25/34
from March 16 to May 5, 2023
Narrative
When visionary architect Laszlo Toth and his wife Erzsébete fled post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern America, their lives are forever changed by a mysterious, wealthy client. Filming took place over a total of 34 days. It was shot in Budapest, Hungary and Carrara, Italy. Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.: When dogs get sick, they often bite the hand of those who feed them until someone mercifully puts them down. Featured on The 7PM Project: Episode 10, December 2024 (2024).
It’s also very long
This film is ambitious, and it has some big ideas, but ultimately too many big ideas that cancel each other out. At the beginning of the film, I expected it to be a story about a concentration camp survivor. And it is, but it is also more complicated. It gradually becomes clear that there are more layers to the main character (played by Adrien Brody) than we thought. At first we see him as a refugee at the end of World War II, doing menial work in a relative’s small furniture factory to survive, but then we realize that he has a brilliant and creative mind that operates at a much higher level than his worldly position would suggest.
Almost everyone has treated him badly
He depends on other people to survive. At first they seem like kind benefactors, but then they turn out to be really slimy individuals. If something goes wrong, he is always blamed for it and sent packing. He realizes that as an outsider, an unwanted foreigner, he is at a huge disadvantage. In the end, the kindness of strangers turns out to be not so kind.
I don’t think I can give enough details without spoilers
But when his former pre-war stardom in architecture becomes known, suddenly those who despised him and treated him like trash start to suck him up because they want the prestige of being associated with him. Then there’s his sexual impotence, his budding heroin addiction, and his wife trapped in Europe by the endless bureaucracy of the repatriation process. It turns out to be similar to QUEER in that it’s very episodic and the episodes don’t connect neatly together. It’s also like QUEER in that, rather confusingly, many of the male characters can’t seem to keep their hands off Brody’s character, even though he never responds to it. This is a difficult film because there are a lot of good things in it, despite the fact that its plot just doesn’t come together.
Its greatest assets are the captivating art direction, cinematography, costumes, and performances by Brody and his wife
(It’s also true that they’re given the best material; the rest of the characters are straight out of 19th-century melodrama—a lovable orphaned wit, a “friend” who leads good people into bad habits, and a villain who does all the menial work but wears capes and twirls mustaches.) Overall, the film felt "underdeveloped" to me There’s a lot of potential here that just wasn’t realized. From Alien: Romulus to Road House, take a look back at some of our favorite posters from 2024.