Rating: R
Runtime: 2 hours, 38 minutes
Director: Todd Field
Quick Impressions:
I loved this movie. I had low expectations (despite my love for Cate Blanchett) because the trailers made it look dull and obscure (like you would watch the whole thing and still have no idea why you had). That’s why I watched by myself in my bedroom in the middle of the night. I have so many movies to catch up on, and nobody seemed too excited to see it.
This may be my favorite movie of the year. I found it breathtakingly engaging from the first scene. It features my favorite cinematography of the year which I found doubly fascinating because it’s a film about music (or at least set in the world of music), and yet it’s unusually visually engaging. I love the shot composition of almost every scene.
Very early on, my head was burgeoning with so many thoughts on the film, that I paused it to write a bunch of notes. (But then I realized, “That’s idiotic! You’re like fifteen minutes into the movie. You can’t say, ‘This is the best scene,’ when there have only been like four scenes.”) So then I unpaused it and started taking notes sort of…
My big question—the one I kept asking myself that takes on more and more meaning as the story progresses—is why haven’t I heard of Lydia Tár? At first I was thinking, “Well, I’m not very sophisticated, and I don’t know anything about music.” I love music. (But seriously, all the people I was at the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions with are constantly saying things like, “When I was writing a symphony the other day while attending/playing in an indie music festival…” (They don’t really say that. But that’s how I hear them collectively.)) (And I live five seconds away from Austin, so you’d think if I’d made the slightest effort, I could happen into these events myself.)
As the story progressed, though, I realized, “Wait! Why haven’t I heard of her?” because I’m sure she must have attracted national attention beyond musical circles. Did all this happen during Shark Week or something? (I don’t think I’ve ever watched Shark Week. So that’s really no excuse either.)
The film’s preview does not even hint at how great the experience of watching this is. (It reminded me of that SNL commercial with Kristen Wiig for Red Flag perfume. These things happen, and after a while, you start hearing imagining a whisper of, “Red flag.”)
This a great story. And I love Florian Hoffmeister’s cinematography. There’s something uncannily dynamic and visually arresting about the shot composition. Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score is good, too (but that’s less surprising in a film about music).
The Good:
There is so much I want to say about this that I don’t even know where to begin. This is one of those movies that makes me ask myself, “Am I just imagining this sinister subtext?” (because sometimes I do that). From the first time we meet Blanchett’s character, we get a pretty steady stream of little hints here and there about a) her “quirks” and b) what’s going to cause the major conflict of this movie.
The first (rather persistent) thought I had was, “Why is Cate Blanchett so good at wearing clothes, and why does she make me care about what clothes she’s wearing?” Her clothing is not exactly wildly flamboyant in this, but she’s so eye-catching in it. It’s like the boundaries blur between her mannerisms and her costume. She brings her wardrobe to life, the way Dickens animates his furniture. Clothes look more interesting when she is wearing them. (This is not a useful observation, but it’s so persistent a thought, I have to mention it.) Watching her in one scene, I thought, “It can’t just be her. Maybe there’s something about the outfit that makes me interested in it.” But when I tried to think about it that way, the shirt just seemed black and white and kind of stripey. (I am aware of my ignorance, though. I’m sure a designer or a costumer would be like, “You idiot! The outfit is doing half the work in that scene for the following ninety-five reasons,” and I’m sure that’s true. But I need a fashion expert to break it down for me. (This is probably an argument for an Oscar nomination for Blanchett. She’s playing a conductor, and she wears clothes like they’re a symphony.)
(I’m starting to get suspicious of myself. Maybe I am interested in fashion! Over the past couple of years, I’ve started with the disclaimer, “I’m not even interested in fashion, but this fascinated me,” so many times that I’m now wondering, “Maybe I am interested in fashion, but I’m just stupid!” (Ignorant of how fashion works, I mean. It works on me, but I don’t understand the mechanics of why.))
This is such an interesting character study, of such a complex, unusual human being. (And yet she’s so predictable.)
The movie opens in an exposition heavy way, just tossing out oodles of information about this person is, who she is, what she’s accomplished. It’s a CV that would make Beethoven blush. She’s demonstrably a genius. But the other thing we learn right away is that someone is watching her. (And that maybe she’s supposed to feel guilty about something.)
The second scene of the movie (I think), where she’s doing a live Q&A, thoroughly convinced me of three things:
- Cate Blanchett is really good at delivering her lines convincingly as if she’s lived as that person her entire life, in their jargon-filled world. Wouldn’t it be great if she dressed up as random historical figures students might find kind of boring in person but are exciting on paper and performed biographies for us all the time?
- I know nothing about music. The interviewer says, “We all just think conductors are human metronomes,” and I immediately thought in panic, “Oh no! I didn’t know I was supposed to think that. I’ve never thought of a conductor as a metronome.” I’ve always thought of them as performing the composition with their bodies as their instrument, more like…conductors, I guess. Metronomes are so rigid. I didn’t even think about the keeping time aspect, and I was intrigued by her answer to the question.
- She lives in the moment, and she believes in love!
Then a few minutes later, I was getting annoyed with her assistant, thinking, “What is her problem? Is she in love with her? Isn’t she supposed to be doing her job?” And Tár makes this jarring comment about murder, and then I realized, “Oh she’s far more interesting than I realized. This movie isn’t going to be about music at all!” (But it is sort of about music because that’s an inexorable part of her.)
I enjoyed listening to all of her idiosyncratic discussions about music, conducting, being in charge of stuff. I think she’s fascinating. I’d take her class. (But I’d audit it because I wouldn’t want her grading me.)
But I wanted to say to her, “I agree with you, that artists do not lead spotless lives, yet they’re still capable of producing good art.” That’s pretty obviously true. I find it hard to argue against. Then I would add, “But just because artists can have messy personal lives full of horrendous misdeeds, that doesn’t mean that if you’re an artist, you’re supposed to try to behave that way on purpose.” It like she takes the idea that geniuses have behaved in awful ways as a challenge (or views it as permission). This idea gets punched again and again throughout the movie.
I was willing to cut the character a lot of slack because people who produce art, and people who live in high stress environments, do some unorthodox things. But I have to tell you, she offended me by stuffing a book that looks like it belongs in a rare books library into an airplane toilet. (The author of the book is like a little clue, too!) That kind of behavior makes me think, “Why should I try to understand your thoughts on music when you show such contempt for literature?” But she’s just like that. She doesn’t respect others, but she insists on their respect.
With every new scene, there’s some hint at a serious problem with her character, a red flag. And they just get more and more extreme.
But…when I found out what pills she was popping all the time, I really turned a corner in my ability to shrug things off. She seems very stressed out and busy. Her life is hectic. So constantly taking pills isn’t that surprising. But it’s what she’s taking, and who she’s taking it from. She’s rich and drowning in prestige. She could get her hands on any drugs she wants. Why in the world is she taking the pills she’s taking (and keeping it a secret)? (Even then, I thought, Well…)
But then, there’s that scene at the elementary school that reminds me of a similarly disturbing moment in Little Children. Tár’s relationship with her daughter is perhaps the most enigmatic aspect of her character.
By that point, the movie is very exciting because I was thinking, “What is going to happen?” Something is going to happen. What we learn about her character is increasingly alarming, especially that when she’s under scrutiny, her behavior doesn’t really change. She’s fascinating.
Another thing I love is that sexual scandal is a drives the plot, yet there are no sex scenes in the film. (That’s thought-provoking.) And Nina Hoss (playing Tár’s wife Sharon) and Noémie Merlant (playing her assistant) have many excellent nonverbal moments.
Best Scene:
The classroom scene at Juliard is what prompted me to pause the movie. Then I started it again immediately, chiding myself, “It’s too early to have a favorite scene.” But that’s still my favorite scene. I love her interaction with Max (Zethphan Smith-Gneist), especially the way his leg shakes increasingly.
I used to teach, and her approach to teaching is different from mine. She’s teaching the subject in fascinating, edifying way. In a classroom, you’re teaching the subject, and you’re teaching the student. Now granted, she’s of a higher stature than I was, and she’s teaching music at Julliard. If I were her student, I would try to learn what she’s trying to tell me, meet her more than halfway (because of her expertise. Surely there are things he can learn from her). But she can’t control what he does. You can only control yourself. If I were the professor, I would not try to make an enemy of the student. His leg just shakes increasingly. You can see his stress level rising. (And I was still thinking about metronomes and keeping time.) She’s brilliant, but tyrannical. Plus, she demands answers, but when he answers her honestly, she just tells him he’s wrong. Her lesson is great, though. She starts playing Bach, and I was like, “Oh my God! She’s right! It is asking a question! I hear it! I can hear the questions!” Personally, I agree with most of what she’s saying. (I remember in high school talking with an acquaintance about how my favorite composers were Mozart and Tchaikovsky. She said, “Oh I used to love listening to Tchaikovsky. But do you know what I found out? He was gay. So now I’m like, ‘Sicko.’” I was so baffled by that. I was not expecting that at all. Finally, I said, “But didn’t God give him the music?” because she was very religious, so I thought that might give her the ability to listen to enjoy Tchaikovsky’s music again. It was so confusing.) In the scene before, she’s telling Mark Strong’s character not to copy her and be a robot, but she doesn’t like it when the student expresses his own ideas, even though she’s asked for them.
I love the energy of their interaction. And it’s ironic and short sighted that she points out that he’s so obsessed with being online. I also enjoy the ambiguity of the scene. In this early phase of the movie, it’s hard to be completely sure which of them is more in the wrong. (For instance, I’m often told I need more assertiveness, and she clearly doesn’t care one bit what he thinks of her.) (But situationally, she’s in a position of power over him. He’s at great disadvantage in many respects.)
Best Scene Visually:
I am so torn here. I like the way the whole screen is filled in every scene, sometimes even if there’s only one person in the scene. I don’t know if I can pick just one scene.
I love Julian Glover’s reaction when she asks him a question late in the film. He’s so panicked. It’s so telling.
Best Action Sequence:
When she shows up to conduct the performance late in the film, her entrance is quite memorable. I also love the sequence when she goes in to get rid of Sebastian (Allan Corduner). Her tactics are so slimy, and he responds with such outrage.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment, Cate Blanchett:
The whole performance is great. I do love the moment when Olga (Sophie Kauer) has lunch with Tár and calmly relays all kinds of information of which Tár is completely ignorant.
Most Intriguing Description of Someone:
Who was the guy who wouldn’t sign his letters “Heil Hitler,” not even when he was writing to Hitler? That’s…something. I want to learn more about that person.
The Negatives:
I never could figure out her nightmares, I mean if there was some deeper significance to the visuals we got. I’ll have to watch the movie again and decide.
In some ways, it’s surprising that a film about a celebrated conductor wouldn’t feature more music that she’s conducting (but I guess that’s a matter of how much music can you really cram in there). At the beginning of the movie, I wondered if I would learn a lot about Mahler. Then I thought, “I guess not.” But now I’m thinking, “Maybe I did learn about Mahler. I don’t know anything about Mahler, so how can I know for sure?” Tár and her assistant have a very telling conversation about him in the car.
I wish I understood her relationship with her daughter Petra (Mila Bogojevic) who appears to be the only person she loves. Well, that’s not completely true. She has a great sense of fairness when she feels like it. Her wife says the relationship with Petra is the one relationship in her life that’s not transactional. Hearing that, I thought in alarm, “Oh no! I often view relationships as transactional, too! Am I a psychopath?” (I don’t know why I would worry that because I don’t think she’s a psychopath. Maybe I’m a latent orchestra conductor.) (Isn’t every social interaction kind of a transaction? I wouldn’t be so sure her relationship with her child isn’t transactional, either.)
Toward the end of the movie (the alligator part), I thought in alarm, “How does one person have such an eventful life?” But that’s less a critique of the film and more a critique of me.
Overall:
Tár is a fascinating character study, and Cate Blanchett gives an Oscar worthy lead performance. The film is quite thought provoking with exceptional cinematography (by my standards) and a good score. It was not at all what I expected. Its trailers don’t do it justice.