The film, which has been nominated for ten Academy Awards, tells the story of a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who escapes the Holocaust to flee to the United States, where he forms a complicated relationship with a wealthy businessperson.
Adrien Brody portrays the protagonist Lászlò Tòth who arrives in his adopted hometown in 1947 and is approached by Guy Pearce, the charismatic but somewhat unscrupulous Harrison Van Buren, to collaborate on a highly ambitious and innovative architectural project.
Viewers may be wondering who this brilliant architect was? The answer is that he never actually existed.
The film "The Brutalist" is not a biographical drama, but rather a composite of several individuals from real life.
They all share one common link; they were the pioneers of Brutalism, a highly influential, yet polarizing architectural movement.
Director Brady Corbet stated that the protagonist of the film was inspired by a series of real-life individuals.
Brutalism was a style of architecture characterized by the use of exposed, unfinished concrete and steel to create striking and visually striking structures.
However, this sparked contrasting reactions. Critics argued it was cold and unattractive, whereas its supporters praised it, saying it produced some of the 20th century's most striking buildings.
Brutalism emerged as a dominant architectural style in the post-war period, where functionality took precedence over comfort.
Who were the true Brutalists?
Among those was Marcel Breuer, a Hungarian-born modernist architect of German descent. He shares many similarities with the fictional character of Tòth.
He was of Jewish origin, born during the late 19th century and later relocated to the United States.
His most renowned structures are all marked by enormous slabs of concrete.
There is the flying carpet-shaped entrance to the UNESCO buildings in Paris (1956), the bell tower at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota (1954), and the aerial sky bridges at the New York University Bronx buildings.
A notable design by Breuer was the 945 Madison Avenue, a large, modernist-brutalist art gallery building, now known as the Breuer Building, in New York.
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His imposing home in Hampstead, a leafy London suburb, is one of his most renowned architectural creations.
The Balfron and Trellick towers, two notable high-rise residential buildings in London, are also among his most famous - or infamous – architectural creations.
In 1996, when the National Trust opened its own home in Hampstead, Balfron and Trellick towers were designated as listed buildings, and Ernő Goldfinger's work was rediscovered by a new generation of architecture enthusiasts.
Louis Kahn, who immigrated from Estonia to the United States as a young boy, was widely regarded as one of the most influential architects of the 20th century.
The Biological Institute in California was established to create a research center in collaboration with Jonas Salk, a renowned polio researcher, who initiated the project in 1959. The Kimbell Art Museum in Texas, built in 1972, features distinctive vaulted structures. What sets it apart is the use of wing-shaped aluminum reflectors that distribute natural light within the museum.
One of Kahn's most renowned projects is the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India, which was completed in 1974. Its distinctive brick exterior has become a notable landmark. Unfortunately, Kahn did not live to witness the completion of this design.
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Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was so appalled by the brutalist home of architect Goldfinger in Hampstead during his time as a wartime spymaster, that he named one of his most infamous villains after him.
The Hungarian architect was greatly upset and threatened legal action against the author, but he changed his mind when he received six complimentary copies of the novel that bore his name.
Both Goldfinger and Breuer were linked with the Bauhaus movement, a pioneering art school established by Walter Gropius.
The movement existed between 1919 and 1933, but Gropius's idea was to integrate art, architecture, and design into a single, modern, and forward-thinking framework.
Other notable architects associated with this movement included Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
The Nazis strongly criticized Bauhaus, associating it with Judaism and communism and labeling it as "degenerate art".
When the Nazis seized power in Germany during the early 1930s, this put the followers of the Bauhaus movement at risk.
Worried about their future, Breuer and Gropius left Germany. Unlike the penniless fictional Tòth character, Breuer and Gropius were well-off. The artist Otto Dix was less fortunate. His paintings were labeled "an insult to the German heroes of the Great War" in a state-sponsored exhibition called Degenerate Art.
Painter and sculptor Otto Freundlich, whose sculpture "Der Neue Mensch" (The New Human) was used to illustrate the cover of the catalogue for the "Degenerate Art" exhibition.
An innovator in the Dada movement, his cubist works were a German response to his friend Picasso, and he moved to France.
The Spanish artist used his influence to get Freundlich released from prison, but he was later sent to the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland. At 64, he was deemed unfit for forced labor and was executed.
Brutalism has inspired a devoted and enthusiastic following.
The artist has expressed her disapproval of the recent proposed changes to a brutalist 1960s apartment building in her hometown of Margate in Kent.
Arlington House, an 18-story building constructed in 1963, features a unique wave design that mirrors the nearby sea, incorporating pre-cast concrete panels and sliding glazed windows.
– Award for the best architectural design of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez library in Barcelona.
The building resembles a massive stack of books and achieves its objective: to encourage people to read. On our visit last year, people were waiting in line outside the door when we arrived to conduct an interview with the couple.
They view Brutalism as more of a design aesthetic than a distinct architectural movement. It elicits strong reactions from people, with some admiring its imposing concrete structures while others dislike them.
Sevillano stated that no matter the reaction to this style of architecture, brutalism has had a far-reaching impact globally.
He is a great admirer of the works of the late Paulo Mendes da Rocha, a renowned Brazilian architect who is particularly notable for his adherence to the brutalist architectural style.
His most renowned works include the Guaimbe Residential Building in Sao Paulo, Brazil's pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan, the Serra Dourada Stadium in Goiânia, Brazil, and Saint Peter Chapel in Brazil.
Sevillano also highlighted the impact of this distinctive style in Japan and India.
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