TÁR

Venice Film Festival #6 – PalaBiennale

TÁR is a beast of a film. Much like an orchestra and its conductor, Todd Field masterfully composes this cinematic journey so delicately and with such a fine-tuned precession that the result is a beautiful harmonious culmination of filmmaking. Charting the life of Lydia Tár, the film follows her from the height of her success and the spiralling downfall she endures. There’s a certain flow to the film, much like a musical piece, where you might not be witnessing anything bad happening to Tar on screen but you’re aware of this constant prevailing idea that she is slipping the entire film. The result is this wonderful atmosphere that is created throughout the film that gets stronger as it goes along. Traditionally this wouldn’t be described as a thriller yet its an apt word for how the film makes you feel during its runtime.

The first violin to Field’s conductor is Cate Blanchett. I’m not saying anything new here by saying she’s a powerhouse of a performer and is able to exhibit such depth in the smallest of expressions, but this may just be her greatest performance to date. The layers and complexity she unearths in Tár is astonishing, she completely takes over the environments she finds herself in with such naturality that you almost forget you’re watching an actress. A lot is left unsaid in the film, questions or narrative threads that aren’t directly resolved yet, and this is both a compliment to Field as well as Blanchett, you almost are able to construct these answers in your head as the film establishes such a detailed portrayal of Tár that you feel as if you know who she is.

There’s one particular scene that stands out above the rest, and it isn’t even that pertinent to the overall story. Near the beginning Tár is giving a lecture to some Julliard students and she ends up getting into a debate with one around the relevance of identity or beliefs when it comes to art. Not only is this just a wonderful character building scene for Tár and a fascinating topic of discussion that the film so exquisitely deconstructs, but it’s also one of the most beautifully shot scenes for being something so simple. The entire scene is shot in one-take and the way the camera flows, and choses to stop and focus on certain areas, feels almost musical. Apposing the allure of conversation that happens, there’s a clear power established through the camera that it’s hard not to be mesmerised by the scene.

The cinematography on the whole is just as powerful. It establishes a clear need for order in Tár’s life with the employment of many static shots, yet it’s a miracle how the film is still able to garner such a delicate flow with the use of such static and cold shots. The production design matches this orderly nature both in the set design but also the choice of buildings being very structured and lacking personality.

As this is a musical film it’s no surprise that the sound is impeccable. Yet it isn’t as grand or obtuse as you’d expect from a film focusing on an orchestra, instead the film opts for a more subtle use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. This makes it all the more powerful when the film decides to go full volume with its sound. The first moment you hear the orchestra play in the film strikes you with such ferocity that I got shivers. Truly an exquisite piece of filmmaking, another masterpiece about obsessed musicians