and nerve. I personally liked Felicity Jones, I thought their relationship was compelling — all the family relations, including the niece. But yes some definitely clunky narrative choices in the last third, could feel the movie straining for some revelations that would justify its own monumentality. But that was a mistake, it didn’t need to justify it, the whole thing is in the shadow of the Holocaust, plenty monumental already.

I kept thinking of There Will Be Blood, another large scale film whose ambitions curdle when executed but still worth watching.

Yeah, could certainly feel the PTA vibes. Also The Master, obviously, which occupies a contemporaneous timeline.

I think The Brutalist makes interesting awards-season pairing with A Real Pain, both Holocaust movies set after the Holocaust with characters still defined by it in different ways.

TS: Benji jabbing at László throughout this/László telling Benji to stfu in A Real Pain

I finally saw this last week, looked for the ilx thread & was surprised that there wasn't one as it'd been out for ages

Didn't start it myself because at the time I only wanted to drop in & post about the throwaway line in the library where someone goes "it reminds me of a story I read about an infinite library" & I was like wait is this rando in philadelphia reading borges in the early 50s? the point not being the nitpick (it's technically possible) but having caught me up it did also strike me as a clunky bit of writing in general, & there are a few bits like that, it's in many ways typical of an oscary historical drama for good and ill. It absolutely got to me tho

I'm glad I saw it in the cinema, loved the score. There will be blood definitely a reference point right from the "overture"

What I wrote in January. I don't agree with everything I wrote because the subsequent conversations have been thoughtful.

I heard the Borges reference as a bit of secondhand pretentious phoniness thrown in to justify the newfound love for the library.

Yeah I got that was the idea but anglophone dilettantes wouldn’t even have heard of borges until like a decade later I don’t think? Again not so much about the fact check as you can see the screenwriters and it creaks a bit

Probably true.

I saw someone post that there is a bird call in "Nosferatu" that is unique to North America.

Ha I wondered about that Borges line too. Just looked it up and the story wasn’t translated to English until 1962, so … possible someone would have read it, but seems unlikely!

Of course, the movie is fictional, and they never say Borges by name, so maybe it's just kind of an oblique reference for the real heads.

I just saw this movie and have some conflicting thoughts. The first half is excellent, the second half a bit disjointed with some weird creative decisions (especially the overly literal rape scene complete with Guy Pierce narration in case we missed even that symbolism). The epilogue ending seemed flown in from another movie (Star Wars is a good reference) and the Szofia actress playing another character at the end really threw me.

Despite all that, I liked the movie. I am predisposed to like a movie about an architect. I appreciated how it focused on these individuals but also felt monumental in scope. The actors were all excellent imo. I thought about The Master and There Will Be Blood both during the movie, the former I liked less and the latter I liked more.

I echo everything you said.

(xpost) What about TV shows where people lie about being architects?

Mike from the Brady Bunch was an architect

Shorter, balder.