Posted on 01/14/2025 3:11:50 PM PST by Rummyfan
Brady Corbet’s Brutalist threatens to crush its audience.
The architectural term “Brutalism” is often subject to a false etymology. Most people think it refers to the force exerted by some of the more muscular Brutalist buildings, but in reality the term describes the materials employed. Brutalism draws its name from béton brut, French for “raw concrete.” But as far as most people are concerned, that’s beside the point: The false etymology may as well be the true one. And many Brutalist buildings are in fact massy structures that are intended to overawe—or oppress—with their monumental austerity.
Brady Corbet’s Brutalist draws on the popular conception of the architectural movement at the expense of its factual reality. His film, which runs at nearly four hours with an intermission, is not too concerned with the genuinely fascinating story of how Walter Gropius and his disciples transformed the American architectural landscape after World War II. Instead, Corbet is more interested in using Brutalism as a rhetorical tool to teach his audience a lesson about the deadening, brutal force that, in his view, the American empire exerts on its subjects.
The story follows the fortunes of the Hungarian architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody) after he flees the aftermath of the Holocaust in Europe to seek his freedom in the United States. ... Corbet shows that this dream is a delusion. Tóth emerges from the bowels of a ship in the New York harbor in a noisy, disorienting, and exhilarating scene to behold the Statue of Liberty—upside down. Meanwhile, in a voice over, his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), stuck behind the Iron Curtain, reads to him that famous line of Goethe: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” My wife walked out of the film halfway through its run..
(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...
These anti-American flicks are all about the Nhilistic and hopeless minds of their creators.
They are without morals, vision, or standards.
They prefer dead people to those who are not included in their delusional ideology.
Jack Kemp had the best description of Brutalist Structures. Describing the HUD building in L’Enfant Plaza.
“Nine stories of Basement.”
Lazlo Toth was the guy who took a hammer to the Pieta.
Interesting name for a movie character. I wonder if it was inbtentional.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laszlo_Toth
Grew up having a soft spot for pretentious “art” films.
But it’s been a while since I’ve seen one because it’s been a while since one has been made worth seeing.
I’ll pass on this one.
Recently, re-subscribed to Netflix after a eight year boycott.
Can’t remember the female comedian’s name but she was unfairly bashing then press secretary Sarah Huckabee so I gave it up.
Just watched a film on Netflix called Ferry.
It was no art film.
But it was entertaining in a Sopranos in Amsterdam sort of way.
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