Bafta Awards 2023: Cate Blanchett wins ‘Best Leading Actress’ for ‘TÁR’
Winning a BAFTA is a highlight for any actor, and Cate Blanchett will be doubly glad as she not only took home the award for ‘Best Leading Actress’ but gave one of the night’s more impressive speeches.
The marvellous Cate Blanchett defeated some of the greatest female actors in the business, with Viola Davis, Danielle Deadwyler, Ana de Armas, Emma Thompson, and Michelle Yeoh all nominated for the esteemed prize.
“I would not be standing here without you,” claimed Blanchett as she thanked Todd Field. Later proclaiming that while the award was “wonderful”, the director had profoundly changed her life. TÁR has been widely regarded as one of the best movies of the year.
Taking place in the Feng shui apartments and grand beige concert halls of Berlin, Field’s story follows the fictional pianist, ethnomusicologist and composer Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Stressed with self-made pressure, we are introduced to Tár while preparing for her live recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, promoting her latest book Tár on Tár on the side. What transpires is a truly inspiring, if not a little confusing, film that will outlast the memory of this awards show.
During a recent conversation with The Guardian, Blanchett revealed why she has been hesitant to discuss the film. “I have been very reluctant to talk about the film,” she explained, “partly because it is so ambiguous, and I don’t want to define it for anyone. I also think it’s hard sometimes for journalists because they see so many films, and then they have to give an immediate opinion.”
The actor added: “A lot of people who have sat with it or watched it again have expanded their perception of what the film is. Not only is the character very enigmatic, but the facts of what has transpired, if you want to call it the plot, are very vague. In a way, the film is a Rorschach test when it comes to the kinds of judgments people make in terms of the information that is alluded to but never confirmed.”
Watch Cate Blanchett in the trailer for TÁR below.
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