End of Jan. 13 Column (No. 963)
This and That

Neal Vitale Reviews: The Brutalist ****

[after only 16 years, I welcome my former editor and long-time friend Neal Vitale back to PSACOT]

I've found myself going less often to see films in theaters, preferring the pause and rewind buttons on my video equipment at home over a half-hour of on-screen commercials and trailers. I made an exception, though, for The Brutalist, and I'm glad I did. This is a 220-minute cinematic experience that calls out for theatrical presentation. 

The Brutalist presents thirty years in the life of Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth, He has survived the Holocaust but was forcibly separated from his wife, Erzsébet, and niece, Zsófia. He emigrated to America to live with relatives and to strive for the American Dream. Stunningly-produced on a budget of less than $10 million, the film tells an epic story weaving power, money, jealousy, abuse, desire, addiction, bigotry, sacrifice, and pain.

The key players -- Adrien Brody as Tóth, Guy Pearce as his pompous and mercurial benefactor Harrison Lee Van Buren, and Felicity Jones as Erzsébet -- are riveting to watch on screen. A thundering score is paired with gorgeous cinematography. It is fascinating to watch the construction of a massive piece of Tóth's brutalist architecture and witness the beauty of the finished structure.

If there is a shortcoming with The Brutalist, it is the lack of empathy developed for most of the characters in the film - these are not likeable individuals. But the rich narrative development, echoing - dare I say - Citizen Kane, makes for a gratifying theatrical experience well worth the investment of time.

Comments

Robert E. Malchman

Interesting that the writers picked "Laszlo Toth" for their character's name. The real Laszlo Toth is the Australian-Hungarian lunatic who took a hammer to Michelangelo's Pieta in the '70s. One of the most moving and beautiful sculptures in history was badly damaged, and he's the reason that great works of art are now shielded behind plexiglass.

The first author to appropriate the name "Laszlo Toth" for a character was Don Novello (you likely know him a Father Guido Sarducci from early SNL). He wrote a book called The Laszlo Letters (followed by several sequels, IIRC) of letters written to famous people by an extremely earnest, but extremely dim, character. The serious responses Novello got were as funny as the fake letters. I bought the book when I was a kid and laughed my way through the whole thing.

I really wonder why the writers picked that name for their movie.

Clark Smith

Rivering to watch?

Robert E. Malchman

P.S. Fun "small world" fact: I met Novello in character as Fr. Sarducci at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco in 1984. I was there interning with National Journal under Ed Diamond's supervision (yay, MIT News Study Group!). That was the same trip on which I visited you in Orinda.

I still have no idea why Novello decided to show up. Maybe it was self-promotion? Maybe he's just a politics junkie?

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