Brutalism, A Process
Alternative movie poster concept for The Brutalist, by Agustín R. Michel
$10 million dollars.
That's how much it cost to make The Brutalist. Just for sake of comparison, the reported budget of 2019's Avengers Endgame is estimated to be between $356-400 million.
So how exactly does a movie like this get made?
From the get-go Corbet knew the road to The Brutalist was always going to be a long one. When he started working on the project in 2017, of course, he couldn't have anticipated just how long it was going to be. The film, originally meant to shoot in Poland, hit one of its early challenges in early 2020, when COVID meant the country shut down the very same day the crew was supposed to arrive for pre-production.
As things started to open up, the tax credit that was imperative for the project's budget became a question mark when Russia invaded Ukraine. So a pivot was necessary.
When The Brutalist had an early screening in 70mm at the Toronto International Film Festival lightbox in late 2024, TIFF Chief Executive Officer Cameron Bailey introduced Corbet highlighting his singular voice and his extensive experience in front and behind the camera. It's the very same experience that paid off and allowed Corbet to think on his feet and move production to Hungary.
Alternative movie poster concept for The Brutalist, by Agustín R. Michel
One of Corbet's early projects, The Childhood of a Leader (also co-written by Corbet and by his writing partner and wife, the equally talented Mona Fastvold) was mostly filmed in Hungary. Corbet's hard work scouting the country meant that he knew what was available and was able to virtually tour the country as he prepared for The Brutalist, while travel still continued to be difficult in 2021.
"I knew it was the only place that I felt I knew well enough to plan remotely," explains Corbet in a conversation with Layered Butter. "We arrived at the top of 2022 and shot the film in March."
The Brutalist's two-part structure (plus accompanying prologues and epilogues) is not unlike Corbet's own two-part journey to get the film completed. Post-production took another couple of years carefully working on the lengthy movie–all while continuing to raise money to support the project.
The initial budget of 8 million dollars wasn't big enough to contain the scope of Corbet's vision.
"I mean, 10 million was really the minimum and the maximum that the market would allow it to be made for," Corbet admits. But he also knows exactly where any additional money would make the most difference. "[It] mostly just affected our quality of life while we were making the film. I believe it would have been the same film if we had an additional one and a half or two million dollars, I really do, but we wouldn't have had to work seven days a week, we wouldn't have had to work 20-hour days."
Image from The Brutalist, courtesy of Elevation Pictures.
Corbet recalls one particularly extensive day that took 23 hours. They could only afford the studio they were working in for a limited amount of time and when they got to the last day, they weren't finished. No matter how quickly they worked, they just needed more time.
At a CAA screening, Variety reported that Corbet had spoken about the real sacrifice coming from the Heads of Department. A sacrifice that sometimes is necessary to get a project like this over the finish line but can sometimes come with a sense of injustice.
"What's very tricky is that filmmakers are frequently exploited because [they] are treated not as if they're someone doing a job, but that it's a privilege to be able to make your film," Corbet said. "So frequently the powers that be sort of lean on the filmmaker who's so desperate to get their project off the ground that they're willing to do it for free, which becomes increasingly difficult as you get older."
Alternative movie poster concept for The Brutalist, by Eileen Steinbach
Corbet now has a 10-year-old daughter. He lives modestly in a world that has become undeniably more expensive. He finds that his peers are often in the same boat. Promoting their films while wondering how they will pay their rent.
"Ultimately it’s not acceptable," Corbet says clearly. "I've done three movies this way, and when I make the next one, I just need to be able to pay my rent while I'm working on the project, because a lot of distributors and exhibitors and producers and studios [frequently] benefit because of the filmmakers' work."
Corbet does concede that an increased budget can come with an increased number of stakeholders wanting their voice to be represented in the final projects.
"For me, when I pick up a novel, I don't want to read a book that was written by 24 people. I certainly don't want to read a book that was written by 24 executives at a streaming service."
Image from The Brutalist, courtesy of Elevation Pictures.
In the end, his sacrifice, his ability and his desire for his voice to carry through has paid off. The Brutalist is being hailed by many as the movie of the year (read our review here) and regardless of awards or acclaim, the film is something definitive that Corbet can stand proudly behind.
"I think this film happens to be about [the complicated relationship between an artist, their vision and the commercial nature of the business," Corbet says. "[It's like Zsofia says] 'You know, in fact, it is the destination, not the journey'"
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