Movie Review : Tár (2022)
The idea of a film about a fictional orchestra conductor is quite unsexy on paper, but it's also quite mysterious. What kind of psychopath could sit through nearly 160 minutes of classical music, ideological conversation and narcissism that has no basis in reality or history whatsoever? What is the point? I sure asked myself this question before starting Academy Award Nominee for Best Picture Tár. But I fucking had to do it. I felt almost dared to. What was is that this movie was not being transparent about?
Turns out the audience for a movie like this is me. I’m a psychopath who enjoys a near three hours long movie about a fictional problematic genius no one would care about if she existed.
Tàr tells the story of Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), a pianist, composer and chief conductor of the Berlin Philarmonic Orchestra. She's also a narcissist and quite possibly a sexual predator although it is never explicitly stated or showed. When one of her student commits suicide, ol’ Lydia tries to cover up her bad deeds and deletes a string of email where she clearly ignored the poor girl's distress and another one where she blackballs her from potential jobs. But too little, too late, it's cancellation time.
The Politics of Beauty, Power and Narcissism
The easiest statement you could make about Tár is that it's a movie about cancel culture. Because it is technically not false and it even has a clever way of discussing it. Writer and director Todd Field positions himself as an objective observer of the power dynamics between a brilliant and demanding, but extremely narcissistic personality and the people who depend on her judgement in order to fulfill their dreams and aspirations. It's not completely objective, but it tries really hard to be. It's also more complicated than that.
Because smart and edifying movies are almost never about one thing and Tàr sure isn't. It's a very stern and impressionistic movie filled with slow paced scenes where Lydia Tár and the not-so-important characters around her discuss the merits of music, technique, composers and various other intellectual pursuits. It's not entirely built around the abusive relationship she cultivates like a film like Whiplash is. Tár is more about the solipsism of living a live where you wield absolute power over everyone around you.
Lydia Tàr is entrusted with this power by the classical music community because she can create beauty through interpretation. Her fiery and passionate mind communicates almost supernaturally with the intent of great composers like Mahler or Bach or, at least, imbues their work with new and exciting emotional meaning. Tár's claim is that transcendent beauty is the product of pure, unbridled vision and that sacrifice is required in order to create beauty. In this case, the sacrifice of Krista Taylor's life.
Isn’t it fucked up? Depends on who you ask. Don't get me wrong, Tár isn't one of these movies that claims everything was better before and that kids are pussies for refusing to suffer for a greater purpose. Far from it. Lydia Tár faces dire consequences for her actions. She damages her own relationship to beauty in the process. Tár, like all smart and edifying movies, leaves us with a lingering question: can beauty be created without unnecessary suffering?
Minimalism and the Symbolism of Home
Although Tár is definitely stern and minimalistic, it isn't devoid of visual flare and symbolic cleverness. One of my favourite images in the movie is Lydia Tár's relationship to her home (and to homes in general). She lives in an awesome modern condo with concrete floors and walls that symbolizer her sturdiness, but also her growing isolation. That's why she cannot create in it. Whenever she wants to write music, Lydia moves to an old apartment she still rents, where she met her partner Sharon (Nina Hoss).
That duality is reinforced when Lydia's new cellist and sexual grooming project Olga (Sophie Kauer) forgets something in her car. When Lydia goes after her, she wanders inside an abandoned building that would symbolize the wrecking she inflicts on other people's interiority. These have to fo with a feeling of security as well. Lydia finds security in the past, while she strips it from whoever remains around her for too long. Subtle, but powerful stuff. Todd Field is not holding your hand through this.
Another low-key great aspect of Tár is the protagonist's relationship to sound and nature. One of the reasons why this movie is so long is that it has these surreal scenes where Lydia is overwhelmed by a distortion of her relationship to her environment. At some point she hears a woman screaming while she’s running, but never finds her. At another, she wakes up to find her metronome working. No idea what it's supposed to symbolize, but I thought it emboldened the corruption of her chartacter.
*
I really liked Tár. The idea of it is insane enough and the treatment is controlled and subdued enough to work. By the end, I really gave a shit about these people. Even Lydia Tár. This is very much a moral movie, but not in the way American movies are usually moral. It is a fearsome investigation into the morals of the exquisite. Classical music is an allegory for sure, but it's also used because it is a link with the past in an era of social and moral change. I don't think it's game-changing, but it’s a lot of fun.
A movie that takes for granted that you're an intelligent person is also a nice change of pace.
