Corbet’s first feature film since 2018’s Vox Lux spans 30 years in the life of Adrien Brody’s László Tóth, a Jewish architect who left his native Hungary for the United States to escape the horrors of the Holocaust. The Brutalist chronicles Tóth’s quest to reunite with his beloved wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and the aftermath of a meeting that will forever change the course of his life: the one with magnate Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). Other cast include Joe Alwyn, Isaach de Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola and Corbet’s longtime collaborators Stacy Martin and Raffey Cassidy.
If the buildings imagined by Tóth bear the harsh lines of classic Bauhaus, The Brutalist’s Letterboxd ratings curve emulates the tall curves of Oscar Niemeyer’s modernist architecture—the cusp elegantly leaning towards that elusive five stars. “This is one of the films that comes along once every few years and reminds you why you fell in love with the art in the first place,” gushes Rue; “If there were a Nobel Prize for films, Corbet’s The Brutalist would have to receive one,” adds Patrick.
The 215-minute sprawling epic, shot in luscious VistaVision and projected in Venice in a gorgeous 70mm print (weighing a whopping 300 pounds), reminded Letterboxd of the pleasures of celluloid. “70mm screening with an overture, an intermission and an epilogue? FILM IS ALIVE,” Ivana celebrates in a sentiment Zinc echoes: “70mm film captures the grandeur and majestic architecture shaped by the architect’s vision, seamlessly blending the essence of celluloid with the timeless weight of history.” For Edward, the experience was akin to striking gold: “First film I’ve ever watched in 70mm. It is just amazing how it transposed me to another dimension.”
Almost 15,000 Letterboxd added The Brutalist to their Letterboxd watchlists within the 24 hours after the first responses dropped online. With the film this early in its festival run and still without a release date, those lucky enough to have seen it at the premiere have tried to quench others' curiosity by finding points of reference to various beloved works. It doesn’t take long scouring Letterboxd reviews to find several comparisons to Coppola’s The Godfather, Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and even Jonathan Glazer’s recent Oscar-winning The Zone of Interest. “You’re going to see endless hyperbolic comparisons to The Godfather and There Will Be Blood, and they are 100% fucking correct,” says John, with Saverio adding, “Paul Thomas Anderson’s stylistic perfection and Sergio Leone’s and Michael Cimino’s ability to narrate the United States. Masterpiece.”
