Tár

 

Todd Field's riveting character study Tár takes international headlines about sexual misconduct in the world of classical music and gives them a twist by making the predator in this case the world's most famous female composer-conductor.

As played by the ever-masterful Cate Blanchett, Lydia Tár is a demanding, perfectionistic germaphobe who is the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, wife to the orchestra's concertmistress (Nina Hoss) and parent to a troubled young daughter. Tár is also a dismissive and abusive taskmaster who uses her position and power to intimidate and seduce, remove those who would challenge her and annihilate her enemies.

She is haunted by a past relationship with a young protege, whom she continues to ignore, using her dutiful assistant (Noémie Merlant) as a buffer.

An early scene in the film involving an anxious Julliard student (played by Zethphan D. Smith-Gneist) reveals, with writerly brilliance, how the maestra eviscerates -- incisively, leaving her victim desaguinated and demoralized, and in the case of young Max fuming with bitter indignation. And Tár could not care less.

In this way Field -- who has directed only one other major release, 2001's In The Bedroom -- introduces the audience to a fascinating woman's peculiar sociopathy. And he uses the rest of the film to explore the breadth and depth of her pathology, with some suggestion that madness might be lurking just under the surface.

Blanchett is as wonderful as the critics say, moving effortlessly through the emotional array Field has written -- stoniness, fragility, defensiveness and tenderness -- in both English and German. She seems possessed by both her love of music and her inaccessibility. Combined they blind her to her profound weaknesses.

Tár is an outstanding cinematic achievement that offers abundant insight and humanity in its depiction of a trampling monster trying to outrun her past.