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Brady Corbet’s epic film ‘The Brutalist’ debuts at Venice Film Festival

Brady Corbets The brutalist was the talk of the town on the Lido on Sunday, when the seven-year epic finally made its world premiere at the historic Sala Grande cinema at the Venice Film Festival.

The premiere audience erupted in applause as the credits rolled for the film’s epic three-hour, 35-minute runtime, giving Corbet and his cast a heartwarming, festival-best 13-minute standing ovation. Stars Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones appeared to have tears in their eyes at times as the film’s response was so outrageous.

The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a rave review, with lead critic David Rooney describing The brutalist as “a monumental symphony of the immigrant experience” with a “devastating” performance by Brody as Tóth.

The brutalist has all the thematic weight and intellectual rigor befitting its subject matter: the historical trauma and artistic vision that gave rise to the great works of American mid-century brutalist architecture. But Corbet also gives his audience a break amid the film’s alternately elegant and propulsive narrative. There’s a 10-minute intermission midway through the film’s lengthy running time, allowing moviegoers to take a bathroom break or pause to reflect on the work’s evolving handling of its themes.

The brutalist chronicles the journey of Hungarian-born Jewish architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), who emigrates to the United States in 1947 to experience the “American dream.” Initially forced to toil in poverty, he soon wins a contract with a mysterious and wealthy client, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), that will change the course of the next 30 years of his life. Felicity Jones stars as Tóth’s wife Erzsébet, while Joe Alwyn plays the erratic son of the wealthy industrialist. Corbet co-wrote the film with his wife, Norwegian filmmaker and actress Mona Fastvold.

The brutalist comes closer to the ideas and dark vision of power in the director’s debut, The Childhood of a Leader then his more polarizing views on contemporary celebrities, Vox luxury, THR‘s Rooney writes. “But it represents a huge leap in scope from both, considering such heavy themes as creativity and compromise, Jewish identity, architectural integrity, the immigrant experience, the arrogant narrow-mindedness of privilege, and the long reach of the past.”

Corbet and The brutalist The cast kept things classy and traditional on the red carpet, with the director in a black tuxedo, alongside Fastvold in a floor-length ensemble. Ivorian screen legend Isaach de Bankolé, who plays Tóth’s boyfriend Gordon, spiced things up a bit in a sleek black jacket with a large Angela Davis patch over tight white trousers and two-tone sneakers. Raffey Cassidy, who plays Tóth’s cousin Zsófia, went almost goth in a layered black shirt and a sheer headscarf around her face. Brody, who greeted fans along the barricade chanting “Adrien! Adrien!”, arrived with girlfriend Georgina Chapman. The fashion designer was spotted filming her boyfriend on his big day, which lasted until the early evening when the screening ended.

Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones The brutalist

Thanks to the Venice Film Festival

Several figures from the film world were seen in the crowd attending the premiere, including actresses such as Oscar winner Julianne Moore (with manager Evelyn O’Neill in tow) and Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), as well as French filmmaker and artist JR (Place FacesBrody, dressed in a Dior tuxedo with a dramatic brooch on the lapel, soaked up the attention as he posed for selfies and greeted fans lining the barricade on a scorching Sunday in Venice.

A work of authorship to the core and a triumph of directorial consistency, The brutalist took more than seven years to make — with several false starts and financing problems — and was shot on 70mm film stock in the mid-century VistaVision format. The gorgeous retro format reportedly required filmmakers to ship 26 reels of film, weighing some 300 pounds, to Italy for the film’s world premiere.

At the press conference for the film earlier in the day, Corbet became emotional as he spoke about the struggles he faced in bringing his vision to the screen.

“This was an incredibly difficult film to make,” he said. “I’m very emotional today because we worked on it for seven years, and it felt urgent every day for the better part of a decade.”

Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon of Brookstreet Pictures produced with Brian Young, Andrew Morrison of Kaplan Morrison, Andrew Lauren Prods. Andrew Lauren and DJ Gugenheim.

The screening marked a significant return for Corbet to his usual haunt in Venice. The actor-turned-author delivered his first film there, The Childhood of a Leaderand won the film for Best Debut. He returned with the Natalie Portman and Jude Law-starrer Vox Lux. He also directed episodes of the film starring Tom Holland The busy room for Apple TV+.

Corbet thanked the Venice Film Festival for “supporting my films when no one else did” and said Venice “really made my films possible.”