What comes off as a light-wood wall panel is actually a door, leading into a semi-secret library.
Its an introverted, Dimes Square hipster-cinephiles wet dream.
He is, by his own admission, exhausted from doing nonstop press since the end of summer.
Brady Corbet, center, on the set of ‘The Brutalist.‘Trevor Matthews*
Its now the beginning of December, and hes still at it.
But for now, Corbet is staring intensely at the bookshelves attached to the walls.
Not the books themselves he doesnt pull out or page through any of them.
You imagine a host of camera angles whirling through his head.
The son of a wealthy industrialist hires him to renovate his fathers book-filled den as a surprise gift.
The sleek, chic, modernist result initially throws the rich man into a rage.
The architect decides that this building will not just be a work for hire.
It will be his Great American Masterpiece, done in the brutalist style.
Even bad movies are miracles.
Because the sheer amount of keys that have to turn for something to be greenlit is just…
The two exchange a look and simultaneously sigh.
… And made in a style that hasnt been used in decades, Corbet adds.
(More on that in a second.)
Normally, we are very practical, Fastvold says.
I think that filmmakers of our generationhaveto be practical.
Well figure it out later.
Right now, lets just let it be as big and as rich as we want it to be.
Then, later, we had to figure out how to realize what wed come up with, and…
Both she and Corbet laugh.
That was not, um, easy.
Its not as if they didnt have experience making big-swing movies with big ideas and scant budgets.
His sensibility was already there from the jump.
Wed already discussed doing something on the relationship between postwar psychology and postwar architecture.
But no one is saying the quiet part out loud.
And no one is saying the quiet part out loud in our film, either.
I dont think so!’
Instead, they began to fashion an amalgamation.
But they didnt know mymothersbackstory.
My mom, Sylvia [Plachy], is a Hungarian immigrant who fled to America in the 1950s.
And I just kept thinking, So much of Laszlos story is her story as well.
When I was reading it, I was hearing my grandfathers voice.
Those films are part of why I wanted to be an actor.
No one dares to make them any more.
And they were actually doing it.
Or at the very least, Corbert and Fastvold were trying their damnedest to do it.
Anything less than final cut was a dealbreaker.
Its called exposing the film to potential money folks.
Corbet turns to his partner.
And when did we expose the project?
March of 2020, she replies.
Literally the week Covid shut down New York.
We really shot ourselves in the foot.
There was a lot of Yes, we know youve read it.
Eventually, they were able to cobble together just enough to getThe Brutalistgoing.
Fastvold worked as assistant director.
Corbet and his longtime cinematographer Lol Crawley were able to get VistaVision cameras and still not bankrupt themselves.
It would be too expensive to dress both, however.
For the ultra-wide shot, were ok using pleather.’
Hes a bit of a cross between Rockefeller and Salieri, Pearce says over a separate Zoom call.
That was the script that Brady and Mona gave me.
If you wanted a rehearsal or needed another shot at something, hed go, Sure.
He said something really interesting to me, Pearce recalls.
Its not enough for some people to own the art.
They want to own the artist as well.
And I just felt myself going, yes.
I dont just get what youre going for.
I know what you mean.
I mean, Mona has described the process as something close to an exorcism.
I mean, theres an act of violence near the end…
He stops himself and glances at his partner.
Fastvold finishes his thought.
It couldnt be a half measure, but then again, thats the whole movie.
You know the whole appeal of brutalism for us as a style is… its a lot of minimalism.
He glances around at the bookshelves, as if appreciating their tastefulness in form and functionality.
Then he opens his arms wide.
But theres a lot of maximalism in it as well.
I love minimalism and I love maximalism.
I just personally dont like the in between, in any medium.
