The academy nominated movie Tar (2022) tells a story of a fictional female conductor Lydia Tár. The film starts with Tár at the peak of her career (a protege of Leonard Bernstein, director of the Berlin Phil, finishing recording the last of her Mahler cycle). Some says the film is psychic, confusing, and somewhat creepy and haunting.
Despite that Google autocompletes “What the heck is tar about” — the script is nice. Cate Blanchett did a great job. Music reference and orchestra scenes are highly accurate and professional. The movie’s deep. Reviews discuss a lot on Tár’s implied psychological nuance, feminism and anti-misogyny, as of the modern art world’s cancel culture, identity abuse (eg “I don’t like Bach because he’s straight and have 20 kids!”), and the long-argue about whether we should separate artist’s personal conduct with their work, etc etc.
Cate Blanchett has interesting wardrobe in the movie. The designer called it the “power wardrobe”.
Piano forte: Cate Blanchett strikes a chord with power chic fashion in Tár
Pinterest’s Cate blanchett tar outfits
But it’s not only uniqlos that gives her the confidence and complexity. They movie did a great job in showing the power play of Tar, because
Conductors are extraordinary leaders
An orchestra conductor lead 80-100 musicians who all are highly skilled, if not snarky, professionals. Waving on the podium is not the easiest job earth. Some conductors used to pull it off with totalitarianism eg Toscanono:
But at the end of the day, not everyone can just bully a great oboist into playing a transcendent swan lake introduction, or just threaten the strings into playing with pixie dusted Midsummer overture. The contemporary conductors takes an exquisite leadership approach — “leadership meant to always act from reaction — to set and take up impulses, to create space and trust” (Berliner Phi, on Claudio Abbado).