Silver Lion Winner 'The Brutalist' to Premiere in December 2024
Adrien Brody as László Tóth and Felicity Jones as Erzsébet Tóth in 'The Brutalist'
Focus Features
Brady Corbet's The Brutalist was first announced in September 2020, just as the pandemic settled in for the long haul, with the optimistic filming schedule listed as beginning in January 2021, which, as most of us know, did not happen, as Lockdown 2 was declared in the U.K. and TV series canceled their returns. Unsurprisingly, the original cast announced at the time, which included Joel Edgerton (The Green Knight), Marion Cotillard (Lee), Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall), Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice), and Vanessa Kirby (The Crown), did not come to pass either. Instead, in 2023, a new announcement was made that the production was finally filming, with a completely different cast, led by Adrian Brody (The Pianist) and Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything).
The resulting film is an epic look at the post-World War II American dream via the fictionalized story of immigrant László Tóth (played by Brody) and his wife, Erzsébet (Jones), a Hungarian-born Jewish couple who arrive in America looking to rebuild. "Epic" isn't just what gets covered on-screen either, though covering thirty years of life is quite a bit of ground; the film's running time is a whopping 3 hours and 35 minutes, not including the 15-minute intermission, which is not optional.
However, the film was worth the wait, as it received a 13-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival and took home the Silver Lion for Best Direction. The critical response has been rapturous, and the film, which has now played just about every film festival but the AFI, holds a 97% Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes, quite a feat when you consider this is the aggregate of the pickiest, snobbiest movie reviewers from around the world. The Venice Prize, the critical acclaim, and the headliners being well-known to American audiences make The Brutalist a rare bird: a period drama with a real chance of making bank at the box office and the potential of landing an Oscar.
Here's the film's synopsis:
Escaping post-war Europe, visionary architect László Toth arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost...
Brody and Jones are joined by a cast that includes Guy Pearce (A Spy Among Friends), Joe Alwyn (Conversations with Friends), Isaach De Bankolé (Black Panther), Alessandro Nivola (Downton Abbey), Raffey Cassidy (Mr. Selfridge), Stacy Martin (The Serpent), Emma Laird (A Haunting in Venice), Jonathan Hyde (Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes), and Peter Polycarpou (Grantchester).
Brady Corbet (Vox Lux) directed the film, which he co-wrote with his partner, Mona Fastvold. Brian Young, D.J. Gugenheim, and Yellow Bear’s Andrew Morrison executive produced along with Trevor Matthews & Nick Gordon for Brookstreet UK and Andrew Lauren for Andrew Lauren Productions. Joshua Horsfield’s Intake Films and Viktoria Petrányi’s Proton Cinema in Hungary co-produced.
The Brutalist debuts in the U.S. in limited release on Friday, December 20, 2024.
