Maxance Vincent
Brady Corbet‘s The Brutalist has been a massive awards contender since its world premiere at the 81st annual Venice Film Festival and has now won big at the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards. First, Corbet won Best Director, which was followed by Adrien Brody winning Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his portrayal of architect László Tóth.
However, what was once touted as too ambitious of a project that would not work or connect with audiences proved all of its naysayers wrong by coming out on top and winning Best Motion Picture – Drama, beating heavy contenders such as Dune: Part Two, Conclave, and A Complete Unknown.
Reflecting on such massive success, producer Nick Gordon of Brookstreet Pictures told Awards Radar on Zoom, “Nobody sets out to make a movie to get an award. You want to tell a great story and execute it at the highest level. But all the attention, the accolades, the love, and the praise are just very gratifying because they feel like a real recognition of all the hard work that went into it.”
Producer Trevor Matthews also explained that, from the beginning, the two knew they were a part of something special but didn’t know whether or not the film would have a broad mainstream appeal. However, this changed after the Venice premiere:
“After Venice, we had a lot more confidence that critics and audiences would appreciate the work. But from the beginning, this is something that we were proud to be a part of.”
Gordon explained that “Venice was a real game-changer. To come out of that Venice screening felt like a real indication that both critics and audiences are starved for this kind of material, something that’s so rich and layered and feels like classical cinema with essential things to say.”
Reading Corbet and Mona Fastvold‘s script at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the two producers knew that it was a masterpiece on the page and wanted to be a part of making it a masterpiece on the screen, even knowing that it would be a big ask for the audience.
Said Matthews, “We couldn’t think of one page that you could cut from the story because it was so well constructed. We looked at it and thought, “This is going to be a difficult task,” but every scene is essential when you go through the script repeatedly. There’s nothing that you want to lose from the story. It felt tight, even though it was such a long story. Also, Daniel Blumberg’s score, Judy Becker‘s production design, and Lol Crawley’s cinematography worked together in unison, which kept you entertained and made those three and a half hours almost fly by. Everybody came together and put their best foot forward. That score gives me chills every time the movie starts. Any time you expect the story to go one way, it pivots and diverts your expectations. So it’s everybody working together to make something entertaining and undeniable.”
A lot was discussed in our conversation, including some of the biggest challenges that occurred in not only getting the cameras rolling, but bringing Corbet’s uncompromised version to the screen. As the director so eloquently said at the Golden Globes, “films don’t exist without filmmakers,” and the producers trusted Corbet’s vision to the fullest. The result is not only the best film of 2024, but one of the most impressive independent productions ever made.
You can listen to my full interview with Nick and Trevor below and see The Brutalist in select cinemas today. The film will expand in more cities on January 17 before a wide release, including IMAX, on January 24.
See it on the biggest screen you can because, as Brady Corbet said,
“Maximum Volume Yields Maximum Results”
[Some of the quotes in this interview have been edited for length and clarity]
Comments
Loading…