Oscar-winning Movie "The Brutalist" Explains the Tragedy of Modern Architecture and Planning
After winning the Best Motion Picture (Drama) prize at the Golden Globes, the film "The Brutalist" won three Oscars last night at the Academy Awards. This is huge recognition for a movie that offers such important lessons about why many modern cities lack beauty and make us stressed out.
My essay in Planetizen explains that the trauma endured by The Brutalist's main character are directly to blame for the cold, lifeless, and sterile buildings that shaped modern cities.
Pop culture is finally catching up to research I have been doing for many years!
What is not taught in this tale of so-called “genius” designers is the same lesson from The Brutalist: that for many of the leading architects of this period, it was trauma from war and violence that scarred their minds. Noted luminaries in this movement Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius were both infantrymen for the German army during World War I – personally confronting unimaginable horrors during years of trench warfare. Like Adrien Brody’s character Tóth in the film, van der Rohe and Gropius were never the same after their tangle with atrocities. Like most people impacted by trauma, they sought to allay themselves by revisiting their trauma – they literally rebuilt the landscapes of war, devastation, and death through their built work. Psychologists now call this 'reenactment', a typical PTSD response, as the body struggles to work through its trauma and heal.
Full essay here: What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities.
Thanks for reading!
Justin
You gave away the end of the movie 🍿.