Are you wondering about the meaning behind the title of the film by Brady Corbet starring Adrien Brody, The Brutalist? And what’s that got to do with The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson?

Full disclosure upfront: the connection between these two films lives mostly in my own head. Both have links to Budapest, Hungary–although Wes Anderson’s film only has a tenuous one via the name of the hotel. But there is an interesting cross-section of trivia concerning brutalist architecture in Budapest that die-hard cinema fans might be interested to know.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

As one of the most popular Wes Anderson films, there are always a lot of questions posed online as to where filming took place and where the real Grand Budapest Hotel can be found. The fairytale-like exterior of the hotel featured in the film was unfortunately not filmed in Budapest. It was, in fact, only a model, although Anderson was clearly inspired by the aesthetic of Central Europe’s Secessionist and Art Nouveau style. Interior filming took place (and sets were inspired by) an old department store in eastern Germany in the city of Görlitz, near the border of Czechia and Poland.

But there is an actual Hotel Budapest in Budapest which could be seen, architecturally speaking, to be the complete opposite to the style of the hotel in the Wes Anderson film. This is because the real Hotel Budapest was built in the brutalist style of the 20th century.

Brutalism in The Brutalist

We’ve written about Brutalism in previous posts: a mid-century architectural movement particularly popular in Eastern Europe (The Soviet Union and ex-Soviet satellite nations) as well as in the UK where it originated. The style commonly featured unpainted concrete or brick and angular shapes and was characterised by highly minimalist design that eschewed anything ornate or decorative.

Several striking examples of the style exist in Budapest, one of which being the Hotel Budapest, locally referred to as körszálló (the round hotel) because the building is perfectly, well, round.

The Hungarian architect behind Hotel Budapest

Designed by György Szrogh, an Ybl Miklós-prize-winning Hungarian architect, the hotel (comprising of 19 levels and 280 rooms) was finished in 1967. The building was considered very Avante-garde and the building methods utilized in its construction ground-breaking at the time. It quickly became a hot spot for local and international stars to stay and party hard, the bar and terrace at the top of the building especially popular for the bird’s eye views it afforded across the city. 

Hotel Budapest, located on the Buda side of the river, has become an iconic landmark of the city and had still been functioning as a hotel up until the beginning of this year. Due to a change in owners (according to current news reports) the new owners of the building are in negotiations over refurbishments with plans to open again as an exclusive residential building.

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