PRODUCTION THE BRUTALIST
has lots of long Steadicam shots and handheld sequences. “My job as a cinematographer in creating those scenes is to really light the space, which is something that the great Harris Savides used to talk about a lot. Lighting the space and letting the actors have free rein.” For the most part, the director and DOP duo won’t exhaustively storyboard, unless there’s a lot of SFX or stunt work in a particular sequence. “We’re kind of old school in the sense that, while we’re very prepared, we don’t necessarily shot list every single scene – we want to respond to the space and the performances.” The danger with over shot listing and storyboarding, says Crawley, is that it can make you too rigid; too focused on the blueprint rather than what’s unfolding in front of you. “Christopher Doyle, who is a cinematographer that I greatly admire, says that in western cinema it’s ‘here’s the frame, how do you fill it’, whereas in Asian cinema, you say ‘here’s the world, how do I frame it?’ – I’ve always been of the latter persuasion. “I like the idea of the accidental; letting life in. Hopefully that life comes through in Brady’s films. Filmmaking is an alchemy, and that’s especially true when you’re shooting on film,” he continues. “When you process film, it goes away and then comes back, so there’s always a slight element of surprise. It’s incredibly alchemical, and we try to embrace it.” INTIMACY & TRANSCENDENCE The Brutalist ’s plot follows Tóth as he and his wife emigrate to the US in the aftermath of World War II. After a library he designs for Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) earns him acclaim, the wealthy industrialist commissions him to build a grand community centre in honour of his late mother. As the great structure takes shape, Tóth faces professional and personal battles; the film mapping the traumas and triumphs of his life while his masterwork comes to fruition. Like brutalism itself, “the film’s photography strikes a balance between minimalism and maximalism,” Crawley sums up. “It’s that balance between the absolute intimacy of human connection
IS THIS THE REAL LIFE? Though László Tóth is fictional, Crawley (right) took into account the actual events that inspired him
and the grandeur of Tóth’s work. The examination of that.” The intense, intimate moments – often captured handheld for a sense of immediacy and rawness – are contrasted with moments of release. “There’s this motif of emerging from the bowels of the earth through to the transcendence of light,” elaborates Crawley. “We see it on the ship, in the brothel and in the party scene in the mine in Italy. “It’s like we’re descending into hell, down this long tunnel, followed by a
10
DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
Powered by FlippingBook