Within the opening sequence of Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, we are thrown into 1940s Pennsylvania and a decade-spanning journey that starts off with an upside down Statue of Liberty. The film itself utilizes a period-accurate film format called VistaVision from the 1950s as we follow architect László Toth throughout his journey as he begins to work with a wealthy industrialist named Harrison Lee Van Buren on a expansive community center. Offscreen Central had the opportunity to speak with Cinematographer Lol Crawley on his third film collaboration with Corbet, one take shots, and what happens when the film rolls run out on set.

Leia Mendoza: Hi Lol! I’m so excited to talk to you about The Brutalist. I want to say congratulations on the Golden Globes and your BAFTA nomination, which is so rightfully deserved! 
Lol Crawley: Thank you!

Leia Mendoza: The Brutalist just means so much to me. It was my favorite film of last year and it’s taken up a very important spot of my top films ever. When I saw the film, I actually saw the film in 35mm, and when I saw the upside down Statue of Liberty, I just started tearing up at the sight of it. 
Lol Crawley: Thank you! It’s really had a huge impact, especially with that sequence. That whole ship sequence, which we can talk about of course, really is resonating with people. It’s good to know. 

Leia Mendoza: I was reading up on this throughout the week that the main camera body that the film was shot on was from the 70s and you guys had filmed with ARRI 35mm camera throughout the production. It’s like a mix of past technology with VistaVision with new lenses and ARRI cameras. I imagine that you, and your camera operator Attila [Pfeffer], who I have to shout out, and Brady definitely had a lot of conversations about adjusting and angling since you’re shooting like this. 
Lol Crawley: Yeah! I’ve shot Brady’s three films and we’ve always shot on film. It’s always been a stipulation, certainly for these three movies, and that might change. But, probably not, knowing Brady! He really loves to shoot film. VistaVision is a 35mm format, but it’s pulling the film through horizontally rather than vertically. So, you have twice the negative area. Initially, Brady wanted to explore that and shoot the movie in that way. So, to your point, there was a mix of camera formats. He wanted to shoot on VistaVision for two reasons. One is that a lot of the movie takes place in the 1950s, and the birth of VistaVision was during the 1950s, so he felt it was appropriate to use the camera system from that era. And then, the other camera systems that we had to use by necessity were an ARRI 235, an ARRI 435, ARRI Cam LT ST, largely because some of the handheld sequences. Like the scene on the ship for example, I’m holding the camera up and down staircases and if it was a bigger camera, like the VistaVision, it would’ve just kind of fallen off my shoulders. It would’ve not been easy to work with. Where a majority of the film was VistaVision, we supplemented it with other cameras and predominantly film but by the end of it, there’s also some DigiBeta were shooting for the epilogue that is set during the 1980s. 

Leia Mendoza: One thing I noticed is that Adrien [Brody] is pretty tall and I feel like László as a character where he’s trying to figure out where he stands with his perspective on the American Dream and it often makes him feel small. I don’t know if that was intentional but I love how we get László’s perspective throughout the film and how small he feels. I think the VistaVision in a way plays a large part in that. 
Lol Crawley: Oh, interesting! That’s a really interesting point. I mean, the most extreme version of that I suppose is in Carrera where you have a sequence that starts inside the marble quarry. You don’t have any sense of scale until the figures arrive and then suddenly, it puts it into perspective, and of course, that was VistaVision as well. It’s interesting because there’s other points where there’s not that many close-ups in the movie. I think what we were trying to do in the spirit of cinema was that in every frame show the space and the characters within it, which is what cinema historically has always tried to do. It’s the big screen, and you don’t need to be in all the time. And yet, there’s some moments where László steps up to the camera with the cigarettes and the sparks are coming through the frame, and it’s become the iconic poster moment. Moments like that where he really commands the frame. It’s interesting, but moments like that when he’s in charge of his creativity as well. It’s interesting that you picked up on that. 

Leia Mendoza: I was talking to Judy [Becker] last week and we got onto the topic that she was very grateful she went location scouting with you at times. She said that most of the time you sign onto a film, the production designer and the DP don’t really collaborate on location scouting or trying to figure out how something should be shot properly or to amplify certain things. I would love to know about the scene where Van Buren and László go to Italy and they’re walking around. 
Lol Crawley: It’s interesting that Judy has said that! I think it comes back to something that Brady has said where we shot the film in 33 days for somewhere around $10 million dollars. You can’t waste any of that. There’s no sense of Judy designing something we’re never going to see, that conversation has to happen where you all have to be on the same page and Judy has to be like “Well, listen, how much of this are you going to see?” and you really have to kind of cut your cloth in that regard. And then, coming back to your question about Carrera, that was an interesting one because there had been discussions in pre-production where it was like “Oh, surely there’s some quarries that exist in Budapest that we can use!” and I think they went to see them. I didn’t go to see them, but Judy and Brady went to see them. There was no way around it. When we saw Carrera was and is, and it’s extraordinary. There’s no way you can replicate it with the red stone quarries in Budapest, or anywhere else in most of the world. They’re just remarkably unique. To the producer’s credit and to Brady and Judy’s credit, they were like “No, we have to stand firm on this,” because it’s such a pivotal part of the movie. He’s taking Van Buren to select this marble, and then Van Buren fetishizes by pressing his face against the cold slab. There’s no way we could’ve cheated that. And so yeah, that location. Brady knew it had to be Carrera and I think Adrien was instrumental in securing the location because he knew people who owned some of the mines, I believe. It all kind of came together beautifully. It was the most extraordinary location. 

But then also, when we came to film it, we had selected it because when we went on the scout, you see all these amazing galleries below you but when we turned up, it was all foggy. We were all kind of slightly devastated because why did we come all this way, and you can’t see it? But then, now in the context of the movie, of course that’s absolutely perfect. The strange dream-like moment where you follow this mysterious figure through marble. So, it all came together ultimately. 

Leia Mendoza: I heard that the first day of filming was the scene where László goes to the jazz club. I feel like in a way, that scene and the scene where Van Buren and László almost parallel each other because they’re so similar and shot in low light. The film doesn’t have artificial light, you all were using natural light. How did natural light help with shooting in VistaVision?
Lol Crawley: Well, a lot of our exterior shots, I tend to lean into the available light. I come from a tradition of naturalistic light anyway, and Brady kind of responds to that. A lot of time I’ll end up lighting spaces in a way that looks quite invisible and looks naturalistic, and I’ll try to light the spaces for the actors. Like, some of the scenes as you know, like the scene where Erzsébet accuses Van Buren, it’s an incredibly ambitious shot and there’s no where to hide lighting wise. I had to light that place. It was very tricky, there was no way to hide. I really relied on my gaffer to help me out with a lot of that as well. In terms of the VistaVision, one thing about the VistaVision is that the field of view  is much bigger and that’s one of the reasons why we shot with it. If we shot on a 35mm lens, you would have a wider field of view so it means that you’re not forced to shoot on wider lenses, which then distorts the photography but will distort the image. But the other thing is if you have a higher resolution, and the danger is when you cut to the VistaVision shots from any other format, that it starts to feel too clean. We ended up really push processing, under exposing the VistaVision and trying to take that modernity out of it and still imbue it with a texture that the rest of the film had. But in terms of lighting, I didn’t approach the lighting of the VistaVision differently. You don’t have to expose differently even though you’re shooting more film negative. So, that wasn’t necessarily a consideration. 

Leia Mendoza: You touched on this scene and it’s one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie. It’s where Erzsébet confronts Van Buren at the end of the film and it’s all done in one shot. It’s one of the most intimate scenes and there’s a lot of intimate scenes, like when Erzsébet and László are in bed, and even with Van Buren’s monologue at the holiday party and we never cut away from what he’s saying. I feel like in so many scenes in The Brutalist that puts the audience into their shoes for a brief moment whether it’s Erzsébet confronts Van Buren or when Van Buren is talking to László about his past. Was it intended to always be in one shot and to have the audience get in their shoes? 
Lol Crawley: I think so, yeah. From the first film we did together, Brady has a very assured sense of how he wants to achieve these scenes. He’s very ambitious. Single shots for entire scenes, using a steadicam rather than a handheld shot, something like that. I forget where the quote came from, but there’s a director who famously said “Every cut is a lie,” which I think is a really interesting idea that you’re manipulating time and you’re also potentially forcing the viewer out of a certain reality by cutting away. I definitely think there’s an intensity that builds when the accusation Erzsébet to Van Buren, being in that moment, you are participating and it’s like you’re in the room right with them. I think the same for the monologue scene. There aren’t that many times when Brady and I will choose to cross shoot scenes, and that means having two cameras at the same time pointing essentially at each other. The other scene is in the diner. These long scenes, we also just felt like it was fair on the actors to shoot them simultaneously better for that way but also for editorial. It’s the same, similar to a scene with Natalie Portman in Vox Lux with a diner scene and we cross shot that. So, we don’t do it a lot but it doesn’t make it easier to light with cross shooting, and there’s always a certain amount of compromise but when possible and asked by Brady, I’ll try to deliver. 

Leia Mendoza: When me and my best friend were watching it, I saw it for the first time with her. When we were watching the accusation scene, me and her were holding onto each other. We were like, “I can’t believe this is happening, like is this happening?” and it’s because of the one shot. It really does exemplify everything and telling so much and putting us in the space. 
Lol Crawley: For that scene, I remember Brady saying “I want to shoot this in a way that feels like steadicam, and then it turns to handheld, and then steadicam again,” and I was like “Okay, well, I don’t know how we’re going to do that,” but he said “I don’t want to cut or shoot it two different ways, I want it to evolve and go back to steadicam.” So as you mentioned our steadicam operator, Attila Pfeffer, I’ve never seen anyone do this but he literally handheld the steadicam rig, which was remarkable. It’s the moment where Joe Alwyn’s character exits the frame and you don’t realize because you’re watching and involved with Guy Pearce’s performance that out of no where, he rips Erzsébet’s walking frame from her, motivating the camera to turn into handheld. And then it writes itself through the end of that at the end of the scene. So not only was that highly ambitious, lighting it was highly ambitious without getting any lights in shot. We didn’t have the VFX budget to take very light out of shot like other cinematographers may do. 

And also, our heart was in our mouths. Because I know in one of the takes, we ran out of film as Joe was running down the stairs. And so, once we realized how the performance barely fit onto a roll of film, we’d have this amazing take and it’s funny that you say you were holding onto your friend, because we were holding onto each other as we were filming it because we were like “Oh my god, this performance is amazing!” and we had no idea how much film we had left in the magazine! So, every single take we were just kind of like gripping each other in just hope that we were going to have it in the can!

Leia Mendoza: I brought like 15 of my friends to go watch it and our audience was just having such a visceral reaction. So I’m glad that we were all holding onto each other, even on the making of the film! I’m like “Guys, we were all going through it,” We were all feeling it! 
Lol Crawley: That’s amazing! Thank you for supporting the film so much. 

Leia Mendoza: Oh my gosh, absolutely. I grew up around brutalism and it’s one of my favorite art forms, so of course. I’ve been doing a Brady deep dive so I’ve watched Vox Lux, and I still need to watch The Childhood Of A Leader. But I’m so excited to continue watching anything involving this film. 
Lol Crawley: I am optimistic that if you liked this film, The Childhood Of A Leader will not disappoint. 

Leia Mendoza: I’m so excited to watch it. But, really, thank you so much. This movie means the absolute world to me and I’m making everyone go watch it. I’m just like “We have to go support this movie!” because I don’t think there’s anything quite like it and I was telling Judy how I haven’t seen a film like this in a long time and I don’t know if we’ll see a film like this again, but she said until Brady’s next one, so I’m holding onto hope. 
Lol Crawley: Yeah! 

Leia Mendoza: I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me, thank you. I can’t wait to see what you guys do next. 
Lol Crawley: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. It’s been a real pleasure talking to you, thank you. 

The Brutalist is currently playing in theaters.
You can find our review of the film here.