 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Todd Field didn’t write “TÁR” with Cate Blanchett in mind. He wrote it for Cate Blanchett only. If she didn’t want to do it, it wouldn’t exist.
The film,
which had its world premiere Thursday night in competition at the Venice
International Film Festival, looks at an extraordinary artist at the peak of
her career. The fictional Lydia Tár is a celebrated composer, musician,
philanthropist and conductor, and the first ever woman to preside over an
important German orchestra, who we meet as she’s preparing to debut her
autobiography “Tár on Tár” and complete the Mahler cycle with the orchestra.
“It’s a very
rare and special moment when Todd leaves the house and makes another movie,”
Blanchett said before the premiere.
“TÁR” is one
of the most anticipated films of a festival full of major filmmakers. It’s
Field’s first film in over 15 years and features what is already being hailed
as a bravura performance from one of cinema’s most celebrated actors.
It’s also a
film that has been a bit secretive — there is no real easy logline to describe
“TÁR” or even tease what happens, but it’s one that reveals itself to you as
you go along. Blanchett described it as a process movie about someone who is
estranged from herself.
“She’s haunted by something, by her past, by
herself, by past deeds,” Blanchett said. “You experience someone who has put
her past in a box and who through her immense talent has tried to reinvent
herself and be saved and changed and transmogrified by the music.”
And there’s
not even one definitive reading, at least according to Field.
“I see a
different film every time I watch it and I’ve watched it many times,” he said.
But, in his
words, Lydia has external forces going on which we have limited knowledge about
what they are or what they mean. Then something happens and everything changes.
“It’s a very
long journey in a very short period of time for her,” said Field.
To play
Lydia’s wife, Sharon, who is violinist in the German Orchestra, Field said he
and Blanchett “like a jinx” both said “Nina Hoss” at the same time. Blanchett
laughed that she’d been stalking the German actor known for her frequent
collaboration with Christian Petzold “for about 10 years now.”
“It’s
unhealthy but it’s true,” she said.
Blanchett
has played LGBTQ characters before, perhaps most notably in Todd Haynes’
“Carol,” but the importance of that kind of representation on screen is not
something she takes into consideration when choosing roles.
“I don’t
think about the character’s gender nor her sexuality,” Blanchett continued.
“And I love that about the film. It just is. It’s a human portrait. I think we
have matured enough as a species that we can watch a film like this and not
make it the headline or the issue.”
With
“Carol,” she said she only realized after the fact that it was unique in its
portrayal of women in a relationship and that it did become important to
people.
“TÁR,” just
felt “urgent and undeniable” and while there are “a lot of explosive things in
the film,” she’s also not interested in “agitprop,” she said.
“After the
thing is made, it can be politicized, disseminated, discussed, people can be
disgusted with it, offended by it, inspired by it,” she said. “But that is
outside our control.”
“TÁR” is competing for the festival’s Golden Lion award, to be given out on Sept. 10 by a jury led by Julianne Moore. And it’s expected to be a major contender come Oscar season. Focus Features is releasing the film in theaters in North America on Oct. 7. And for Field, it is “Cate’s film.”
“She is a
master supreme,” he wrote in his director’s statement. “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. The privilege of
collaborating with an artist of this caliber is something impossible to
adequately describe.”
Follow AP
Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr
For more on
the Venice Film Festival, visit: www.apnews.com/VeniceFilmFestival