So I went to see the movie Tár last week, and have so much to say I don’t know where to start. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, Tár centers on the character Lydia Tár, a storied orchestra conductor and out lesbian who really only cares about music and the odd cute girl.
First of all, Cate Blanchett as Tár is nuanced and amazing. Second, the music is mind-blowing as are discussions of it, though probably some people will be bored.
Third, watching all two and a half hours of it was incredibly stressful. I always bite my nails when I know a woman, a lesbian, is going to get punished for daring to be anything but disgustingly, subserviently nice, and since, according to the critics Tár was absolutely monstrous, she was pretty much doomed.
In fact, so many critics approvingly or disapprovingly said she was so monstrous that I went in expecting a rapist, a murderer, a Hannibal Lecter, and was surprised to get a woman who was larger than life as a conductor, but offstage was an ordinary mortal. She calmed her wife during a panic attack, putting on music and holding her in a slow dance to lower the speed of her racing heart. She got up in the middle of the night to calm her small daughter, went to her school and dealt with a bully who left her daughter bruised. Despite being terrified of germs, she helped lift the neighbor’s naked mother off the filthy floor and put her on the portable toilet (scrubbing herself thoroughly afterwards). Another time, when she is out jogging and thinks she hears a woman screaming, she goes tentatively towards the sound, wanting to help. She stays in touch with a mentor, pays for his driver while letting him believe that it’s a perk from his former work.
What a monster.
The most I could reproach her for was a susceptibility to flattery, and a tendency to run away from conflict and messy emotions, or just be oblivious to them. She also put her career over her assistant’s when push came to shove. All very ordinary. Very human. Even if sometimes ugly. As far as I can tell, Lydia Tár’s primary sin was her single-minded desire to be on the podium leading one of the best orchestras in the world, together discovering the nuances of one of the most glorious symphonies ever written.
Nevertheless, the pivotal moment in the film and in her career is when Tár is accused of being a predator, demanding sex in return for advancement.
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