A part of the most discussed film of 2024 takes place in the quarries of Carrara, in praise of a unique and international material
In last year’s sensation The Brutalist by Brady Corbet, the protagonist architect, despite being loyal to raw concrete, convinces the reluctant client to follow him to choose the stone block that will become the altar at the center of his grand project. The film moves away from the United States for a dreamlike and breathtaking interlude section in a Carrara marble quarry.
What does Carrara marble have to do with a film about a brutalist—who, by definition, works with béton brut, exposed concrete—originally from Budapest and immigrated to the United States? Clearly, the aura of natural stone knows no boundaries: it certainly reached the director, Brady Corbet, a 36-year-old from Arizona, who had been trying for years to get permission to film inside the Carrara quarries. That is, until he happened to mention it to the lead actor of his latest film, Adrien Brody, who revealed he is a close friend of the owner of one of the quarries. And so is explained the sudden transition in the middle of The Brutalist from the rural landscapes of Pennsylvania to the iconic Apuan Alps, particularly Mount Bettogli, where the Statuario and Calacatta marbles are extracted.
Brody plays László Toth, a brutalist architect of Jewish descent who survived anti-Semitic persecution. The film, which follows the story of his arrival in America and the troubled creation of his most important project, has recently won the Silver Lion for best direction at Venice, three Golden Globes, and three Oscars. As expected, the monumental project at the heart of the epic is entirely made of raw concrete (Toth nearly assaults the construction manager who suggests covering the building). But the altar of the chapel within the complex, the only exception to such rigor and the true heart of the project, is a monolith of white marble. Toth is adamant: it must be Italian marble, which will shine like no other material when sunlight hits it, projected through a cross-shaped opening in the ceiling.
Thus, in the most scenic section of the film, the architect and the client travel to Carrara to personally select the block to be used. The magnate, reluctant after the long intercontinental journey and the strenuous climb to the quarry, is immediately mesmerized when he finds himself face-to-face with what the Romans called marmor lunensis, for its moon-like sheen. After their Italian guide pours water on a stone block to reveal its luminosity and veins, the American, left speechless, gently touches the surface and presses his ear to it, as if it were a human body, and for a moment, it seems as if a heartbeat can be heard. In a film full of hostility and tension, this is a moment of magical and surreal calm, almost dreamlike, in the white landscape of the quarry surrounded by clouds of the same color. In an instant, beyond all conflict and issues, the unique material reveals the direct line between Toth’s project, Michelangelo’s David, and the Roman Colosseum, validating its existence in the eyes of history.
Images: https://www.universalpictures.it/micro/brutalist
Credit: Universal Pictures