Todd Field’s third feature film lays the groundwork for Blanchett’s magnificent turn as masterful orchestra conductor Tár. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it is part of the International Competition Programme.
Sixteen years after Little Children, Field takes on a force of nature in Tár. Diving into the chambered world of classical orchestra productions, he allows Blanchett’s reign to flourish. Tár is an exploration of power and corruption that hides behind the image of culture and class.
It’s hard to go wrong with Cate Blanchett. There is inflammatory energy behind her guarded and veiled expression. She also sports an androgynous quality akin to that of fellow actresses Tilda Swinton who could easily have been cast in the role. Keeping that in mind, Tár often feels like it’s a movie that has been made before, and were it not for Blanchett’s tour de force it would easily sink under those comparisons.
Blanchett is the eponymous Lydia Tár – a Maestro (never Maestra) with the coveted position of conducting the Berlin orchestra which is instantly obvious to be the center of her life. Music is her passion – sure, but the position also grants her monarchical powers and it is those she might enjoy even more. When her family is introduced it almost comes as a shock that Tár would have the energy and the inclination to share a life with someone. It is even less surprising to discover that her wife feels like a burden to her. Seemingly a fitting match – she is the first violinist in Tár’s orchestra, but as the story develops we begin to suspect even the origins of that connection.
Field sets up a lot of Tár to play out like a thriller with Blanchett as a willing predator. When Tár conducts, she exalts the vigour and militance fitting the queen of the jungle. Field shoots her accordingly using low angles and obscuring the background so that there is nothing but Tár dominating the screen. In her private, life he makes her more sly and cunning by focusing on her eyes and facial expressions that keep something buried deep behind her offhand confidence. The fantastical elements to the story that give it a mystical feel and keep us guessing about where the next turn will take us. Seduction, surveillance and suicide all loom over a more straightforward story of preparing the orchestra for a live recording.
Ultimately, the story of Tár is that of abuse. And there is an abundance of gaslighting, threatening and delusion in Tár. Even closer to home, it is a story about grooming young women under the pretense of setting up their careers only to withhold the favor when the sexploitation stops. The real-life examples still shake the film industry.
That’s why it’s somewhat disappointing to see Tár’s lift her power play straight out of a powerful man’s playbook. I would have enjoyed more to see what drives Tár as a person and Tár as a woman to take advantage of her unusually high position. Treading mindlessly the well-documented paths of men that came before she delivers none of the bites. Developing Tár as her own person would prove to be much more relevant than her inspired casting.
