The movie that left Cate Blanchett contemplating retirement: “I don’t ever want to work again”
When Tár was released in 2022, it was the talk of the town. Everyone was lining up to watch the film that Cate Blanchett herself had described as a “role of a lifetime”, with critics and audiences during the festival circuit gushing over the gripping and suspenseful tale of power dynamics and gender norms against the backdrop of the classical music industry.
Tár is a demanding film that keeps you enthralled for its entire duration, with a layered and slightly controversial message that has been puzzled over and misinterpreted by many. And it was the many conflicting elements of the story that made for a challenging production experience for Blanchett, who has since described the last impact of the role.
Tár follows a renowned classical conductor, Lydia Tár, who is faced with the career opportunity of a lifetime and is disturbed by something in her past that begins to haunt her. It is a captivating portrait of guilt, abuse and how our moral conscience begins to catch up with us. The messaging of the film was construed in countless opposing ways, with some believing it to be about cancel culture and some finding it offensive and harmful to the feminist movement. All of these can be true simultaneously, but there is an undeniable core of the film that explores our relationships with artists and the creatives we deem as being ‘genius’.
Lydia is a very complicated person who has both been oppressed and is an oppressor. She manipulates her power for her own personal gain while also being repressed by her own identity within the classical music world. Blanchett became a living embodiment of this trap in her physicality, too, with a stoic and rigid posture that is maintained at all times, emanating power and restraint in the presentation of herself.
When asked about the challenge of playing this character, Blanchett said, “I think it was because it was such a physical role, the echoes of it are still with me and I think I’m like a lot of audience members, I need time to process it.”
If there was any word to describe Tár as a character, it would be “haunted”, and it doesn’t surprise me that this was a physical feeling that stayed with Blanchett after the production. Blanchett even joked about wanting to retire after the role, saying, “Obviously, I’m lucky enough to work with some amazing directors who have changed my life, but when it all comes together like that, it does stay with you. So I don’t ever want to work again”.
It’s unsurprising that Lydia Tár’s roles are hard to shake away. A visceral mood of unrest and violence lies underneath the conductor’s still stoic surface. Her actions eventually catch up to her, and the life she was running away from becomes inescapable. The dark ending will sit with you for days after watching.
However, despite the burnout from playing this character, Blanchett has recently starred in Disclaimer directed by Alfonso Cuaron and the upcoming Steven Soderbergh film Black Bag, which is set for a release in 2025.
