Brady Corbet's 'The Brutalist' Explores Postwar Trauma Through Architecture

Director Brady Corbet and screenwriter Mona Fastvold discuss their film 'The Brutalist,' winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and an Oscar 2025 candidate. The film follows Hungarian Jewish architect László Toth, played by Adrien Brody, who flees postwar Europe to rebuild his life in America. Settling in Pennsylvania, Toth's talent is recognized by industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, but power and legacy come at a high price. Corbet and Fastvold connect postwar psychology and Brutalist architecture, noting that materials developed for war were later used in residential and corporate projects by Marcel Breuer and Le Corbusier. The film, which took seven years to make, arrives in Italian cinemas on February 6 via Universal Pictures. Scenes were shot in Carrara and marble quarries in Italy. Brody describes Toth as a refugee stripped of his past, seeking his way in a new land.