TÁR (2022)
Directed by Todd Field
Focus Feature, 158 minutes, R (language, very brief nudity)
★★★
Tár was nominated for numerous Oscars but was shut out, though Cate Blanchette won Best Actress awards at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, and numerous film festivals. Many have said she didn’t get an Oscar because the Academy opted for political correctness rather than serious performance. I’ll get back to you on that, as I haven’t yet watched Everything Everywhere All at Once. I will say, though, that Blanchette was riveting in a film that was not.
Lydia Tár (Blanchette) is the first female conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and deep into plans to put her own stamp on conducting a reinterpretation of Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. That’s quite a climb for a gal from New Jersey, the accent mark in her name an implication of her own reinvention. She’s internationally famous, imperious, and when need be, ruthless. Tár is also married to Sharon Goodnow (Nina Hoss), whom she advanced as her concertmaster, which was another tall obstacle to surmount amidst wagging tongues and traditionalists. She is also trying to convince investment banker Eliot Kaplan (Mark Strong) to underwrite the Accordion Foundation to advance female musicians. All of this requires her to lean heavily upon her assistant Francesca Lentini (Noémi Merlant) to take care of details.
Lydia has character flaws that go beyond the bounds of being driven. She doesn’t have many filters and freely speaks her mind, is an egoist, and has a roving eye. She has many admirers, including Andris Davis (Julian Glover) her kindly predecessor in Berlin, but also makes enemies easily. We see her at a master class at Julliard as she coldly eviscerates a student named Max (Zethphan Smith-Gneist) who says that, as a gay person of color he’s not “into” Bach. Instead of trying to help him confront his blinders, she opts for aggression and feels that, as a lesbian, she has that right.
Tár’s lack of subtlety is deep-seated. She plots to replace her aging assistant conductor Sebastian (Allan Corduner) and implies that Francesca is under consideration, though she’s not. She also abruptly changes an upcoming performance by setting aside her first chair cello to include an Elgar concerto played by young Olga Metkina (Sophie Kauer). Never mind that Olga is a brilliant musician who easily surpasses the first cello in a blind competition; it’s easy for all to see that Lydia has a crush on Olga. Alas for her, it’s implied that the same was true of Accordion board member Krista Taylor, who sent despondent emails to her via Francesca before committing suicide. In other words, Lydia is arrogantly building a house of cards in the belief that no one would dare blow it down.
Blanchette is spellbinding in a role that requires her to be fierce, controlling, and emotionally buttoned-down. If you don’t already know, she’s the sort of actress who commands the screen with such a presence that one roots for her even when you hate her guts. Kauer and Merlant are also standouts, the first because she’s so enigmatic that we can’t discern her motives, the latter because in her own way she’s as petulant and vindictive as Max. Corduner is also very good as Sebastian, a hangdog old-timer who still has bite in his jaws.
It is the case, however, that Tár is less than the sum of its wonderful performances. My own bias is that I dislike the music of Mahler and there’s a lot of it in the film. I suppose Mahler was chosen because many of his compositions are so mannered that they stand as counterpoints to Lydia’s fieriness. For me, though, they were cold water that lowered the film’s temperature.
I suspect, though, that politics played a bigger role in the film’s tepid response in North America. It’s hard to escape the implication that director Todd Field intended a takedown of cancel culture. Lydia didn’t always play fair, but does that justify falsifying the truth to bring her down? Some also expressed discomfort with how Lydia belittled Max, but one could just as easily conclude that a Julliard student who can’t handle harsh critiques shouldn’t be there. Music criticism is often a tough place for snowflakes in the same way that residency is a weeder for aspirant doctors. The film has a surprise ending in which Lydia remains true to form, her circumstance notwithstanding. Call Tár a flawed film, but one worth watching.
Rob Weir
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