Todd Field’s first film since LittleChildren did not disappoint expectations. In the shoes of a conductor devoting herself entirely to her art to better erase a few episodes of a troubled past, Cate Blanchett offers, once again, an exceptional composition.
Posted at 4:00 p.m.
Cate Blanchett is an exceptional actress. Everyone agrees. The 79e Venice Film Festival is only at its 2e day than, already, the one which was already awarded here in 2007 thanks to its performance in I’m Not Thereby Todd Haynes, is immediately among the favorites.
Written specifically for her, the screenplay by Todd Field, who finally returns to the cinema after 16 years of absence (during which several of his projects have failed), addresses several very contemporary themes in a story set in the world of classical music. . It is particularly about the culture of cancellation and the #metoo movement, but TAR is above all the portrait of a talented woman, consumed from within as much by her passion as by her gray areas. In this case, music can thus become life-saving. Or unhealthy, depending. Somehow brings back the memory of The pianist, by Michael Haneke (with Isabelle Huppert), although the stories are completely different. Same rigor in the practice of art, same suffering, sometimes. Austerity too.
From the start, we feel that Lydia Tár, played by Cate Blanchett, does not conceive of her work in a traditional way. Conductor of a major symphony orchestra in Berlin, the first woman to hold this position in the German capital, Lydia is also interested in contemporary composers and music from elsewhere. This is what we suggest from the outset by letting the credits roll at the beginning to the sound of music that the conductor has undoubtedly discovered during her travels around the world.
So we discover a little about the approach of the musician during an interview-conference that she grants in front of an audience, during which we can identify the very complex nature of the artist.
An accumulation of events
As she prepares to publish an autobiography that she wrote herself, when she is also preparing a Mahler cycle with her orchestra, a first pitfall occurs during a special class that Lydia, during a trip to New York, offers future conductors. A discussion with one of the students turns sour. The latter refuses to listen – even more to play – Johann Sebastian Bach, believing that the behavior of this white man, heterosexual and misogynist, father of 20 children, does not correspond at all to his values of inclusion and diversity . Lydia’s reply, which drew applause at the press screening, is so scathing that the young man simply decides to leave the room, not without first uttering a few insults.
The event could be banal; it is not. The story of TAR is moreover constructed in such a way that an accumulation of episodes of this kind, on the part of a chef who can tend to be really very demanding, can lead to consequences on the professional level, but also in the personal life (Nina Hoss embodies his lover).
PHOTO VIANNEY LE CAER, INVISION/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nina Hoss, Noémie Merlant, Cate Blanchett and Sophie Kauer at the premiere of the film TAR
Music obviously plays an important role. Todd Field makes good use of Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s musical score (Sicario, Joker), as well as the power of a large orchestra. The outcome of the film is a little surprising and is articulated less harmoniously with the rest of the story, but the fact remains that Cate Blanchett, who manages the feat of reinventing herself with each role, delivers her score as a true virtuoso.
At a press conference on Thursday, the Australian actress said that when she read the very first words of Todd Field’s screenplay, she instinctively knew she would have a complex character to defend.
“Lydia is steeped in contradictions, but only one certainty remained throughout the process and the exchanges I had with Todd: this multiple woman is foreign to herself. Without revealing anything, Lydia is visibly haunted by someone or something causing her to put part of her past aside to better reinvent herself in the musical world thanks to her immense talent. This work with Todd has been fascinating to do. »
TAR hits theaters in Quebec on October 7. Prediction: We’ll be talking about this feature until next spring, during what is called “awards season”.