![]() So is the illusion of approachability: In her self-deprecating asides and post-Q&A chitchat, Lydia extends the audience-flattering notion that we could even begin to understand what she does. The ability to perform greatness is itself a key component of greatness, as this pretty great movie knows. There’s a ticklish note of meta-pleasure to Blanchett’s performance: She may be playing the role of the conductor with impeccable poise, but so, of course, is Lydia herself. She describes her love for her heroes like Mahler and Leonard Bernstein, and she positions herself in a small, proud tradition of female conductors, including Nadia Boulanger and Antonia Brico. Lydia, casually resplendent in a simple black suit and open-necked white shirt, takes a moment to register all this praise before gently deflecting it. ![]() 7, 2022 An earlier version of this review incorrectly gave conductor Nadia Boulanger’s name as Natalia. And that respect is clear from the long, teasing reveal of an opening sequence: an onstage Q&A moderated by New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik (playing himself) that ushers us, with tasteful chuckles and radio-smooth applause, into Lydia’s rarefied cultural sphere.ġ1:50 a.m. But writer-director Todd Field takes that genius as a given and trusts we’ll do the same he respects the intelligence of the audience as surely as he does the magnificence of his star. But this actor doesn’t even need to lift a baton, or approach a podium, to make us feel we’re in the presence of a singularly gifted musical body and mind.Ī lesser movie - and one of the weird pleasures of “Tár” is that you can’t stop imagining the lesser movie it so easily might have been - would have introduced Lydia in full-blown maestro mode, so as to convince us of her genius at the outset. Classical music buffs, who will have a particular field day with this movie, will also have sharper observations than mine on the merits of Blanchett’s posture and baton technique. ![]() ![]() It’s an astonishing performance nestled inside another: In one shot, Lydia towers like a colossus over the podium and the camera, her face visible only to the musicians seated off-screen, her arms spread wide as if she were embracing or perhaps possessing the world. ![]() It’s not until an hour into “Tár” that we see the title character - a classical conductor known the world over as Lydia Tár and played by an unimprovable Cate Blanchett - do what she was born to do. ![]()
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