Brady Corbet says ‘The Brutalist’ was always meant to have an intermission

“The Brutalist,” director Brady Corbet’s Oscar-contending epic, has gotten a lot of attention for its intermission. The three-and-a-half-hour-plus film has a 15-minute break in the middle, allowing moviegoers to use the facilities without missing any of Adrien Brody’s performance.  

At the Gotham Awards Monday night, where “The Brutalist” was nominated for two awards, Corbet told IndieWire that he was not pressured to add the intermission to the film. 

“It was always scripted, the intermission,” Corbet said. “It’s funny, it’s gotten more attention in a way than we expected it to. I personally have a hard time sitting still for three-and-a-half hours, so I needed it. And it was a public-facing decision.”

“Yeah, we always knew we wanted to have that break in the middle,” added Mona Fastvold, Corbet’s co-screenwriter and spouse. “You know, people sit at home and they watch eight to 16 hours of a limited series with little breaks in between, so if you apply that idea to this film, you’re just binging this movie with a little break in the middle. So, don’t be scared of the intermission.”

Intermissions used to be common in long films, but are rare now even in the handful of films that cross the three-hour mark. IndieWire notes when some theaters screened Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” with an unsanctioned intermission, the film’s editor Thelma Schoonmaker condemned the addition as “a violation.” “Killers of the Flower Moon” is three hours and 26 minutes long, which makes it one minute longer than “The Brutalist” if the intermission is not counted. 

“The Brutalist” tells the story of fictional architect Lazlo Toth (Brody), a Hungarian Jew who comes to America after World War II and works to become a great architect. The film is a strong awards contender in many categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. It opens in theaters on Dec. 20.