Tar
Cards on the table – I loved this film. Cate Blanchett’s performance as the eponymous conductor, maestro and all round cultural phenomenon is tipped for the best actress Oscar, and to me it seems wholly warranted. She dominates this film with a bravura performance, convincing the audience of her musical brilliance and transfixing them with her controlling behaviour and psychological disintegration.
Yet this is not a conventional portrait of a morally flawed, classical music conductor whose abuses eventually catch up with them. The very first scene, for instance, an arts convention interview with Lydia Tar about her career in front of a live audience, goes on and on for several minutes. Hardly the most riveting start to a film but, nonetheless, it familiarises you with the classical music world where Tar has risen to the top. In addition, it is a perfect introduction to her intellectually confident, fluent and poised public persona. Yet something in her response hints at a certain self-regard of someone who has plenty going on beneath the carefully curated exterior.
The film begins with Tar at the height of her success as a high-profile conductor of a major German orchestra. She has won numerous awards for her classical, film and theatre music, has a book deal and is linked with any number of worthy musical projects to support musicians and the spread of classical music. We watch her move with precision from one busy commitment to the next; even her personal life has a domestic glamour with her partner, Sharon (Nina Hoss), and their daughter, Petra, living in a tasteful, modern apartment in Berlin filled with expensive modern art. Yet again, though, there is just the hint of unease – Sharon seems to subjugate her life supporting Tar and yet she is the first violinist of the orchestra. We see her Tar and Sharon working effectively together discussing musicians and musical interpretations during rehearsals; but there is a slight nagging sense that there is something a little sticky about the mix of the professional with the personal.
Nevertheless, in the early part of the film her life seems golden. Tar is a talented force of nature who has fought her way to the top of this male dominated profession and seems respected by those around her. Indeed, there is almost something akin to religious reverence in her treatment by the young women who work with her or follow her career. She is serious about her craft and in these early scenes handles her colleagues with professionalism and courtesy. We are, however, given a glimpse into the way she is ruthless in pushing forward her will and perspective when she humiliates a young musician in a composing workshop. This is an uncomfortable scene as she uses her intellect, position and rhetorical eloquence to belittle the young man’s criticisms of Bach that are based on identity politics. Now the problem here is that the audience, me included, enjoy her take down of the young man for his intellectual and moral arrogance in dismissing a musical genius because of contextual factors that are hard for a 21st century audience to properly understand. However, Tar pushes it too far, and when the victim slinks out of the workshop, it’s hard not to sympathise with him.
As the film progresses, we begin to see that this hard edge, crucial for her success, is also harnessed in a less positive way in order for her to control every situation. At this point, the film might have become a more conventional study of a supremely gifted person who behaves badly to those around her as she fights to maintain her grip at the top of her profession. However, there is something darker in the way Tar treats people. Her young assistant, Francesca, tries to involve her in the fate of a former female protégé, Krista, who is struggling to find work having fallen out of Tar’s charmed circle. We understand that there is something more sinister than just a work disagreement about what has happened and, as with all tragic heroes whose hubris often masks their flaws, we know that Krista will come back to damage Tar. We also see Tar manipulating an audition to bring in a young female cellist to the orchestra. It is clear that she has some form of obsession with this young woman - and we begin to realise this isn’t the first time. Krista’s struggles now seem more disturbing.
Cracks in brand Tar start to filter through online. And at the same time, as she tries to maintain external control, the noise grows louder inside her head. Literally so, as she begins to suffer from a sort of paranoid misophonia. It is clear that Tar is heading for some sort of destructive explosion as the pressure begins to build for a high-profile performance of a Mahler symphony which is also being recorded live. When the explosion comes, it is shocking and also slightly comical. This seems almost fitting as Tar’s cool, intellectual exterior has always shaded towards smug, self-importance.
I must admit, I loved the way director, Todd Field, kept the audience wrong-footed about her fall – how much were we being shown through Tar’s warped perception? And the final scene has a powerful, bathetic quality that seemed just right.
Blanchett is magnificent and the rest of the cast seem perfectly attuned to the rarefied milieu of the classical music scene. I especially enjoyed the performance of Sophie Hauer as Olga, the young cellist being groomed by Tar. She captures perfectly the character’s blend of youthful informality, musical passion and East European directness – not bad for a professional musician acting for the first time.
Field and the writer both deserve praise. This is an imaginatively structured film and it offers no easy answers about Tar’s behaviour. Her ascent in the classical music world is admirable as is her commitment to the music. Yet she undoubtedly behaves badly. How badly, though, is not as clear cut as it might seem. This is where the script is clever: we are never quite sure exactly how far her abusive control of the young women she obsesses over actually goes. We think the worst because of the controlling behaviour she shows throughout but there are uncertainties that make it hard to judge her fully.
This is not an easy film and it has not found a mass audience. It could be deemed pretentious, melodramatic in parts, or just a bit weird and pointless. It has also garnered controversy, with female conductors and musicians critical of the decision to make the central character a female when there are many recent examples of unacceptable behaviour by high profile male conductors. This may be an issue and it may be flawed in construction but it made me think so that can’t be a bad thing. Cards back on the table - I loved it.