TÁR

Todd Field wrote the script for Cate Blanchett and says he would not have made the film had she turned it down. The orchestra is not faked. The Dresden Philharmonic stands in for the Berlin Philharmonic, and every piece of music heard inside a scene was recorded live on set, Blanchett’s piano included. Sophie Kauer, who plays the young cellist, is no actress but a Royal Academy of Music cellist. The conductor John Mauceri vetted what Lydia Tár says about music. That cost something at awards time: in December 2022 Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score was ruled out of Oscar contention, for want of original audible music and under the rule barring a score diluted by pre-existing music. The tie-in album carries a rehearsal of Mahler’s Fifth with Blanchett conducting, and topped the Billboard classical chart in November 2022. Blanchett won the Volpi Cup at Venice, then the Golden Globe and the BAFTA; the film drew six Academy Award nominations and won none. It opened on four screens at 39,655 dollars each; in its fourth weekend, on 1,087 screens, it managed 1.02 million. A good fit if you want the rehearsals audible as live playing and the argument left open. Not for viewers who take Lydia Tár for a real conductor and arrive to learn her life; she is invented.