Watching "Tár"
is challenging in several ways, not least through Cate Blanchett's impressive tour de force in the role of master conductor Lydia Tár.
She is manipulative and narcissistic.
The classical music equivalent of a demon director – authoritarian, demanding and obsessed with his artistic vision.
But Lydia Tár is also a musical genius who brings out the best in every musician.
She makes people feel special.
Especially young girls, it turns out.
When the film begins, she is at the peak of her career.
An international superstar who rides a private jet and wears tailored.
She will publish a book and at the same time conduct Mahler's fifth symphony with Germany's most prestigious symphony orchestra.
She is married
to the concertmaster and together they have a small daughter.
But a serious accusation is made and everything - just everything - around her is shaken.
The film has outraged and baffled since its premiere in Venice last fall.
What does it want?
What to think of the main character?
Is the film an argument for cancel culture or a critique of it?
Culture sites have speculated whether Lydia Tár is actually a real person or not ("She" has her own Twitter account and her own website where you can buy her autobiography).
The answer is
that Lydia Tár is both real and not real, a monster
and
a legend.
You can admire her and despise her at the same time.
The film is both a debate post and an artistic product.
Therein lies the big challenge.
During the course of the film, it is sprinkled with clever ironies and ambiguities to reinforce this.
The main character uses the Hebrew word
kavanah
to describe her watchword when she creates.
The word means "sincere feeling" but is also pronounced like the last name of the judge accused of sex crimes in the US Supreme Court, which is also pointed out.
The film is
challenging, as I said.
But that is also what makes "Tár" a masterpiece.
Lydia Tár is not a person you like, but Cate Blanchett makes her spellbinding.
You
want to
like her.
A true achievement.