STACK #223 May 2023

MOVIE FEATURE

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AN ACTOR’S DIRECTOR Long before calling “Action!” as a director, Todd Field was a seasoned actor who appeared in over 20 feature films. Following a role in Woody Allen’s Radio Days (1987), he would go on to appear in films such as Roland Joffe’s Fat Man and Little Boy (1989), Twister (1996), and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999). In addition to Tár , his other directorial films are In the Bedroom (2001), and Little Children (2006).

In a career filled with remarkable roles, Cate Blanchett delivers possibly her most mesmerising performance yet in Tár . Words Gill Pringle Y ou don’t have to personally like the character of pretentious classical conductor Lydia Tár to know that in examination of power and its impact on today’s society, encompassing cancel culture and the #MeToo movement. “Like a lot of people who are in AN ORCHESTRATED PERFORMANCE

your focus has to push the political fact that you are standing there as a woman.” To understand the dynamics of running a major cultural institution such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Blanchett looked to the Sydney Theatre Company; between 2008 and 2013,the actress served as co artistic director and co-CEO with her husband, Andrew Upton. “So I understood in my small way what that might be like,” she says. “Having that level of cultural and physical responsibility can be intensely lonely and thankless at times, just as much as it can be the greatest challenge of one’s career. The building, the schedule, the sponsors, the audience interface and, of course, dealing with company politics. “The creative and physical

Blanchett’s performance you're witnessing an actress who - like her alter-ego - is at the very top of her game. So utterly does Blanchett inhabit Tár that it's hard to imagine anybody else in the role - which is exactly how Tár writer producer-director Todd Field (director of 2006’s Little Children ) planned the project. “This script was written for one artist, Cate Blanchett,” he says. “Had she said no, the film would have never seen the light of day. “Filmgoers, amateur and otherwise, will not be surprised by this,” he continues. “After all, she is a master supreme. Even so, while we were making the picture, the superhuman skill and verisimilitude of Cate was something truly astounding to behold. She raised all boats. In every possible way, this is Cate’s film.” About any other actress these comments might sound hyperbolic, but for the Melbourne born talent who’s garnered two Oscars ( Blue Jasmine and The Aviator ) and six nominations ( Elizabeth , Notes on a Scandal , I’m Not There , Elizabeth: The Golden Age , and Carol )? Totally understandable. We meet Tár at the very

positions of authority, who breathe the rarefied air of tenured orchestras like the ones in Germany, Tár is enigmatic,” says Blanchett, 53, whose performance in the role has already earned her Critics Choice Association and BAFTA awards, and an Oscar nomination. “That was challenging for me in terms of bringing the character to life

• Tár is out on May 3

and finding the moments that would allow the audience to connect with her experience - because this is a woman who doesn’t really know herself,” she adds. “Women conductors so often get the chamber pieces, but not the big guns - and frankly, that wears her down,” explains Blanchett. “She finds herself making decisions that are unwise as a result of being exhausted by these systemic processes. You stand on the podium as a woman, and a certain percentage of

buck absolutely stopped with us, but when we assumed the job, we took the desk out of our office, and we consulted with our staff in a meaningful way about artistic decisions. I’m sure many, at first - who may have been accustomed to a more hierarchical approach - thought, ‘They don’t know what they’re doing.’ They weren’t used to working in a more democratic way. Traditionally, the classical music world - like many institutions - does not have an agreement like this. Tár, for example, is expected to be a force of one.”

In Tár , the screams heard in the park are actually audio from The Blair Witch Project . DYK?

height of her career, as she’s preparing both a book launch and a much-anticipated live performance of the enormously demanding, 70-minute Fifth Symphony by Gustav Mahler. Over the ensuing weeks her life begins to unravel in a singularly modern way; the result is a searing

34 MAY 2023

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