Tár is set in the contemporary world of Western classical music and centres on Lydia Tár, one of the world's most prolific composer-conductors and first ever female music director of a major German orchestra. While the film has the look and feel of a biopic, Lydia Tár is a fictional character. As portrayed here by Cate Blanchett, she's at the absolute height of her career and there seems to be no limit to what she's able to achieve. She's smart, talented, passionate about music and is ready to take her career to new heights. We see her as she goes about preparing to release her book titled Tár On Tár, as well as conduct a concert in which she tackles Mahler's most complex musical piece, the Fifth Symphony.
However, this is where the trouble begins as some of Lydia's questionable past actions start catching up with her. We watch as she tries to navigate a series of internal struggles and the scandals that haunt her, the film's focus moving from an observation of the sumptuous lives of people in the fine art world to the unfolding of a gothic-tinged psychological thriller. Everything is crumbling around her and there's a sense of great tension. The film's director and writer, Todd Field, has set about examining power from various angles: the hierarchy of power, the ways that gaining or losing power affects the ego, power's effect on art and culture as well as wider society, power within personal relationships -- all aspects of it.
