“The Brutalist" Review | Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter |
| Written by: Jonathan Kleefield, M.D., Newton, Massachusetts, USA | Date: 03.06.2025 |
 For twenty years, it has been my honor to have been afforded the opportunity to contribute articles to this publication. In this span of time, there has been a literal revolution in the means to produce motion pictures- namely, the emergence of digital cinematography as a superlative technique for image capture. Nevertheless, even now, a group of filmmakers maintains a devotion to photographic film as their choice to create new content. Apparently, this preference was exercised in the production of the 2024 film, “The Brutalist". Moreover, its Director of Photography, Lol Crawley, made the additional effort to revive a large format technique, known as VistaVision, claiming it would provide a more period-accurate method to depict 1950’s America, given the process was created at Paramount Pictures in the early part of that decade. Additionally, Crawley has stated that his tests proved that renderings of architecture, which forms the core of this film, would be more optimally portrayed with VistaVision. He felt that other formats would entail the use of wide angle lenses that would lead to inevitable distortion of a building’s components. While I certainly would not question the judgment of a cinematographer who won this year’s Academy Award for “Best Cinematography,” watching this 3 1/2 hour epic did not provide visual evidence for me that these contentions were legitimate. Rather, much of the film displays a rather low contrast tonal palette, perhaps chosen to support the bleakness of much of the story. Despite being shot with Leitz lenses, I have seen this film multiple times, and do not feel that there is a heightened degree of image clarity which was to be obtained with VistaVision. While the pillars of the Brutalist buildings do not show distortion that is called “keystoning,” I do not feel that accurate depiction of those buildings required the large format technique, as a pleasing, undistorted composition could have been achieved with conventional 35mm film and perhaps a more distant positioning of the camera from the buildings being photographed. As a serious amateur photographer for most of my life, I never had access to VistaVision and was able to take pictures of buildings that are not distorted. Moreover, I feel that the time has come to admit that current digital cinematography in the right hands can produce images that have extraordinary fidelity in terms of color rendition and dynamic range- features that the “old guard” have claimed are unique to photographic film. I feel that digital technology recently created a film of remarkable beauty, whose subject matter included many buildings, as well as closeups of the actors’ faces. That production is “Conclave.” Set in Rome, it depicts the process of selecting a new Pope. Its cinematographer, Stephane Fontaine, was unfamiliar to me, but his mastery of composition, and particularly the use of strategic “practical lighting,” created images of arresting beauty and power. In my opinion, in Mr. Fontaine’s hands, the camera used, a Red Raptor 8K digital device, was every bit the equal, if not superior, to the VistaVision camera used in “The Brutalist.” I saw no annoying distortion of architectural elements, and in fact, the extraordinary cinematography created startling contrasts between the rich red robes of the Cardinals and the pale gray and white of the Carrara marble buildings- recall that the Carrara quarry was one “inspiration” stated by Mr. Crawley to use VistaVision! In summary, while I laud the intentions of the creators of “The Brutalist” to depict the horrors experienced by those fleeing oppression and adjusting to a new country, I did not feel that the use of VistaVision meaningfully enhanced that objective. For me, the best examples for the use of VistaVision come from Hitchcock and his cinematographer, Robert Burks. My favorites remain unchallenged for me- "Vertigo" and "North By Northwest", released in 1958 and 1959, respectively. Fantastic 4K UHD Blu Ray releases of both films make the opportunity to optimally view those films secure for the foreseeable future. I am grateful to have lived these past twenty years to experience a remarkable evolution of cinematographic equipment, as well as the ability to view such material, now in the comfort of my own screening room. The latter I have spoken about in past submissions to this journal. Given that the average public cinema does not pay careful attention to optimizing projection, nor the theatre “experience” by even using a curtain (!), I now feel very lucky to be able to make my own video adjustments to produce a truly remarkable image and good sound quality at home. I maintain that is the least that one should do to pay proper respect to and maximize enjoyment of these landmark motion pictures. | More in 70mm reading: “The Brutalist" About the 70mm Prints “The Brutalist”: The 70mm Presentations “The Brutalist" - International Press Notes The Paramount VistaVision Process Horizontal VistaVision Projector in70mm.com's page about VistaVision in70mm.com News Peripheral Vision, Scopes, Dimensions and Panoramas in70mm.com's Library Presented on the big screen in 7OMM 7OMM and Cinema Across the World Now showing in 70mm in a theatre near you! 70mm Retro - Festivals and Screenings |
| "The Brutalist" Cinematography awards • BAFTAS 16. February 2025, Best Cinematography - Lol Crawley • OSCARS 2. March 2025, Best Cinematography - Lol Crawley | |
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