Tár - The film is set in the high world of classical music

Who is Lydia Tár?

Dec 23, 2022 - 20:29
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Tár - The film is set in the high world of classical music

Tár is a psychological drama directed, written, and produced by Todd Field, his first effort since 2006 and his third overall. Cate Blanchett won the lead actress award at the Venice Picture Festival when the film premiered. Focus Features was in charge of distribution.

The story takes place in the high world of classical music and follows Lydia Tarr (Blanchette), a well-known conductor and composer. We encounter her at the pinnacle of her career, as she prepares to release her memoirs and perform Mahler's Fifth Symphony live in Berlin. Over the next few weeks, her life unravels as the public discovers the face she's been hiding behind a professional mask - what we get is an exploration of power, its effect, and its enduring nature in today's society.

Lydia has built an exceptional career; she is a known expert, the Berlin Philharmonic's first female chief music director, and a passionate virtuoso who is pioneering the path for women in the male-dominated classical music profession. However, circumstances beyond Lydia's control gradually erode her intricate mask, exposing the filthy secrets of genius and the insidious nature of power - the question is where control or leadership stops and manipulation and exploitation begin.

Sector's film is riddled with deception and gives us lots of reasons to appreciate Lydia for achieving this degree of talent-based status in a traditionally male-dominated field. We see her "public character" at the start of the film, which is both threatening and welcome, as she enjoys an attentive audience during a live interview. While she sleeps in a private plane, an invisible watcher records her and exchanges gossipy communications with another unknown person - it appears as if some forces are planning to oppose this powerful woman or that we are learning more about her.

The critical moment in the interview is when we watch her personal aide Francesca (Noemi Merlan) repeating the presenter's recitation of a lengthy biographical introduction from notes. This isn't just a synopsis of Lydia's life and profession; it's a well-prepared story that Francesca has studied, revised, and repeated so many times that she knows it by heart. If the frigid expression on her face is any clue, she doesn't care about those statements or believe any of them.

So, who is Lydia? Is she the sum of her accomplishments, a cheerful presence on stage who discusses music and history with such obvious knowledge and experience? Or is she a tough lecturer at a top school who seeks to open her students' eyes by addressing them as peers? Perhaps the sequence depicts her as cutthroat, arrogant, and a little nasty to anyone who has an opinion she disagrees with.

One of the film's major strengths is that it does not immediately inform us how we should feel about Lydia. The character is multi-layered, with a harsher side and multiple moments of tenderness, but we're getting more and more signs that she's hiding a lot of secrets. The plot of this narrative is rather predictable because it is about a powerful individual who uses his or her power to participate in various levels of corruption and abuse. Finally, when the revelations are made public and a price is paid, both for what happened and, perhaps more importantly, for the reaction to them, the author chooses a side.

Field is a one-of-a-kind director whose pictures are distinguished above all by the depth of the plot. He dissects Lydia's personality here through well-constructed images of her daily life and some eerie times when the sounds appear to taunt her like a conscience. The pity for the main character keeps the film's formal structure at bay, despite the fact that it appears to be the main point at the end.

Cate Blanchett is synonymous with great acting, and she deserves her third Oscar for this performance. Her performance exemplifies total physical and emotional control, primarily in depicting Lydia's precise presentation of herself to the world, as well as the differences within these specific places and with these varied people. It's all about maintaining a certain level of calm, but as events progress and secrets emerge, the actress permits ever-widening fissures to appear in that facade—a performance that perfectly complements the author's design and story structure.

Tár is a high-quality character study and investigation of power, its influence, and endurance, headed by a flawless performance by Cate Blanchett, who is deservedly beaming as she accepts her third Academy Award.

Post by Bryan C.