Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon worked closely with director Brady Corbet to bring the epic, Oscar-nominated story of The Brutalist to life.
Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon are producers of Brady Corbet’s Oscar-nominated The Brutalist. Starring Oscar-nominee Adrien Brody, the film tells the sprawling epic story of an immigrant (Brody) who comes to America and brings with him the brutalist style of architecture he cultivated in Europe. The epic-length film (it has an intermission) emerged from the Venice Film Festival as a critics’ darling and featured prominently in year-end awards.
Here, in an interview with The Contending, Matthews and Gordon’s passion for The Brutalist and filmmaking is abundantly clear. Not only were they involved in making the film, but they are also genuine fans of it as a film and how it was made. They have worked for years in film and have been wanting to make films like this. Seeing how people have connected with The Brutalist has just encouraged them to make more.
The Contending: You both have talked about The Brutalist being the best script you’ve ever read, so what was it like to see the movie after feeling so strongly about the script?
Nick Gordon: That is sort of crucial to the craft of filmmaking. When you read a screenplay obviously everyone has a different image in their head just like if you were reading a novel. You imagine it all unfolding in a certain way personal to your own brain. So when the film comes out all of that gets reconfigured. But when you are producing the film you are seeing it in the middle, getting made. You are watching all these shots, and you’re watching dailies, and you’re seeing a loose construction of the film as it is coming together. If I was pinned down on this it was a very close match to what I had in my head, but Brady elevated it even further. He is just such a masterful filmmaker, and so every scene that you have in your head is even a better version when you get to see it on the screen.
Trevor Matthews: Which is so rare in our industry. On all of the films I made in the past, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the film crystallize as we are watching it on set. As Nick said, to improve the vision that you have in your head it is very rare.
The Contending: A big aspect of how the film has been promoted is the fact that it’s so epic in scope and yet had a smaller budget than most. How do you think that balance worked?
Nick Gordon: We get asked a version of that question a lot. Part of that is Brady (we are going to praise Brady a lot in this interview) had the vision and the skill to be able to achieve this at that number. Some of this is on the page, so when you see people walking out to the site where the building is going to be Brady puts the camera in exactly the right spot to capture that. Then you are shooting on VistaVision, which gives it this inherently epic nature because it’s a widescreen format and captures so much information. Translating that down to the opposite of that spectrum he would shoot close-ups on VistaVision. So the shot of Adrian and Alessandro hugging in front of the bus in VistaVision gives that same epic nature to the shot even though it’s very intimate. Just soup to nuts, he was able to say, let me eliminate everything I don’t need, let me get to the core image I’m looking to convey. Getting the maximum intellectual and emotional attachment to the moment, and he does that all day everyday.
Trevor Matthews: I just think there’s something beautiful and nostalgic about film. Also his images are staggering, and Brady’s understanding of quality control and not dipping below a certain level so it does not suspend your disbelief, but then also staying way above that level of quality so that every image with its color, framing, blocking was elevated so it was like a joy to see these images. It was just incredible to be a part of it.
The Contending: Your company Brookstreet Pictures was known for doing a lot of crime features and then you come out with The Brutalist that is hugely different from the work you’ve done before. Was it something where the timing just worked? The script just landed on your desk at the right time? Or was it a more strategic decision?
Trevor Matthews: Nick and I have been together now for 15 years at Brookstreet and we started with genre films because we were beginning filmmakers. Genre movies are filled with lots of stunts, gore, and comedy so you can make a B movie and there is still enough going on that people are forgiving and are still entertained by the genre. That, and squeaky doors and suspense is a lot less expensive than action and blowing up cars. So these genre films were my film school.
But in terms of films that we want to make, we talk about it as turning around an aircraft carrier in the fact that it doesn’t happen overnight. You are perceived as a studio that just does these genre films, so how do you over the next 10 years become a company that is respected? Who then gets to work with talents like Brady, Felicity, Adrien and Guy. It was a long run and we made a lot of strategic decisions over the 15 years we worked together making little films like O.G., and then larger films like John Michael McDonagh’s The Forgiven and Michael Keaton’s Knox Goes Away. It was a slow progression to getting to where we are now, which is being able to make meaningful and impactful independent cinema.
Nick Gordon: We share primarily the same taste in film. We like to think of ourselves as cinephiles. All our favorite movies are stuff from the 70s with all those great Indies with antiheroes made by the masters like Scorsese and Coppola. I think it was great to cut our teeth in this more forgiving genre where you can pull off a lot with really low budgets. But we knew we wanted to get to a place where we were working with bigger names. I also think what’s going on in the industry helped us a bit. Because A list talent are starved for interesting and more daring material that the studios don’t make anymore. So they will come to play in movies of this size, but they need to know that it’s the right script and the right filmmaker, and that the team that’s going to put it together is going to do it at the highest level of quality. We said to ourselves, that is going to be our brand, that is what we are going to move towards.
So it took us a while to get here, but when you’re making films they are like your children and you’ve got to love them all, but it is kind of an interim process. You can’t make The Brutalist without having made Knox Goes Away and The Forgiven before that. Same as you can’t make The Forgiven before making O.G. You’re learning different things with each one of these films and you’re trying to apply it at a higher and higher level each time.
The Contending: Speaking of getting to that level, The Brutalist marks your first major Oscar player. What has that experience been like for you?
Nick Gordon: We are just hanging on for dear life. I think we have said this before, nobody makes a movie to win an award, and that applies here. We were just trying to make the best possible film that we could, and you’re not really thinking about an outcome like this when you’re doing it. Now that we are here, yes, it is a wonderful ride we are all on, but I think the most rewarding and gratifying part of it is that the film is connecting with so many people, audiences and critics alike. That is really the greatest reward.
Trevor Matthews: What has always attracted me to this business is that there is a sense of adventure in making movies. I come from an action sport background like mountaineering and adventure travel and so to have a career that is so risky and adventurous was very attractive for me. It has also been a balance between commerce and art. This is a business and I see myself as an entrepreneur, and I want this to make fiscal sense and have a business that can grow and employ people. But also being able to work with Incredible artists, and it has been a great privilege working with all those great heads of departments across all the films we have made. For me this movie and the accolades as well as being able to connect with audiences and critics is also going to help us to grow the business moving forward. So it has been a real win across the board.
The Contending: In terms of people connecting with The Brutalist, my own personal experience with it was when I first saw it I wasn’t quite certain what I made of it. I knew I loved the performances but I was uncertain overall. Yet this film has stuck in my head in ways I really didn’t expect and keeps moving up in my estimation, and makes me really want to revisit it. So I’m curious if this is a reaction you have been getting from the film?
Trevor Matthews: As a producer you watch the movie so many times in post, and there are so many screenings, festivals, and events. Yet every single time the movie starts and I hear that score and I see the imagery on screen I feel guilty leaving the theater, and I want to sit down and watch it again because I pick up something new every time I watch it. It festers in your head and there are so many subjective parallels to life. I’m just fascinated by this movie and it’s the gift that just keeps giving for me. I love watching it over and over and over again. It just grows on you.
Nick Gordon: I think a lot of the credit goes to Brady and his style of storytelling. He is not interested in spoon feeding you and much more interested in coming at this from a more oblique way. It is a kind of elliptical editing style where there’s a lot of things that get planted and they don’t get paid off and they’re left for you to interpret and that’s all by design. The audience is forced to keep up, and you’re constantly being hit with these moments where you have to reevaluate what you thought you knew. Then you come out of the theater with as many questions as you have answers, and that’s what makes it great. You can’t stop thinking about it.
Trevor Matthews: A lot of people interpret things differently. Friends that have watched it have come up with narratives in their heads that I never even thought of. Like characters’ backstories or where they thought things went, and they are all interesting perspectives. I am glad that they all have those thoughts and opinions.
The Contending: With having such a long journey with The Brutalist over several years was there a particular moment that was difficult or memorable? Or a moment during your production that really stood out to you?
Nick Gordon: Making films is just difficult every day [Laughs], all day every day. I think part of the journey, which was interesting on this one was first COVID stopped this thing in its tracks in our first window. The war in Ukraine stopped this in its tracks in our second window. You can’t really plan for that stuff. Then, having to get a new cast, but we are so thrilled with this cast and you can’t picture anybody else in these roles honestly.
Trevor Matthews: For me it was when we were shooting out in the Hungarian countryside doing the exteriors of the Van Buren Institute. Shooting a film on multiple 35 mm vintage cameras like VistaVision on this sprawling epic Hungarian countryside with all these great exterior set builds and extras and the period clothing. Same when we were shooting in the Carrara mines near the end of the film. There was an authenticity to shooting on these locations on film that stems 100% from Brady and his passion for cinema. We didn’t have a lot to work with but we made the most of it. I have been making movies for 20 years now, and just working with Brady and the rest of our producing team and the people that Brady brings around him was invigorating. It fulfilled some childhood dreams of making projects like this. Those were highlights for me and definitely made me want to keep working in that space.
The Brutalist is now playing in theaters nationwide.
