Tár (2022) Review

Lydia Tár is widely considered to be one of the greatest living composer-conductors in the world and the first female principal music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. She was at the top of her game and had a big performance coming up, although accusations and revelations could see her downfall.

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It’s actually quite unreal how tense Tár is from start to finish, that wasn’t really something I was prepared for in all honesty. The only thing I really knew about the film was the hype surrounding Cate Blanchett’s performance and I mean that is all a given because she is one of the best actresses of her generation.

My knowledge of classical music and how an orchestra works is very minimal, which meant that I felt like I was learning throughout the film. I find it utterly fascinating how pieces of music are created and then put together. Especially when you think of the use within films, so this film was certainly interesting in that sense.

Do we ever really get to know Lydia Tár? That is certainly something that unfolds scene by scene, we see that she is utterly determined and focused on being the best she can possibly be. With doing that though does he then really care about those close to her or how she actually treats people? It certainly does not seem that way. Her assistant Francesca doing everything in terms of organising her life, but when she mentions emails from Krista Taylor.

The way we are slowly told parts of the bigger story to everything we see that Lydia seems to have a type of that goes for when it comes to women, and this is something her her wife Sharon doesn’t really notice to being with. When a young woman joins the orchestra she would then see the behaviour towards Olga. This is something Francesca notices as well, we get the impression that they have a past as well.

The psychological impact of the different situations really does impact Lydia and quite frankly the scenes with her nightmares and waking up to hear noises in different rooms of the house really get you on the edge of your seat and trying to catch your breath. When Francesca leaves and stories about Lydia begin to come out in the press and get her called into meetings it just shows that her jealously of Olga is coming out. The thing is though we never get to fully know if Lydia did have it in her to manipulate and if she as fully a bad person or just made a few mistakes? I guess that is part of the genius of the film, we probably shouldn’t feel sorry for her at all but we do. Well, I did anyway and found myself rooting for her. Even if in some scenes that felt a little bit weird.

The rise and dramatic fall of someone who was in the highest position in a male dominated field was extremely interesting to watch. It also made me more curious about classical music, as let’s face it we all hear it so often throughout our daily lives and it is never something I have massively thought about.

Cate Blanchett is everything in this film and I don’t even think I can begin to gush enough about her performance, she always goes all in with her role and this is no different. It would not be a surprise to see her pick up another Oscar, and it would be richly deserved as she is outstanding from start to finish. Draining to watch and be part of the characters downfall.