Film Review - Tár
Images courtesy of Universal Pictures Australia.
Hailed by many critics as one of 2022's finest, Tár, director Todd Field's follow-up to the 16 year gap in his filmography, stars Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár, a conductor/composer who is considered a juggernaut in the world of modern classical. Though I initially went in expecting a biographical piece considering the assertive way in which various loglines sold the film, it quickly becomes apparent that it's much more of a character-focused psychological drama with a thick, gloopy helping of dark humour.
Right from the get go, Tár is messing with the audience. Opening up with a minute or so of absolute darkness and what initially seems to be a kind of vocal overture, we are then made to sit through the film's entire credits, just as its 158-minute runtime has begun. Likewise, the first scene of the film focuses on a lecture/interview with Tár herself; we learn of her many achievements, and impending recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, before knowing anything of her as a person. That's where the film's many layers come in - as the titular character begins to unravel, bend and break, we see the mask of prestige slip and shatter, much like the brittle bones of the skeletons in her closet.
As serious as this all may sound, Field and Blanchett find a way to unearth the humour underpinning the downfall, offering a surprisingly nuanced take on privilege and power in art, while still allowing us to laugh at Lydia as she squirms under the magnifying glass the world holds to her. There's also plenty of tongue-in-cheek winks and nods in fleeting yet bright flashes of intellectualised innuendo, clearly knowing its target demographic of arthouse-loving Letterboxd users.
In that vein, it seems to operate as both a fine example of the genre, and also a meticulously crafted dry parody of it. The film ends with Tár performing not Mahler's Fifth, but rather the score for Monster Hunter: World, which some will no doubt see as an affirmation of the film’s brief touches on cancel culture, but to me, it’s more about tearing down the brickwall of "high art" - video game composers can go just as hard as Bach and Chopin, damn it. Although prestige is a seemingly universal and integral part of the artistic institution, it's these prejudices, pretences and structures that can also stop a medium from evolving.
While Tár may not be the most recommendable film out there, and it does suffer a bit from just how slow and methodical its approach to the story at hand is, it's also refreshing and bold, and a bloody good time if you can get on its wavelength. It's a symphony of cinema, bubbling with dark and subtly thrilling emotions, elevated by an incredible lead performance and anchored by adept direction.
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Tár is screening in cinemas from Thursday 26th January. For tickets and more info, click here.