When I first heard about the film The Brutalist, and that it’s a story of a Hungarian imigrant, my first thought was:
Let me guess. His first name is László.
Because they alwwys do this, don’t they?
And I thought I might write a little silly article about it, bringing up famous examplesy but it turned out it’s not just simple.
The first internationally known fictional character from a famous movie called László is Victor László, the husband of Ingrid Bergman’s character in Casablanca. But in this case it’s the character’s surname, furthermore, he is Czech, not Hungarian.
However, Casablanca was directed by Mihály Kertész, or as the world knows him, Michael Curtiz, a Hungarian filmmaker.
The second famous László is Almásy, the main character from The English Patient. But there is a little problem again. I kneo that the real historical figure the character loosely (really loosely) based on called László Almásy. But I just can’t recall, was his first name even mentioned in the story? (Either in the book, or in the film.)
And there is What We Do in the Shadows, where the character played by Matt Berry is called Laszlo Cravensworth. But I know really little about the series. (On the other hand, it makes sense using Hungarian names, because in popular imagination vampires are connected to Transilvania, what is, despite being in Rumania, etnically-culturally rather a Hungarian region.)
So, it looks like my braint tricked myself again, there isn’t sooo many fictional (or fictioanlized real) Lászlós out there.
Anyway, I just wanted to say, there are so many other Hungarian names would sound strange and unique enough to give a character.
(Fun fact: did you know that Ben Affleck’s middle name is Géza? )
Otherwise, I can’t really talk much about The Brutalist. It’s a well written and visually very exciting film. Also, Adrien Brody gives a hell of a performance. (Having seen also Conclave and The Apprentice, and comparing Brody’s performance to Ralph Fieness or Sebastian Stan’s acting, it’s more multi-layered, Brody had to be more versatile during playing László Tóth’s character.)
But unfortunatelly, I’ve just got bored halfway through the story.
Neverthelessy I’m pretty sure I will refer to this film in relation of other stories very often.
