These days, we look back on the five years of the #MeToo /#MoiAussi movement: we measure the progress made and the one that remains to be done. In cinema, powerful or long adored men, such as Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski or Woody Allen, have fallen for good, with or without a trial, and with all the questions that this raises. Depending on the point of view, we defend or denounce this culture of cancellation, or cancel culture.
with his movie Tar (VF), his first in more than fifteen years, Todd Field looks into the subject and, in doing so, offers Cate Blanchett a formidable score as a conductor caught up in sex scandals.
After the film premiered in Venice, director, screenwriter and, in a former life, critic Paul Schrader wrote about Tar :
” During two hours, [le film] is fierce, daring and insightful, familiar with both corporate musical ventures and the intricacies of producing great music, and dominated by a compelling performance from Cate Blanchett. Then, in the last thirty minutes, [le film] sinks into mediocrity and simplicity. »
We pretty much agree, especially with regard to the extraordinary performance of Cate Blanchett, Best Actor Award at the Mostra, although we will respectfully specify that the problems arise well before the final half-hour.
Brilliantly done, really, by the author of the esteemed In the Bedroom (No Exit) and LittleChildren (The altar boys), the film stars Lydia Tár. Openly lesbian, married and mother of an adorable little girl, she conducts the mythical Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, where her spouse, Sharon, is first violin.
The opening sequence presents Lydia at the height of her glory during a captivating “masterclass” led by a borderline complacent journalist in front of the immense star of classical music. Lydia is erudite and passionate, but right off the bat she provides some startling answers. For example, she believes that she has never faced sexism in her career, and the profession of conductor is no longer, according to her, a male preserve.
So much so that, soon after, she proposed that a program she once created to encourage women to enter this position should now be open to men, equity having apparently been achieved.
In short, Lydia obviously lives in a privileged bubble.
hypocrisy woke
But, we discover, there is more to the problem. For it is quickly suggested, then established, that Lydia manipulates and seduces (“ groom ”) the young women she mentors, then sleeps with them. She can also be vindictive by blocking access to the environment for some of them. Think of Harvey Weinstein taking revenge on Ashley Judd by discouraging directors from hiring her, including Peter Jackson who was considering her for his saga The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings).
It is difficult, in this respect, not to perceive the world of classical music depicted here as a mirror of the world of cinema. Thus, when are mentioned the conductors James Levine and Charles Dutoit, fallen in disgrace in the wake of allegations of misconduct and sexual assault, we guess Todd Field reflecting on the fate reserved for the already named Roman Polanski and Woody Allen .
boredom with Tar, which recounts the “cancellation” of a lesbian woman after her turpitudes were made public, is that the film transpires in bad faith. “If we cancel heterosexual men, the day will come when we will cancel lesbian women”, seems to argue Todd Field. That is. That said, the number of lesbian women, or heterosexual women for the account, occupying positions of power and prestige remains, unless I am mistaken, much lower than that of men (why not read or reread The boy club, by Martine Delvaux, well?). Hence this finding of bad faith.
This impression is reinforced during a lesson given by Lydia where, under the guise of indulgence, she condescendingly mocks a (black) student who claims to dislike Bach because of his misogyny. And Lydia to notice that on this account, we could no longer play anything (or read, or watch) by going to speaking examples. A crude edit of the episode later appears online that casts Lydia as a racist and anti-Semite.
Purposely, said montage ignores the exit of the student, who, so quick to denounce misogyny, swings at Lydia: “ fucking bitch “. Ah, the hypocrisy woke… Here and there, one wonders if one would not be falling into the trap of the trial of intention, then here such a scene occurs.
Here again, Todd Field’s bad faith, or the simplism of his demonstration to use Paul Schrader’s term, leaves you speechless. While the reactionary side of the film emerges, its demagogic dimension becomes clearer.
Texts in support, the film suggests that the most recent “target” of Lydia was not only aware of the maneuvers of her boss, but was, before the fall of the latter, complacent. yuck.
A few mecsplications
After a fairly short while, we are surprised to think of this famous ironic meme, very popular during the various waves of #MeToo denunciations (and during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement), which aimed to defuse the work of undermining male trolls disguised as “devil’s advocates”. We see a young white man with a drooling face declaring, with an irreproachable sense of the formula, that he is not concerned by the discussion, but that he likes to exhaust those who are, in order to maintain a status quo which benefits him. That sums it up perfectly Tarminus the irony.
We hit rock bottom when, a sign that the forfeiture has been reached, Lydia – née Linda – takes refuge briefly in the house of her childhood (remained inexplicably frozen in the 1980s). When he comes home from work, his brother, who looks like a worker, asks him: “How do you think you know where to go when you don’t even know where you come from? »
What would become of us without the wisdom of a simple man who came to explain life to overeducated women? However virtuoso its orchestration, this symphony looks like fingernails on a board.