The Brutalist

The best opening sequence, I think, I've ever seen, I was in tears 3 minutes into the film. Worth seeing it in the cinema for that part alone. Absolutely stunning film. I was expecting the scale of brutalist architecture to be reflected in the photography, but it's filmmed in quite narrow shots, up close and personal, using wider framing sparingly, but to great effect, like that shot of a yellow crane against blues and grays of the surroundings, I have this image burned into memory now - a postcard of the industrial America of the 50s. The period setting and 70mm film give it that timeless appearance, it looks like it could have been made 50 years ago, while also it's sure to look just as amazing in another 50 years. Perhaps this is the brutalist quality of the film. The score is just as on point, ready to bring the whole thing to a boil at any moment or keep it at a gentle simmer, if need be. The story and the main charcter are constructed with great care and precision giving the film opportunities to explore lots of subjects without feeling overloaded or disjointed, it's all woven beautifully together and feels very authentic. Bearing that in mind, I am conflicted about it. While I don't want to reduce it to the surface level events, I feel it needs to be acknowledged that, given what is going on in the world right now, a jewish martyr story feels like shifting the conversation, rather than adding to it. I just can't quite remove it from the present moment, despite its timeless qualities. None of this is the film's or the filmmakers' fault and, if they say anything, it's that everyone deserves their dignity, but again, that is not where the converstion is right now. For a film that unmasks the American dream for what it really was, in a very bold and not at all subtle metaphore, it avoids any reconciliation with the zionist dream, only using familial drama to justify the Tóth family moving there eventually. I don't know what to make of all this, writing it down here, maybe I'll come back to this in some time with a better understanding.