Alice Garcia |
Madrid (EFE).- A “complicated” story full of “layers and interpretations.” This is how “TAR” defines its protagonist, Cate Blanchett, who dazzles with an immense and nuanced interpretation of an orchestra conductor who goes from the top to oblivion due to a case with echoes of “#MeToo”, where the name of Plácido Domingo overrides the narrative.
With two Oscars, four Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and the first International Goya that she collected last year in Valencia, the Australian actress, once again nominated for an Oscar for this work, no longer has anything to prove but, in each project she undertakes , when it seems impossible, she surpasses herself.
On this occasion, under the orders of Todd Field, she becomes Lydia Tar, a queen in a man’s world, an imaginary woman called to be the first to conduct a prestigious German orchestra. And to make this genius, also despotic and dark, credible, Blanchett learned to speak German, to conduct orchestras and to play the piano.
But when the actress talks about her work in the film, she barely refers to the effort made and passionately defends a character that won her the Volpi Cup at the Venice Festival, for which she has won the Golden Globe and which places her as absolute favorite to win what would be her third Oscar.
“For her, directing is like breathing, so she had to find her way of breathing. I became very obsessed with Carlos Kleiber and his ambivalent and tortured relationship with his work, and with Simon Rattle”, he cites in an interview with various media, including EFE, from an extensive list of conductors where there were also “much less important ».
His idea, he explains, was to find out how far the authority of a conductor goes, why he ends up being “an autocrat” and to show, incidentally, “how the world of classical music changed when the Berlin Wall fell.”
Fiction takes place in this German city where Lydia Tár, a passionate, cultured and cold musician, famous throughout the world for her concerts and compositions, falls from one day to the next from the highest point into an abyss of accusations that collapse her universe, before the disbelief of his wife (Nina Hoss) and their daughter.
Her impeccable façade cracks when allegations of abuse of power arise, in a behavior with which she replicates that of her male colleagues. There is even a moment in the tape when Plácido Domingo’s room is mentioned.
“There is an awareness (in the case of Domingo) in the complexity, the minefields, the traps… Many of those people who are dotted with cases like his are mentioned, but the script goes very slightly through them,” he points out.
In his opinion, “it is as if you saw Picasso and you could only imagine what happens outside his studio. But do you look at ‘Guernica’ and think that? It is one of the greatest works of art in history. I think healthy criticism is also important. I am not more interested in the questions than in finding an answer », she settles.
Field wrote this story for Blanchett, who carries on her shoulders the 158 minutes of an elegant film but which would be far from the success achieved if it were not for the work of the Australian.
For the protagonist of “Carol”, where she also has a relationship with a woman, that Tár is a lesbian “is no more part of her identity than other aspects”, on the contrary, “it is so natural that she does not need to talk about it”.
Blanchett defines “TAR” as “a complicated story.” «She is a successful woman who reaches a position of power (…) but the people around her also demand that authority. That’s another aspect of this movie. The most amazing thing to me is all these different layers and interpretations.”
“She is capable of enormous power and also great generosity, but somehow she is being swallowed up by the system she has admired for so long. And she is about to turn 50, another incredible change », she sums up.
«Once you get to the top you realize that you can only go downhill. We find her at the end of a cycle, when she questions herself. What happens now, what’s next? And, perhaps, what follows is to blow everything up.”
But the film, which opens this Friday in Spanish theaters, “neither gives answers nor judges,” he warns.
