Accomplished musician Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) was the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Already an EGOT, she was now working on a live recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, as well as a new book about herself. Lydia was a lesbian, married to her concertmaster Sharon (Nina Hoss). Her PA Francesca (Noémie Merlant) was also an ex-lover. During the cello audition, she had her eye on pretty Russian applicant Olga (Sophie Kauer).
While Lydia seemed to be on top of her world professionally, a salacious scandal involving one of her previous musicians Krista Taylor, who had recently committed suicide. A maliciously-edited video of her seemingly humiliating a student at Julliard was also going viral. She was also having problems with her staff and family. She was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, experiencing nightmares, psychogenic pain and auditory hypersensitivity.
From the very beginning, you knew this film experience was going to be different. After a puzzling prologue scene of a mobile phone screen with a text thread gossiping about a sleeping Tar on a train, the film opened with the very long technical credits usually seen during the close of most films, presented in reverse order from the dedication and acknowledgements until it reached "Written, Produced and Directed by Todd Field."
The initial exposition of who Lydia Tár was done via a very realistic public interview at The New Yorker Festival conducted by Adam Gopnik as himself. This lengthy, talky but amazingly riveting scene showcased Cate Blanchett's virtuosity of transforming into Lydia Tar. The passionate way she was discussing the art and history of conducting -- ego, jargon and all -- Blanchett never felt like she was acting at all. Cate Blanchett WAS Lydia Tár.
Blanchett's Tár felt so much like a real person, the audience will get personal and despise her overbearing attitude and power-tripping ways of dealing with people who are closest to her, those with whom she shared her confidences. Despite, as Tár's personal life and career careened into a downward spiral, Blanchett still held us all in the palm of her hand through every dark and uncomfortable moment of personal hell she went through. 8/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment