Expect Venice Film Festival juror James Gray — the filmmaker behind epic American panoramas like “The Immigrant” and “Armaggedon Time” — to respond to Brady Corbet‘s staggering ambition “The Brutalist.” The VistaVision-shot, 215-minute portrait of a Jewish-born Hungarian architect (played by Adrien Brody) wowed crowds at its Sala Grande premiere Sunday night — and at press and industry screenings the day before that sent attendees into the night chattering even as early as the film’s 15-minute intermission, which includes a countdown to get you back in your seats.
Brody stars as László Tóth, a fictional architect so fully realizes that you’d be forgiven for thinking this is an arthouse biopic rather than an original conception from the “Vox Lux” director, screenwriting with his partner Mona Fastvold, who brought “The World to Come” to the Lido in 2020. Oscar-winner Brody’s (“The Pianist”) performance commands nearly every celluloid frame of this film, some 300 pounds of which Corbet and team transported to Italy and across 26 reels. Guy Pearce supports as the wealthy, perhaps nefarious patron who hires him to construct a library that all too closely resembles the concentration camp Tóth survived. Oscar nominee Felicity Jones (“The Theory of Everything”), in a role originally cast for Gray’s “The Immigrant” star Marion Cotillard, plays Brody’s wife, who arrives to Ellis Island via Budapest in a wheelchair caused by famine-induced osteoporosis from surviving a concentration camp also.
Reviews (including IndieWire’s own) have been rapturous and confounded in equal measure over the scope of Corbet’s third feature, whose sensibilities and grandeur echo New Hollywood classics, like Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America.” Corbet’s austere approach is firmly in the European tradition, though, which could appeal to jury president Isabelle Huppert. Competition awards are handed out this weekend.
Out of competition elsewhere, Jon Watts’ “Wolfs” enjoyed a respectable standing ovation for stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt. It’s a shame Apple will only put this crowd-pleasing crime comedy — about two fixers who end up hired to clean up the same mess — in theaters for a week starting September 20 before plopping it on the streaming service Apple TV+ to gin up subscribers. Maybe they will show up this time.
Monday on the Lido, Pedro Almodóvar arrived with his “The Room Next Door” stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton ahead of its competition bow at the Sala Grande. Next to come are Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” and Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux,” also in the main competition. Though word is high on Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “April” to upstage some of the splashier competition entries in terms of possible prize-garnering.
Keep reading IndieWire each day to learn about more highlights from the Venice Film Festival, whether Isabelle Huppert’s defense of cinema, audiences gushing over Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas, Nicole Kidman spicing up the Lido with “Babygirl,” or Jude Law and Harmony Korine bringing “Order” and chaos to the Lido.
