TÁR

“You want to dance the masque, you must service the composer,” Tár is a film about Lydia Tár, a piano performance graduate of the Curtis Institute, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard. And she earned her P.H.D. in Musicology from the University of Vienna. Tár began her career with the Cleveland Orchestra. One of the so-called “Big Five.” Lydia’s highly decorated and controlled life is a statement of the power she holds over the people she commands. Cate Blanchett delivered a generational performance playing Lydia Tár. Commanding every stroke of brush her hands waved. But every story of the Roman Empire must end with a fall. We see the assistant Fransesca always gazing, always admiring, yet with the eyes of the secretful. An organic dynamic between two people who’ve known each other for a very long time, and serves as a telling for the audience of what looms behind. A particular scene strikes me for its brilliance, the Juilliard classroom scene. With a one-take-shot that is rather calm yet tense. As Lydia and a student challenged one another as equals, Lydia asked the student to separate Identity Politics and music. Here we see glimpses of Lydia’s sincere love for music. Yet, dismissed by the student, hardly was he ever compelled to even engage on her ideas. And as it goes on the one towered the other, rather cruelly, and as the outcome, we see the inclusive become violent and hateful, and ironically, misogynistic. While its theme is a clear jab to the young generation today, Lydia didn’t actually win anything here as the director Todd Field himself stated, the scene showcases Lydia’s priority of putting herself onto a pedestal first than being on the right. A scene in which in the end, we question Lydia’s character, as to which will we ever put her to the position of that same identity argument. The scene solidifies the foundation to Lydia’s future dynamic and foreshadowing throughout the film. Later on midway she scoffed in the same way as the former student to a colleague's quote on Schopenhauer. Dismissing him for his misogyny. Parallels and sub-context like these, are things that filled the souls of Tár’s script. Filled with topics that are ever relevant to modern problems we see today. Should we separate the art and the artist? And to see historical figures through the lens of modern ethics, but first and foremost, it is a film about the commentary of how abusive power gets formed, maintained, and brought down. Fransesca was a loyal secretary, but as she realizes that the game that Tár is playing will no longer benefit her, emotionally and materially, she leaves, and with that, begins the radical slope of Lydia’s life. We realized of another enabler that is her partner, as it is implied that she knows of her grooming attempt and manipulation. And the young cellist who doesn’t even care for Lydia’s position or attempt at seduction, heck, her ulterior motives were clear as day. And a fellow conductor who just wants to be good without being original, to conduct someone else's. As they all got what they want, it is laid bare how transactional all the relationships that surround Lydia’s lifes really are. How a power cycle isn’t just operated by a singular person alone, it is filled with nasty people, who hide their agendas in the name of ambition. Tár is a film filled with clever parallels and outstanding use of craftsmanship. With impressive use of Interior Architecture Photography’s composition, which formal-like and sameness symbolizes the blurriness of Lydia’s work and personal life, and its gradual use of tiltness and asymmetry towards the end speaks to us of the chaos that ensues. Every scene is a canvas, Florian Hoffmeister. Blanchett’s compelling performance of a woman boasting her power is something that made me disagree with the Academy Award. Some will say it’s “Oscar-Baity”, but to me this truly feels like a film that was worthy of Todd’s 16 years hiatus.