Tár is a fictional biography directed by Todd Field, with Cate Blanchett starring as Lydia Tár, a world-famous contemporary composer and conductor. The author watched the film online a couple of weeks in the wake of its appearance during the Venice International Film Festival, and was dazzled and mesmerized by its unorthodox charm.
Set in the international world of Western classical music (in Berlin for most of the time), the film centers on Lydia Tár, her private life as a lesbian libertine, and the subsequent catastrophe of her career. As both the directer and the writer, Todd relentlessly reveled the uncomfortable truth in the academies: Casting Couch, Cancel Culture, etc. The uniqueness and boldness in the story itself is one thing that makes the film controversial and intriguing.
The other is that, like those in director Todd’s other films, the editing is sometimes so incoherent that, catching up with the storytelling could even be challenging for viewers. But once oriented to that, all the formal disarray is actually consistent with the turmoil of Tár’s everyday life and her inner world.
Since Tár is a musical film, the audio engineering of it couldn’t never be disappointing. Subtle notes of the original soundtrack are in correspondence with each tiny emotional flux of the heroine. The soundtrack is just so marvelous that, in reality, Deutsche Grammophon (DG), one of the greatest classical music labels, actually released it.
The light in the film is dim for most of the time, the color faded, and the motion of the camera easily, slowly and steadily; while the highlights the pictures are Cate’s exquisite performances: the seemingly-careless delivery of carefully-selected words (in both German and English), the most graceful emotional breakdown the author has seen in recent years, her iconic fake smile, and essentially, the shrewdness and thoughtfulness hidden beneath those pale blue eyes.
Of course, Tár would be a total disaster for viewers who prefer excitement or a good laugh, but for those who favor slow paces, and sensitive, sometimes uncomfortable yet serious topics, it’s a masterpiece that is definitely worth a watch.
