AI Gets Brutal Treatment
Courtesy of A24
I recently saw the Academy Award nominated film The Brutalist, in the theatre, complete with an intermission. I was mesmerized and celebrated the glory of film and the art spirit. Being a designer, I truly appreciated the opening and closing titles, which challenged every notion of convention. A theme celebrated by the Bauhaus and Brutalism.
But alas, there is petty Oscar® controversy. Nat Jones of The Vulture writes, “The controversy sprang from an interview the film’s editor, Dávid Jancsó, gave to an outlet called RedShark News in which he spoke of using an AI voice-cloning tool, Respeecher, to tweak Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones’s Hungarian dialogue. “If you’re coming from the Anglo-Saxon world certain sounds can be particularly hard to grasp,” Jancsó said. “We were very careful about keeping their performances. It’s mainly just replacing letters here and there.” Additionally, RedSharkNews reported that the film had used generative AI “to conjure a series of architectural drawings” for the movie’s epilogue, which takes place at a career-achievement ceremony for the titular Brutalist at the Venice Biennale.”
Nat continues, “Complicating matters was the fact that The Brutalist was not the only film in the race to wield the Respeecher tool: Emilia Pérez and Maria employed it to aid their actors’ singing. Furthermore, while ReSpeecher does use generative AI, and has been used to do creepy stuff like revive the voices of dead celebrities, its use in The Brutalist doesn’t seem to cross any more ethical boundaries than other digital touchups common in post-production. Brody and Jones consented to their performances being altered; the Hungarian accent synthesized with their voices was Jancsó’s own. There doesn’t appear to be a victim here.”
Exactly, why the outrage? Who could sue who? I have always believed that AI/ML are useful tools and when they are put in the hands of veteran film editors, as in the case with Dávid Jancsó. Why would he not use these tools? It takes the pressure off of Brody and Jones to learn the perfect Hungarian dialect. Which is a difficult language, I am part Hungarian.
For the use of AI in the some of the Architectural reference in the film, Corbet states Brutalist production designer “Judy Becker and her team did not use AI to create or render any of the buildings. All images were hand-drawn by artists.” He added that the editorial team had used AI to create “pictures intentionally designed to look like poor digital renderings circa 1980” for a video that plays during the epilogue.
This example muddies some of the traditional arguments against AI. Here, the software does not appear to have put any human artists out of work. If AI were used to generate concept sketches, the practice does not seem radically different from an advertisers mood board for an ad campaign or the filmmaker’s mood board featuring copyrighted photos and drawings, none of which are licensed. Back in the day, we called it “Scrap.” So ultimately AI was used in the creation of the designs, but it was not used to create the designs. Yes, the power of words.
These are such minor uses of special effects in the context of a visual masterpiece in cinematography, visual storytelling and title design. Yes, these are special effects. Get over it. Spoiler alert for LOTR fans, most of that movie was CGI, yet Peter Jackson created a world that we believed and immersed ourselves and it is one of the greatest trilogies of all time.
Beyond movies, for fans of Brutalism, this also brings up the uncomfortable question: will AI’s role in design, architecture, and memory forever reshape the very principles that Brutalism stands for? Will the rawness and humanity that defines the style survive in this new Renaissance?
Corbets Brutalist was shot on film, feels filmic and should be praised and awarded for creating a monumental film.
Sources
https://www.vulture.com/article/did-the-brutalist-use-ai-will-it-affect-2025-oscar-race.html
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/the-brutalists-ai-controversy-explained
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2025/01/24/brutalist-ai-oscars/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/22/entertainment/the-brutalist-ai-controversy-scli-intl/index.html
About the Author
Curt Doty is an award winning creative director whose legacy lies in branding, product development, social strategy, integrated marketing, and User Experience Design through CurtDoty.co. His work of entertainment branding includes Electronic Arts, EA Sports, ProSieben, SAT.1, WBTV Latin America, Discovery Health, ABC, CBS, A&E, StarTV, Fox, Kabel 1, and TV Guide Channel.
He has extensive experience on AI-driven platforms MidJourney, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT, Murf.ai, HeyGen, and DALL-E. He now runs his AI consultancy RealmIQ and companion podcast RealmIQ: Sessions on YouTube and Spotify.
He is a sought after public speaker having been featured at Streaming Media NYC, Digital Hollywood, Mobile Growth Association, Mobile Congress, App Growth Summit, Promax, CES, CTIA, NAB, NATPE, MMA Global, New Mexico Angels, Santa Fe Business Incubator, EntrepeneursRx, Davos Worldwide, and AI Impact. He has lectured at universities including Full Sail, SCAD, Art Center College of Design, CSUN, NMSU and Chapman University.
He currently serves on the board of the Godfrey Reggio Foundation and is an AI Consultant with DMS+.
