Tar

At two hours and forty-five minutes, Tar is a long film but I will own, at the outset, that I was gripped for every one of those 160 minutes. Written and directed by Todd Field in 2022, it stars Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tar, a famous conductor, indeed the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The film is set mainly between New York and Berlin with the focal points being an upcoming live recording of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony plus her new book, Tar on Tar. The latter is a clue to the theme of the film, namely Tar's preoccupation with “I”.

Near the beginning is an eight-minute sequence when the composer, Lydia Tar, is being interviewed by the real-life New York writer, Adam Gopnik. It starts with a hyperbolic introduction to Tar and her many achievements including, apparently, having been a protégé of Leonard Bernstein's. This, immediately, calls the viewer to question the nature of Tar's reality given her current age as depicted would have made her described relationship with Bernstein unlikely. The interview covers various musical theories and thoughts but, again, to a viewer like me, without profound musical knowledge, it is unclear how much is based in reality. It certainly sounds convincing. At one moment she explains that she does not want to be described as “Maestra” rather than “Maestro” because female astronauts are “not astronettes”.

Shortly afterwards is a scene where Tar is conducting a masterclass at the Juilliard Music School. She humiliates a student, Max, who states that Bach's reputation for misogyny and his cisgender white-male identity makes it hard to appreciate his music. Tar responds with sarcasm and lectures the class about the fallacies of identity. This is a pivotal scene in the film because of what it aroused in this viewer, namely some alignment with her views but also discomfort about her cruelty and Tar's gratification in her own brilliance.

All the way through the film there is the conflict between Lydia Tar, the