Five Shots: THE BRUTALIST
just what it details on the blueprint
Wet concrete, columns made out of people, and emotionally-driven jump cuts.
Frames Within Frames
Like any good film about architecture, you could built an entire class around the way it uses buildings and their components to create frames within frames.
This dinner shot dollies closer throughout a long shot, all the while the doors and hallways boxing everyone into a 4:3 frame.
When László (Adrien Brody) stands, he moves into yet another doorframe, and when the scene cuts to Zsófia and Binyamin (Raffey Cassidy and Benett Vilmányi) it reveals they’re also hemmed in by blocky structural columns.
Frames Within Frames (but make it people)
This shot is particularly interesting because it doesn’t use architecture to hem people in, instead after constantly framing people with columns and lines, it uses people as a sort of false architecture.
All the diners in their gray suits standing in lines on either side of Harrison (Guy Pierce) to create the same structural framing that usually doorframes and marble columns serve throughout the film.
What happens with Harrison in and after this scene makes how he’s framed here particularly telling.
Jump Cut
We recently dissected a longer scene which uses a jump cut (along with unusual framing) to convey a character’s shock and pain to the audience.
This edit works similarly: it evokes the way when you’re in an argument, sometimes you have a flashing moment of frustration, pain, or anger which ‘blips’ the rest of your senses for a moment as you try to process.
This is not a technique The Brutalist uses often, which makes me wonder if it was used to cut between two takes — one where the start worked, and one where the end which goes for a long walk across the field with László. But the piece before the cut is so short, and the cut so effective, it feels more like a creative choice.
It’s also possible they wanted to trim a line or two of exchange between László and Gordon (Isaach de Bankolé), but after seeing how every other conversation in the film is handled, I sincerely doubt that.
Wide Open Space
Much has been made of The Brutalist’s low budget. Most conversations being either inside, or in large pastural places is partly a function of the story, but also a definitely cost-saver. In this, one of the few extended conversations set in an exterior city space, the film makes the most of its establishing shot by getting as wide as it can and staying ‘open’ to the street.
Ideally you only needed a few minutes of full closure to get a lovely wide like this (and worst case scenario, you can drop in most of their conversation in post because their mouths are small and far from frame) before moving in for the closeups which would allow at least most of the street to open back up.
Wet Concrete
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