It is the curious nature of having maintained this blog for over fifteen years that permits me to revisit my thoughts about a little seen film called In The Bedroom, by this director. I noted the film’s nuanced take on controversial material and its ‘none-too-likeable’ characters. It always takes courage to represent characters who are unsympathetic, and Field doubles down on this in his masterly new film, which has it nods to Haneke’s Piano Teacher and Weisse’s The Audition (which curiously also features Nina Hoss, with Blanchett’s role echoing that played by Hoss in that film). Put simply, this is an astonishingly assured film, one which is both highbrow and unafraid to use genre tropes when it needs to. It’s a film which manages to include a ten minute interview sequence discussing classical music, as well as dream sequences and at least one jump scare. There are so many elements in Tár that it feels as though it has no right to succeed (the strange neighbours, Bach’s progeny, an adopted daughter (from where?), but Blanchett’s performance and the filmmakers’ skills hold the whole thing together. The edit, by Monika Willi, who has frequently worked with Haneke, is superb, maintaining the pace, pulling out of scenes with the delicacy of a masterchef, and the sound design, (score by Hildur Guðnadóttir), so key in a film about a conductor, is exquisite. Perhaps on a second watch, vast crevasses might open up, but one suspects not.
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