Tár Review

Tár is an American-German film by Little Children director Todd Field. It is considered one of the biggest contenders during this awards season.

Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is a highly accomplished composer and the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. She is about to record a live performance which could lead her to be considered one of the greats of classical music. Tár becomes drawn to Olga Metkina (Sophie Kauer), a young Russian cellist who joins the philharmonic orchestra. However, a controversial event from Tár’s past lingers over her and threatens to destroy everything she has built up.

Tár was the Cate Blanchett show. It has been hyped because of her performance and Blanchett has earned her third Oscar nomination. She has earned near-universal praise, and it was deserved. Blanchett was fantastic and combined with the writing, created a compelling character.

Tár was shown to be an intelligent and determined woman and an incredibly complicated character. She was able to joke with her orchestra and was close and caring towards her daughter, Petra (Mila Bogojevic). But Tár was also willing to threaten a child when she found out Petra was being bullied. Tár was seemingly a woman of contradictions. She was a woman who has achieved a high position within the world of composing but doesn’t see it as her place to elevate women anymore. Tár was an open lesbian yet she stood against PC culture. Tár exhibits more masculine traits since she liked dressing in suits and referred herself as her daughter’s ‘father.’

A compelling scene early in the film was when Tár was acting as a guest lecturer at Juilliard. She butted heads with Max (Zethphan Smith-Gneist) a non-binary person-of-colour who said he didn’t want to perform Bach because the composer was a white misogynist. Max stated he wanted only to play music by people from a similar background to them, whilst Tár argued that people need to separate the art from the artist. The film aims to make the audience side with Tár. However, Tár did have some self-interest in articulating this viewpoint.

Tár has been considered the anti-#MeToo movie. There have been many recent films that have been influenced by the #MeToo Movement like Bombshell, The Last Duel, and The Invisible Man. These were all films that looked at victims of male power. Tár was a film about the accused. There was ambiguity throughout the film. Tár clearly had affairs and she made enemies.

Tár was unsympathetic at times. Tár was sexually attracted to Olga and it did seem like she was grooming the young Russian woman. She was certainly playing favourites and giving Olga an unfair advantage. At the time Olga was taking advantage of Tár and she seemed to be flirting with the conductor. There was a question about Tár’s previous relationship was it a case of grooming or was she obsessed with her former lover? It was similar to the 2008 film Doubt where there was a question about whether a priest was sexually abusing a boy or was he the victim of a vendetta from a vindictive nun.

Tár focused on the impact the accusations had on the title character’s life. It was a story about the fall of a woman. She’s on the top of her world to being taken to a low. It was a film that explored the idea of trial by media, how accusations could end someone’s career and showed how the evidence could be manipulated. It also shows that a woman can be accused of these crimes as much as a man.

Tár had a long run time, leading it to be a slow burn of a film. It takes its time and because of this might make it a turn-off for some audience members. The direction had a calculated, meticulous feel like it was made by a music conductor. There were lots of long, uncut shots that were a marvel to watch and excellent craftsmanship was on display.

Tár was an interesting character study that asks some great moral questions. Audiences will be dissecting it for a long time.