Tár

 

    Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss in Tár. Focus Features photo via IMDB

Besides being fluent in German and awesomely articulate in English, Cate Blanchett also speaks the language of music in “Tár.” Which parts of her portrayal of pianist-conductor-composer Lydia Tár stem from the actress's prodigious talent, and which parts are thanks to writer-director (and musician) Todd Field, either way Lydia Tár is more superhero than mere mortal, a force of nature, a one-woman energy field.

Blanchett reportedly learned to play two instruments, and conduct an orchestra and speak German for the role.

The intensity of the character – an opinionated, outspoken lesbian, a lioness on the orchestral podium of the Berlin Philharmonic who has no time for frivolity and does not suffer fools gladly – has put Blanchett near the top of best actress predictions this awards season. Deservedly so. You don't watch her performance through the first half of the movie so much as you take cover from it, grateful not to be in range of her wrath.

She moves in the most rarified circles – not only the podiums of the world's greatest orchestras, but in conservatory classrooms and boardrooms for philanthropic charities. She is a champion not so much for empowering young women artists as for erasing gender distinctions entirely. She shares an elegant Berlin apartment with her concertmaster/lover (Nina Hoss). They have a young daughter together.

She lives a private-jet-and-limousine life. She has an assistant (Noémie Merlant), herself an aspiring conductor, to attend to all the details too menial for her own attention. When we are introduced to Lydia at the beginning of the film, she is being interviewed before an audience of adoring intellectuals at an event sponsored by The New Yorker. Granted, members of the film audience who aren't musical geniuses themselves may have a hard time keeping up – but will still get the point: This is one impressive human being.

But where does this uncomfortable – if not ominous – feeling come from as we watch her?

Is the world of orchestral politics as Machiavellian as it looks, or is it Tár herself who creates this reality? For all the passion and profound emotion she coaxes from her musicians, her relations with people when they're not making music are purely transactional, with her playing the manipulative maestro at all times.

Apart from the apparent tribute it pays to a remarkable artist, you watch the first hour of “Tár” wondering where's the plot? You wait for the other shoe to drop, wondering if it will be an unexpected plot twist – international intrigue for this globe-trotting heroine? – or something closer to home?

In fact, “Tár” is really two movies. Director Field runs the end credits at the film's start, to signal the unconventionality of his film's structure. One pivotal scene in which Lydia conducts a master class at Juilliard was filmed in one take, an amazing accomplishment as you watch it unfold. The film is full of such cinematic feats.

Most of what you've read here is about “Tár's” first half. Almost anything I can add about the rest of this artfully crafted work would be a spoiler, other than to say the second half is even more compelling than the first, with an LOL moment right out of left field.

Late in the movie Lydia comes upon an old VHS recording of Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic in the CBS “Young People's Concerts” series that introduced her and an entire generation to classical music from 1958 to '72. In it, Bernstein explains, the chords, keys, time signatures and such aren't essential – orchestral music is something you feel. Anyone can feel.

Whether or not that's still true, especially for subsequent YouTube generations who didn't have the inspiring Uncle Lenny to guide them, is an open question. “Tár” is an awards season movie. Audiences familiar with all classical composers mentioned, or with the intellectual enclaves of The New Yorker, or who know what it feels like to set foot in the world's great concert halls will have no trouble following the score. Understanding German would be another plus.

But anyone else willing to see “Tár” through to the end will be rewarded by one of the most unforgettable characters to have set foot on a movie screen this year.