“The Brutalist,” the epic starring Adrien Brody as a Holocaust survivor and architect, took home the top drama prize at the Golden Globes on Sunday, triumphing in a field that included the journalism ethics thriller “September 5” and the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”
In the weighty film, directed by Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”), Brody is the fictional László Tóth, who tries to realize his grand vision in postwar America. Though some viewers have come away from the film thinking that László is based on a historical figure, he is in fact the creation of Corbet and Mona Fastvold, his co-writer and partner, who told The New York Times they consulted experts to make sure there was no resemblance to a real person.
“We wanted to talk about these bigger concepts,” Fastvold said, “and if you’re locked into a real person, then it’s harder to do so because you’re married to what happened to them vs. just looking at this period in time and the relationship between postwar psychology and postwar architecture.”
The film was the second-most-nominated film of the night (after “Emilia Pérez”) with nods for Brody, who won best actor in a drama; Corbet, who won best director; Felicity Jones (who played the architect’s wife); Guy Pearce (as his wealthy patron); and the screenplay and score.
“The Brutalist” has earned much praise this awards season, taking first-place honors from members of the New York Film Critics Circle and the runner-up prize from their Los Angeles brethren. And it’s considered a likely best picture contender when the Oscar nominations are announced on Jan. 17.
On Sunday, Corbet told the audience, “No one was asking for a three-and-a-half-hour film about a midcentury designer on 70-millimeter. But it works.”
