Earlier this month, director Todd Field was interviewed for Radio 3’s Private Passions about his new film, Tár. The presenter Michael Berkeley had seen it the night before and commented: “It’s the kind of film you want to see with friends and have a good argument about. Is that perhaps what you wanted?” Field replied with a confident “yes” before bursting into laughter.
At its root, Tár is a study of power. Field might have conjured up a ruthless politician to make his film about, but he chose to go one step higher – picking a figure of absolutism. It features Cate Blanchett in imperious form playing Lydia Tár, the first female chief conductor of one of the world’s top orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic. A real-life predecessor of the fictional Tár was Herbert von Karajan, who held the helm at the Berlin Philharmonic from 1956 until his death in 1989. Margaret Thatcher admired him greatly and they became friends, no matter that he was a former Nazi party member. “She envied me,” Karajan once said, “that people always did what I requested.”
