Cinema Styles: Tár Hits All the Right Notes
Film: Tár (2022) Director: Todd Field Cast: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Mark Strong
How to Watch: $20 Rental on Appletv+ Runtime: 158 minutes Genre: Drama Rating: R Awards: Venice Film Festival 2022 - Best Actress (Blanchett), Gotham Award Nominations for Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Outstanding Lead Performance (Blanchett), Outstanding Supporting Performance (Merlant and Hoss)
Tár is the newest film from director Todd Field, and his first since Little Children in 2006. That film, along with In the Bedroom (2001), earned eight Academy Award nominations total. Tár is unlike those films in that it wasn’t adapted from a short story or novel. This was an original screenplay by Field, and it’s set in the world of Western classical music. The story centers on Lydia Tár (Blanchett), widely considered to be one of the greatest living composer-conductors and first-ever female music director of a major German orchestra. It’s a legitimate masterpiece, and Field’s finest work to date.
Tár is a strange and utterly unique portrait of a complicated character, and a film that exists in a constant state of ambiguity. It offers no easy answers, and encourages full engagement from the viewer; their opinion of the actions that unfold being an important factor in the experience of watching the movie. It’s an immersive experience for the senses, and an oddly tranquil depiction of a control freak’s downward spiral. Lydia Tár begins the movie at her highest point, so there’s nowhere for her to go but down. This film sees her slowly unraveling in a brilliant convergence of cinematography and performance; the camera movements inspired by Blanchett as the two dance together in breathtaking symmetry.
This union between performance and cinematography is most evident in the best scene in the film. It takes place at Juilliard, the famous performing arts conservatory in New York City, as Lydia teaches an acting class. The scene is more than 10 minutes, and is filmed in one unbroken, continuous take. Blanchett shows her impeccable range and masterful precision as an actor. As with all her scenes in this film, Blanchett was allowed free-reign to move about the space of the scene location while the camera operator adjusted to her movements. Her character is obsessed with control, and allowing the lead actor full control over her character’s actions adds profound authenticity to the performance.
Tár is about a passionate character who wants to control everything outside of herself. As a conductor, the movements of the orchestra are dictated by her own movements. This desire for controlling others’ actions spreads into her personal life, often seen in small ways like grabbing a student’s restless, bouncing leg or a colleague’s hand that’s clicking a pen. These seemingly innocuous actions from Lydia are indicative of the way she sees the world. She presumes she can control other people’s bodies, even those she’s not conducting. This mindset culminates in Lydia using her status to prey on younger women, offering favors and career advancements in exchange for sexual relationships. However, no intimacy is shown in the film between Lydia and any of the women in her life. For her, it’s more about the power and control than it is about anything sexual in nature.
Tár is about the perpetual issue of separating the art from the artist, and it challenges audiences to ask themselves how much an artist’s personal life affects their enjoyment of the artistic creations. Should groundbreaking creative accomplishments be dismissed due to immoral behavior from the person that created them? Tár offers more questions than answers, but shows Lydia Tár exhibiting frequently unflattering behavior. She has internalized the patriarchy, and treats her protégées as victims. One of her victims’ faces is never shown in the movie, and this is done strategically. At different times, we see the back of the victim’s head, as well as an image with her face obscured by her hair. The concealing of this character reflects Lydia’s attempts to scrub the woman from her memory, and make her disappear from existence.
This is a film about the myth of “cancel culture.” Like most examples in real life, Lydia isn’t being “canceled,” but rather facing the consequences of her own actions. She’s the direct cause of her own undoing; her actions directly linked to her slowmotion downfall. Ultimately though, Tár (the film) passes no judgment on Tár (the character). Audiences are the jury; free to decide for themselves about Lydia’s guilt.
Todd Field wrote the character of Lydia Tár specifically for Cate Blanchett, and would not have made the film without her. Blanchett is one of the most fearless and dedicated actors of all time, and she showed that with this film by learning how to play the piano, how to conduct an orchestra, and how to speak German. Her commitment adds a layer of authenticity to the performance, which is important since Lydia is in almost every frame of this film. Her character drives the film, and in many ways, the character is the movie. After all, Tár is a genuine work of art, and the word Tár is an anagram for the word art.
Cate Blanchett might be the most talented living actor, and this could very well be her best performance so far. She’s such a talented artist, and is never better than when she plays a character that’s clenching the world so tightly it begins to crack. Tár sees Blanchett at the peak of her abilities, utilizing her charisma and emotional precision to present an unrelenting psychological examination of an unhinged and often ferocious individual. She infuses Lydia with an astonishing amount of empathy, and raises her humanity to the surface.
Much of the movie’s audio design is strategically constructed to reflect the larger themes at play. For example, the film begins with a mono sound mix, and gradually adds more tracks as it progresses, reflecting the complexity of Lydia’s situation. Lydia walks at approximately 120 beats per minute, in comparison to the other characters that walk at 60 beats per minute.
Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony plays an important role in this storyline, and Blanchett claims studying it repeatedly aided her approach to the role of Lydia Tár. She says it helped her discover the character’s terrifying magnificence, as is evident by the musicality of her performance. Tár places an emphasis on the importance of sound and how various characters relate it. What’s music to one person might be mere noise to another. According to the film’s composer, Hildur Guðnadóttir, composing and conducting any genre of music is merely “making noise.”
As much Tár is about a solitary character, it also seems to be dismissing the idea a singular person can be solely responsible for the creation of a work of art. With a collaborative experience like making a film or performing in an orchestra, everyone works together to create the final product. Tár makes its stance early on in the movie, showing the full credits for the film before it fully begins. This is done to show everyone involved contributed to its creation.
That said, Todd Field proves himself to be a master filmmaker with this movie, conducting the film with the precision of Lydia Tár herself. He even sees himself in constant collaboration with his split identity; a clear separation existing between his selves as writer, director, and editor. His prior work with the legendary Stanley Kubrick may have even influenced this portrayal of a controlling artist that’s visionary but unkind to collaborators.
Tár is a rorschach test of a film. It’s ambiguous by design, and a measured masterpiece about art and the flawed individuals that create it. This is a calculated and detail-oriented work of art. It’s a singular achievement, and its plethora of meticulous details will stimulate different interpretations with each viewing. It will undoubtedly introduce more questions than answers as it invites the audience to be active participants in the art. Nothing exists on its own, and Tár offers audiences the opportunity to view art as a reflection of their own lives and the world they live in.