Tár
TAR／ター
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A conductor at the peak of her power and the young women she has cultivated; cancel culture as tragedy.
Lydia Tár is the chief conductor of a great Berlin orchestra, a composer and a star. Interviewed on stage in New York, she is about to record Mahler's Fifth Symphony live and publish a memoir. She runs a fellowship for young women conductors with Eliot Kaplan, a banker who conducts as a hobby, and leans on her assistant, Francesca, who hopes to be made assistant conductor. At a Juilliard masterclass she humiliates a student who will not play Bach because of the composer's life. In Berlin she lives with her wife, Sharon, the orchestra's concertmaster, and their young daughter, Petra.
When a young Russian cellist, Olga Metkina, auditions, Lydia is drawn to her. She tips the result in Olga's favour, then programmes Elgar's Cello Concerto so that Olga can play the solo. Krista Taylor, a former fellow whom Lydia has blacklisted across the profession, sends distressed emails and takes her own life. When Krista's parents prepare to sue, Lydia tells Francesca to delete the emails and hire a lawyer. She pushes out her assistant conductor and then passes Francesca over, and Francesca resigns. Sounds torment Lydia; she has nightmares and begins to see things. Following Olga home, she falls and hurts herself, and tells Sharon she was mugged.
Then it comes apart. A misleadingly edited video of the Juilliard class spreads online, and the New York Post accuses her of preying on young women. At a deposition in New York she is confronted with emails between her and Krista that Francesca has handed over. The orchestra removes her, and Sharon, furious at her lies, keeps her from Petra. At the recording she should have conducted, Lydia runs on stage and attacks Eliot, who has replaced her. She retreats to her childhood home on Staten Island, where old certificates bear her birth name, Linda Tarr, and her brother tells her she has forgotten where she came from. Later she finds work in the Philippines. A massage parlour she is sent to turns out to be a brothel; when one of the young women looks straight at her, Lydia runs outside and vomits. In the last scene she conducts music from the video game series Monster Hunter, for an audience in costume.
Starring
Cate Blanchettas Lydia Tár
A celebrated conductor and composer at the head of a Berlin orchestra, whose treatment of the young women around her catches up with her.
Lydia Tár’s story
Lydia is about to record Mahler's Fifth and publish a memoir, and in Berlin she lives with the orchestra's concertmaster, Sharon, and their daughter, Petra. She uses her power as she pleases. She humiliates a Juilliard student, tips an audition towards a young cellist she is drawn to, and when Krista Taylor, a former fellow she blacklisted, takes her own life, has the emails deleted. She passes over Francesca, who resigns. Sounds and visions torment her. Then an edited video spreads, the emails reach a deposition, the orchestra removes her and Sharon keeps Petra from her. She attacks her replacement on stage and hides in her childhood home, among certificates in her birth name, Linda Tarr. In the Philippines she flees a brothel, and conducts music from Monster Hunter for an audience in costume.
Noémie Merlantas Francesca Lentini
Lydia's assistant and confidante, a conductor herself, who hopes for promotion and knows more than anyone about Lydia's past.
Francesca Lentini’s story
Francesca runs Lydia's diary and knows her history, and as a conductor herself she has reason to hope she will be named assistant conductor. Krista Taylor, a former fellow whom Lydia has blacklisted, sends Francesca disturbing emails; after Krista takes her own life, Lydia tells her to delete them and to hire a lawyer. Lydia's favour for the young cellist Olga strains things between them, and when Lydia pushes out her assistant conductor, she decides against promoting her. Francesca resigns and cannot be reached. Breaking into her home, Lydia finds a draft of her memoir retitled Rat on Rat. At the deposition in New York, the emails between Lydia and Krista that Lydia is made to face are ones Francesca has handed over.
Nina Hossas Sharon Goodnow
Lydia's wife, the orchestra's concertmaster and mother of their daughter, who sees more than Lydia admits.
Sophie Kaueras Olga Metkina
A young Russian cellist whom Lydia favours after her audition and cannot stop pursuing.
Mark Strongas Eliot Kaplan
A banker and amateur conductor who co-founded Lydia's fellowship for women conductors, and who replaces her on the podium.
Why it matters
Tár is about power in a world that still runs on the idea of genius: a conductor who can make or end a career with an email, and who has mistaken her gift for a licence. That the abuser is a woman, and a lesbian, is a deliberate provocation, and not everyone accepted it. The conductor Marin Alsop said she was offended as a woman, as a conductor and as a lesbian; Cate Blanchett called the film a meditation on power, which she said is genderless. Richard Brody of The New Yorker saw a regressive swipe at so-called cancel culture; others found its account of a fall far more ambiguous. Blanchett won the Volpi Cup at Venice, and the film had six Oscar nominations. What stays open is how much of Lydia's fall is justice and how much spectacle, and whether separating the art from the artist was ever more than a convenience for the powerful.