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Tár (2022)
Yes, Cate Blanchett is good, but.....
I understand that the film is artistic and that it requires a special audience that enjoys long scenes where the main character just sits and thinks for couple of minutes, but really, does it have to be that way? Does the film have to be stretched to 2 hours and 38 minutes to get the label of art? Does that length make cinephiles defend it and give it a high rating?
Yes, Cate Blanchett is very good here and if it wasn't for her the film would have gotten an even lower rating from me, but then again the role was written for her personally, given her personality and acting style (just to be clear, I don't think she's Lydia Tar in real life, but it was easier for her to give life to character because the script was written for her).
As for the story itself, I don't think that Egoism, especially in that branch of work, is such a big sin. What Lydia Tar did in the story, people in her position do every day. I feel that by the end of the film, she is somehow punished (according to some people, deservedly so), but I dont judge her. I met similar people in my life with that kind of personality and I understand that is a must for person that have such a high position, following all that awards and successes in professional life.
At the beginning, the film is so full of technical terms that most of us (the very large majority of us who do not belong to classical music world and know nothing about it) are completely lost.
The only scene that works is the Julliard scene, but only because such a topic is currently very active. Not only does she win the discussion with good arguments, she is also very patient with him, trying with an intellectual talk (not shouting our arguing in a bad way) to get him to think about art from a different angle.
Also I didn't like the ending of the movie too much. First, I think that the conditions in Asia are much better now than in Europe or the USA as far as classical music is concerned. I think that despite the scandals, they would accept her with all the luxury that accompanies such a successful maestro. Watching an earlier documentary about Ennio Morricone and how he was embarrassed to do film scores I can imagine that Lydia Tar felt she was degraded by working on game scores. But the truth is that it is a very rich industry that earns far more than classical and easily bring equally fame. Is she really being punished? I doubt.
The depiction of Asia is really unnecessary and degrading. At the beginning of the film we learn that she spent a long time in the wilderness studying indigenous music, and then at the end we see that she is uncomfortable with life in Asia. Why should be? Its a bit of a plot hole.