Tension, Release and Tár

In September of 2002 Roger Ebert interviewed Hayao Miyazaki. In it Miyazaki spoke about the Japanese word Ma - the negative space. 'Emptiness. It's there intentionally' he said as clapped his hands. The time in between the claps is Ma.

The concept has stayed with me since - as the noise in the world has kept on increasing and exponentially so. This concept comes to fore in Todd Field's first film in 16 years - a meticulously researched, incredibly detailed and layered character study of Lydia Tár - a multi hyphenate virtuoso of the classical music world, who is also a member of the elusive EGOT club. She is played by the enigmatic Cate Blanchett in a role which will go down as one of the best performances of her career.

The opening scene of the movie is an exposition for the ages - where Tár walks onto the stage of a theater to thunderous applause or rather noise. She then gets interviewed by New Yorker's Adam Gopnik - who plays himself. Her introduction which seems to go on forever solidifies the heightened status and colossal accomplishments of the character - and if you like me watch it in a theater, the audience is supposed to feel small in this scene as we look up at this titan.

What follows next is a contemplative and searing meditation on fame, power and abuse - we soon realize that first scene is so heightened on purpose, as it symbolizes the beginning of the character's decline.

There is a particular scene which summons a term first coined by Freud - Narcissism of Small Differences. I won't go into the detail of the scene but it seems to me - after weeks of contemplating about this movie - that this term and it's underpinning theory is a necessary conversation for the times that we live in. Where conflict is the default for every conversation - and disagreeing seen as a batch of honor as though agreeing on something will make us less of a person. Although I digress - this scene is a bait for what is to come next but I shall let you be the judge of that.

On judgement - the first thing I told my friend when this movie ended was 'That was an observation of the current world that we live in minus any judgement.' Somehow Todd Field makes us go through an intensely charged downward spiral of a fictional monolithic figure in culture without making any obvious commentary on all of the themes that he touches. We are gazing at the world through the lens of his vision - and he leaves us with more questions to ponder over than answers to find comfort in.

There is no release in Todd's tension. There is a lingering note of discomfort... or shall I call it noise. You be the judge.