Martin Scorsese claims “the clouds lifted” when he watched ‘TÁR’
This week, Todd Fields’ epic psychological drama TÁR took home the Best Picture accolade at the New York Film Critics Circle ceremony. Furthermore, lead actor Cate Blanchett took home the Best Actress award for her role as fictional composer Lydia Tár.
The movie, which tracks Tár’s downfall, also stars Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Julian Glover and Mark Strong. Although Field’s film has only grossed $5.6 million against a $35 million production and marketing budget, it has received rave reviews from critics, with countless nominations and wins to its name.
One of the film’s biggest fans is Martin Scorsese, who presented the Best Picture award. In his introductory speech, he explained, “For so long now, so many of us see films that pretty much let us know where they’re going. I mean, they take us by the hand, and even if it’s disturbing at times, sort of comfort us along the way that it will be all okay by the end.”
He continued, “Now, this is insidious, as one can get lulled into this, and ultimately get used to it. Leading those of us who’ve experienced cinema in the past — as much more than that— to become despairing of the future of the art form, especially for younger generations.”
“But that’s on dark days. The clouds lifted when I experienced Todd’s film, ‘TÁR.’ What you’ve done, Todd, is that the very fabric of the movie you created doesn’t allow this. All the aspects of cinema and the film that you’ve used, attest to this. The shift in locations, for example, the shift in locations alone do what cinema does best, which is to reduce space and time to what they are, which is nothing.”
“You make it so that we exist in her head. We experience only through her perception. The world is her. Time, chronology and space become the music that she lives by. And we don’t know where the film’s going. We just follow the character on her strange, upsetting road to her even stranger final destination. Now, what you’ve done, Todd, it’s a real high-wire act, as all of this is conveyed through a masterful mise-en-scène, as controlled, precise, dangerous, precipitous angles, and edges geometrically kind of chiselled into a wonderful 2:3:5 aspect ratio of frame compositions.”
He ended his speech by emphasising, “The limits of the frame itself, and the provocation of measured long takes all reflecting the brutal architecture of her soul — TÁR‘s soul.”
TÁR will be available to watch in the UK on 13th January.
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