We’re now just under a month away from Brady Corbet’s staggering third feature The Brutalist and today brings a welcome tease. Daniel Blumberg composed over two hours of original music for the epic drama and today the first three Overture tracks that open the film have arrived: “Overture (Ship),” “Overture (László),” and “Overture (Bus).”
Of today’s three-track Overture, Blumberg says, “Brady and I wanted there to be continual music for the first 10 minutes of the film, and the entire opening sequence was actually shot and choreographed to the music using my initial demos. The Overture introduces the main players who appear throughout the film – including pianists John Tilbury, Sophie Agnel and Simon Sieger; Axel Dörner on trumpet; Evan Parker on saxophone – and it also covers the full spectrum of sounds and dynamics, the cacophony of the brass, the repetition of the prepared piano, the more lyrical piano melodies, and the instrumental techniques that blur with the diegetic sound. With the Overture I wanted to create this extremely disorientating, sensory overload that immediately immerses you in the film.”
As Rory O’Connor said in his review, “In Corbet’s miraculous introduction, a musical overture is disrupted by a dizzying climb: first Brody’s face, enveloped in shadows in the belly of a ship, then a race to the deck with Lol Crawley’s 70mm camera barely keeping pace. For a few dark moments it’s difficult to make out what’s going on––then, all of sudden, the score surges, the men reach clear sky, embracing as the Statue of Liberty breaks into the frame from above them, the New World turned upside-down. Mere moments in, we are already given a taste of what Corbet’s film will ultimately say about the American dream. For the opening act, Tóth moves in with his assimilated cousin (Alessandro Nivola), who already sports a new name and religion, and begins work in his furniture shop but soon gets the feeling that his modernist sensibilities may not be welcome. The relationship with Van Buren (who he meets after being given a chance commission to refurbish his library, producing a light-filled space that makes the pages of Life magazine) offers hope of artistic freedom and upward mobility; but soon ego, envy, and xenophobia rear their ugly heads. Corbet allows this mood to slowly fester away, building to a metaphor that is about as vulgar as it is cruelly effective. It is probably best to leave it there.”
Listen to the tracks below.
Here’s the full tracklist and cover art:
- Overture (Ship)
- Overture (László)
- Overture (Bus)
- Chair
- Van Buren’s Estate
- Library
- Jazz Club
- Porn
- Monologue
- Up the Hill
- Pennsylvania
- Bicycle
- Steel
- Intermission
- Erzsébet
- Handjob
- Bath
- Building Site
- Ribbon Cutting
- Picnic by the Lake
- Gordon’s Dinner
- Looking at You
- Train Crash
- New York
- Stairs
- Carrara
- Marble
- Tunnel
- Construction
- Heroin
- Search Party
- Epilogue (Venice)
The Brutalist opens on December 20.