TÁR, the cancel culture conversation piece of the year starring Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss and directed by Todd Field

oh https://www.avclub.com/cate-blanchett-says-tar-role-originally-meant-for-a-man-1849872103

Been thinking about this quite a bit after watching it last night. The whole cast was stellar but Blanchett was knocking it out of the park. Definitely read as a sort of surrealist comedy/horror film to me; the Slate piece was striving a bit more to connect all the dots than is necessary, but all those dots are very much there. lots of ari aster vibes without the easy sadism.

tons of visual echoes: the black dog in the passageway followed by her child on all fours followed by the piano. All challenges she won't be able to overcome. If you were looking for a mini-trend piece, you could do worse than one about post-COVID imposter syndrome media, beginning here and looping in Fleischman is In Trouble.

i appreciate how entirely open to interpretation this movie is and how much it forces the viewer to work to meet it. I got in an argument a couple of nights back with a buddy who, after extolling his love for White Lotus and Triangle of Sadness and having to listen to me go on about how facile and hypocritical those pieces are, accused me of not liking satire. What i don't like is EASY satire.

Having known a few Tár-types, the verisimilitude of the hyper-erudite patter was uncanny. i am gonna have to be careful who i talk to about this irl.

Confused by that Blanchett comment bc I heard an interview with Todd Field in which he said he wrote the movie with Blanchett in mind and wouldn't have made it if she hadn't said yes.

my partner, who is a Bernstein nerd, immediately tracked Tar's beat pattern as his.

feel like a big key to the character is her rough and tumble roots. strivers know that the system must be gamed and even when we know the rules are shifting and can hear the trap closing, we are certain we'll dodge yet again. the cry in the woods while running, the metronome speeding. as a fellow sound-sensitive genius with a shoulder problem who gets up in the middle of the night to listen to the walls to see where that noise is coming from, i felt very targeted.

xpost

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/12/todd-field-interview-tar-theories-lyrida-egot-awards-insider

Vanity Fair: Let’s start with Lydia Tár because, when you look at social media, everyone is talking about her almost like she’s a real person. Everyone loves to analyze her. How did this character first take shape for you?

Todd Field: She kind of appeared about 10 years ago to me. I understand, in a fashion, why people do think that she’s real because she’s very real to me and has been for a long time. I wasn’t sure that I would ever be able to sort of share her with anyone because everything that I’ve been adapting for however many years has been based on underlying material, where the characters have been imagined by others. But here she is.

Vanity Fair: I was reading over the screenplay and I noticed this opening note that you put in there: “Based on the script’s page count, it would be reasonable to assume that the total running time for Tár would be well under two hours. However, this will not be a reasonable film.” And then you go on to say, “if you are mad enough to greenlight this film, be prepared for one whose necessary length represents these practical accommodations.” It sounds like you really led with the fact that you needed to have the freedom to make the story you wanted to tell. Was that ever met with any resistance?

Todd Field: Strangely, no. And I didn’t receive one script note. And as that note says, “if you’re mad enough to greenlight this film”—I’m still sort of scratching my head that, [chairman of Focus Features] Peter Kujawski and [president of production and acquisitions] Kiska Higgs were mad enough to greenlight this film and ultimately [Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman] Donna Langley and [NBCUniversal vice chairman] Jimmy Horowitz because who on earth would ever greenlight this film? [Laughs.]

Vanity Fair: You wrote the script for Cate Blanchett. Did it require you to chase her down in any way to get her to sign on, and would you have made this if she passed?

Todd Field: No, I wouldn’t have made it if she passed. I tried to be respectful and transparent with the studio, but the one thing that I lied about when I handed it in was immediately Kiska Higgs and Peter Kujawski said, “you must have someone in mind for this role?” And I said, “No, I have no idea.” Because I was terrified that somebody might make a call or whatever and spook her, you know? So I kind of didn’t do anything for about a month. And then my wife kind of kicked me under the table and said, “you need to quit being so sheepish. You need to call her.” And I did, and she said yes immediately. That was surprising because I think it’s a very dangerous character. I don’t think it wasn’t a sure thing. There was all kinds of reasons why she may have said no, but that speaks to who she is as an artist that she said yes.

my partner, who is a Bernstein nerd, immediately tracked Tar's beat pattern as his

Probably my favorite moment in the whole movie is when she greets by name the composer coming thru her alarm clock radio

Funniest movie moment of 2022. #Tar pic.twitter.com/jvB61ht8j4

— Ken Jones (@KenJones81) November 19, 2022

Even funnier when they include a credit for that song in the closing credits reel

lol, i was literally typing that as an xpost!

Still blows me away that Todd Field wrote himself the most original American script of the year.

And that he directed a well-directed movie

somehow never saw either in the bedroom or little children so i came into this with zero expectations on the director front. this is exemplary work but i'm hearing that's not par for his course?

itt: too much hyperbole, not enough critical analysis of the SEINFELD PUFFY SHIRT

I overstate -- In the Bedroom is a reasonably well-directed take on reprehensible material

Ugh, that word again, I don't even know what it means!

not to put too fine a point on it but as I haven't seen this comment made elsewhere: a film about a woman who ensnares people in her own "transactional" machinations of growth and then chokes them out when they prove threatening that engenders a la brea-sized quagmire of provocative discourse might be giving away its endgame in the title.

^^^^^^^^^ !!!

Are you saying it’s the pits?

i'm calling it an attraction!

incidentally, i watched Corsage tonight and that's a good follow up to Tar. Both films about what a woman is worth, how she can work within the system, how much rope she needs to weigh anchor

I think In the Bedroom is very good.

Tár : when a movie character has this much sauce, that’s the filmmakers telling you that they are unambiguously cool & that you are supposed to root for them

Just one of many 2022 highlights we celebrate in the sletter today https://t.co/wqoelSmGdk pic.twitter.com/Hu9Kc6M1Sv

— Blackbird Spyplane (@BLKBRD_Spyplane) December 27, 2022

that misread iirc is the whole angle of richard brody’s piece about it (the man does not know how to watch a movie)

I don't think In the Bedroom is remotely terrible, just "determined" in that late 20thh century American fiction way.

I mean, it was adapted from a story by Andre Dubus.

well, yeah

House of Sand and Fog was probably the darkest book I've ever read, and the film had the same kind of feel as In the Bedroom.

And I didn't realize that the story on which In the Bedroom was based was written by Andre Dubus II, not Andre Dubus III. :O

the man does not know how to watch a movie

Brody is maddeningly idiosyncratic but I would never accuse him of not knowing how to watch a movie

he occasionally sees something i don't in a film and sometimes its helpful but equally often i want to hunt him for sport

When I seen Richard Brody’s byline, my heart sinks. (Occasionally he’ll write something that’s in the realm of right on.)

“See”

Yikes

I haven’t seen this movie yet, will probably wind up being a rental unless it opens back up again.

reopening Friday here (arthouse, vs previous multiplex run), so cross your fingers

I haven’t seen this movie yet, will probably wind up being a rental unless it opens back up again.

Amazon wants $20 to purchase it at the moment; when it's rentable (that is, $6 or less) I'll definitely check it out.

I haven’t seen this movie yet, will probably wind up being a rental unless it opens back up again.

― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings),

Do your best to watch it soon. I paid $20 on Amazon in early November.

I think this movie works as a comedy as much as anything. I didn’t feel anything about Tar’s fall since I felt she was a glib phony all through the movie, all her ideas were trite or received. I felt like her character had no actual passion for music and just liked conducting for the controls and access to high quality poon. Anyways, I was the only person in the theater who laughed at the supposed shocking climax, and the postscript joke reveal was *chef’s kiss*.

i don't know that I'd call it a comedy, but those scenes are funny

Olga chowing down like she hadn’t eaten in a week (although actually maybe she hadn’t) was hilarious too.

CB can do better

Do we know who suggested Monster Hunter? It’s so perfect yet I can’t imagine Todd Field knows about the Monster Hunter phenomenon.

And what did Kaname Fujioka think of the film?

I think this movie works as a comedy as much as anything.

i was the only person in the theatre laughing when i saw it so i think we're in the minority here. i had the same experience with phantom thread

Yes! I had audience members turning around watching PT, I was laughing so.

zadie smith weighs in
https://archive.ph/z0Ztj

Laugh during any and every movie, I say

Twitter doing what it does best:

Emily in Paris is a confusing show. What's her deal? Why is everyone in love with her? Why isn't the clear sexual tension between her and the handsome French woman she works for getting resolved?

— Lydia Tár (@LydiaTarReal) December 27, 2022

lol

Thanks for the Zadie Smith piece, insightful and interesting although we got different things from the film.

that's a great essay. curious if there was anything in particular she said that you took issue with, or if she just was elucidating things you hadn't yet considered (this was my feeling, in some respects)