The Brutalist
The Brutalist
Yesterday upon the insistence of my son, I went to the theatre to watch The Brutalist. The quote from the German writer, Goethe, comes early in the film: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” This quote was offered around the same time that the central character, Laszlo Toth, gets his first vision of the United States. From his point of view, it is an upside down Statue of Liberty.
From the start of the film, the subject matter of impressions and reality was established. While watching the film and listening to the words of Goethe, it invoked thoughts of the Platonic Forms and his allegory of the cave. Plato’s theory of ideas was that the Forms: beauty, goodness, equality, and unity were timeless, perfect and unchanging. The Forms are more real than the physical things we take as reality. In Plato’s cave allegory, the people are chained within the cave thinking that the shadows that are projected on the walls are real. The prisoners, according to Plato, are those who are unaware of the Forms and think that what they see is reality. The hero of Plato’s allegory is the person who undergoes the difficult education to perceive the world of the Forms.
The film did a masterful job of creating the impression of a documentary. There are multiple shots of construction sites interjected with authentic newsreels from the time. We are led to believe that this is about a real architect by the name of Laszlo Toth. The film, though, calls attention to itself as an artifact because, like all stories, the film has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning is titled: The Enigma of Arrival. The etymology of the word enigma means fable in Greek. We are being told a story made to look like reality.
In looking up the title after watching the film I learned of the school of architecture, Brutalism, that originated in the UK in the 1950’s. Like in the film, this style uses exposed concrete and features geometric shapes. The Brutalist school is interested in the material as it is and not how it can be used. The Brutalist movement was in response to 1930’s and 1940’s popular style of nostalgia. It was documented as a direct response to the Fascist’s attempt to glorify the past to justify the atrocities of the present.
Like many viewers, I wanted to know if there was an architect by the name of Laszlo Toth. There were several well-known persons with that name but none were architects. Another shadow created with the film. The name is real but this is not a real-life depiction of anyone’s story.
There are many narratives being told within the film. Laszlo is a Bauhaus-trained architect who flees Nazi occupied Europe for America. He leaves his wife and niece with the hope that they one day will be reunited. In the States, he endures the trials of drug addiction, poverty, violence, homelessness and antisemitism. As he goes through these trails, he tries to hold on to beauty and the good, the essential Forms. He meets an industrialist’s family who are seemingly courting him to create for them but in the end, are simultaneously jealous of what he possesses and at the same time, look down on him. Laszlo is first hired to build a library as a surprise by the industrialist’s son. Laszlo’s creation is met with violence when Harrison arrives earlier than expected. Harrison later hires Laszlo to build a community center as a memorial to Harrison’s deceased mother. At the construction site of this community center, Laszlo has a confrontation with Jim Simpson, the local architect who is more concerned with the project’s costs than the vision of the project. Laszlo tells Jim that it is Jim who is responsible for everything ugly in the world.
Through the industrialist’s political connections, Lazslo is able to bring his wife and niece to the States. His wife, Erzsebet, is now in a wheelchair from osteoporosis developed through starvation. The character of Erzsebet seems to be Laszlo’s conscience. She was never taken in by the charm of the industrialist, Harrison Lee Van Buren. On their first night together, she tells Lazslo: “I know everything.” Toward the end of the film, it is Erzsebet who confronts the family about what Harrison did to her husband. It is Erzsebet who knows the truth and speaks the truth. She has had to undergo her own journey to knowledge but she seems to be either further along than Lazslo or has a more mature response to the trauma they have both endured.
I think that Plato’s cave is represented in the film and it is primarily in two scenes both involving Van Buren. The first is in Italy and looks like Laszlo and Van Buren are in a structure resembling the catacombs. It is here that the most brutal scene is depicted. Van Buren wants what Lazslo possesses but the only way for Van Buren to have it is to take it through violence. The second scene is toward the end of the film when Harrison goes missing after Erzebet’s confrontation, in front of the family, revealing who their father really is. The camera follows a night-time search into the bowels of the structural foundation of the community center. The film cuts away from the search sequence before answering the question of whether Harrison is dead or alive.
The last part of the film is The First Architecture Biennale, Venice 1980. All are gathered to watch Laszlo receive an award. Erzsebet is now deceased and it is Laszlo who is now in a wheelchair. His niece, in accepting the award, speaks for him. It is during her speech that we learn that Laszlo modeled the chapel in the community center after the concentration camp that once imprisoned Laszlo and his family. Zsofia (whose name, Sophia, in Greek means wisdom) the niece, states: “One’s legacy is not really in the brilliant things you create. It’s the love you leave behind and the people you paved the way for.” It is not about the things but it is about something more essential. The slits at the top of the structure made possible the shadow of a cross to fall on the altar. The townspeople were appeased by the centrality of their religion within the structure. Erzsebet’s speech now makes clear that the slits were not to create the shadow of the cross but instead Laszlo was replicating what he saw when he looked up to the ceiling in the concentration camp. Through the gaps in the material, the light would shine.
The film ends with the revelation that townspeople were merely those within the cave that Plato wrote about. In the end, it was not about churches or concentration camps, but it was about something more essential. It was about the path that was paved for her, Laszlo’s niece. She concludes with “No matter what others try to sell you, it is the destination, not the journey.” The journey taken is of lesser importance and what matters most is that one arrives. What began with: The Enigma of Arrival ends with Laszlo having created the path for his niece. The enigma is now more clear because the word not only means fable but it also means something mysterious and puzzling. She states that when she arrived, she was silent and Laszlo was the one who did the talking for her but now, it is she who will do the talking. The entire film was not about the trials the human being faces. It was not about the architecture. It was not about the political backdrop. It was not about the recognition of human excellence. It was about her.