The Brutalist, a film by director and former actor Brady Corbet, is considered by many to be a masterpiece. In late January, the epic story of (fictional) Bauhaus architect László Tóth will be shown in German cinemas. The plot: Hungarian-born Jewish architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), educated at the Bauhaus in Dessau, is celebrated as a visionary. Tóth survived the Holocaust and emigrated to the US after the Second World War. Penniless, he disembarked at Ellis Island in 1947. He has to leave his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and his mute niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) behind in Europe. Tóth stays with his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) in Pennsylvania, who runs a furniture business. Attila has adopted the Christian faith and changed his name. He gives the back of his shop to László, who works for him. Eventually, Attila’s jealous wife Audrey (Emma Laird) sees to it that László ends up on the streets. He survives by doing odd jobs on building sites and finds shelter in a Christian men’s hostel, where he befriends Gordon.

When Harry Lee, son of tycoon Harrison Lee Van Buren, commissioned Tóth to transform his father’s dilapidated reading room into a modern library, Harry was immediately struck by the architect’s brilliance. The library quickly attracted the attention of the architectural press and was hailed as a triumph of minimalist design. Following this success, Harry Lee commissioned Tóth again, this time to design a cultural centre in honour of his beloved mother, comprising a library, gymnasium, auditorium and chapel. This project gave Tóth the opportunity to realise his boldest ambitions in monumental Brutalist architecture. In the years that followed, the architect lived on his client’s estate. However, his perfectionism, alcohol and drug problems and volatile temperament made the project increasingly difficult. Tensions escalated with financiers, contractors and the local community.

The Brutalist is a story of 20th century American immigration and the conflict between uncompromising design and the divide between the haves and have-nots. The narrative is inspired by ‘Architecture in Uniform’, the work of French architect, urban planner and theorist Jean-Louis Cohen, who died in 2023. The director spared no technical effort: the film was shot in the now obsolete VistaVision format on analogue film and screened at its world premiere in Venice on an analogue 70mm cine-film print.