The Many Layers of Tár | A Film Analysis

Join me, Maggie Mae Fish, as I discuss time in Todd Field's Oscar-nominated movie Tar (SPOILERS!), for anyone who's ever thought: I should type the words Tar Ending Explained into YouTube search to watch a review of this movie called Tar.

Chapters:
5:58 Great Men of our Time
15:10 The Power of Keeping Time
21:21 Interpreting Time
36:33 Talking about UNRATED, my new show on Nebula

Shipibo-Conibo sources:

Select footage and photos courtesy Getty
Select footage and photos courtesy AP Newsroom

This video is part of the series Maggie Talks About Movies

[stofu]

One insightful comment I saw is how the film's editing contributes to Tár's feeling of time...over time. In the beginning, when she feels in control of the present, takes are long and cuts are relatively infrequent. She is in control and so time revolves around her. By the end of the film, days would be shown for mere seconds. As Tar loses control over time, she no longer gets to control when it begins or ends. She is merely a bit player.

[sarahs.]

I interviewed a female conductor of a Legend of Zelda concert when I was a journalism student. She told me she and the performers all had a clicker/metronome in their ear to keep time with the visuals. So, at the end, Lydia is now being controlled by time and, in some ways, has made herself redundant, which in a way, she always was.

Fantastic essay!

[LBAW]

A thing I noticed was when Tar lost control of time it was a VERY quick fall. Like, the fallout and when the consequences get really serious for her is in the last 50 minutes of the film. When her time was up it was UP.

[JessieGender]

Quite literally, every time I watch Maggie talk about a movie, I feel like I've learned so much more then I ever could have on my own and I wanna just go back and rewatch it with Maggie's commentary in mind. You kill it every time <3

[lloroshastar]

It's wonderful to hear about America's first African-American filmmaker being a silent filmmaker, because what's really depressing about being British is that the first black British filmmaker, Horace Ové, directed his first narrative feature length film in 1976. Not only that, but the film was banned for a few years by the people who initially backed it (the British Film Institute) because it featured police brutality.

[theenglishman]

Something else to consider:

Lydia is reduced to conducting video game music on a click track. Composing dynamic video game music can be very creatively liberating - *but* it requires working with audio engineers and programmers to shape the music to the player's actions, and trust in the player themselves that their gameplay will make their music sound good.

In other words, things that Lydia would never be able to do. She must be in total control of the speed, length, and context of her work.

[kelseycarlisle]

As a classical music student, I don't necessarily identify with the "dating students" part of the movie, but the way the masterclass is portrayed when she is not familiar with the "new music" hits right home. Most of these professors and prominent classical musicians have no idea how to approach music outside of the usual canon. For many of them, if it was not composed between the 17th and 19th centuries, it's nothing more than a novelty. I went out of my way to try to play newer works by American composers, especially Black composers, and it was very apparent in lessons that I had done more research on the music than the people who were supposed to teach it to me. I have never met a music student in my own education that wouldn't appreciate the music of someone like Bach because of their race, gender, sexuality, etc., but the disconnect and false authority over the music presented in that scene is present every day in the classroom.

[acollierastro]

The first all female space walk was scheduled in 2019(!) and was then canceled because they realized they didn’t have two medium sized space suits…and yet people claim nothing is holding women back…


This video was so good. Instantly one of my favorites from your channel!

[revevague]

Finished 'Tár" yesterday after watching your video, both are fantastic! As a musician I'm always hesitant to watch films like this and "Whiplash" ( I went to music school and don't need to revisit some of that...) but this one really stayed with me.

As talented as Lydia is, she's also a masterful manipulator; there's so much about musician politics in the film that feels so familiar. I have more friends than I can count who should be household names in the jazz world but simply don't have a selfish bone in their body; they could never behave like Lydia. It's inferred that she clawed to the top of the hierarchy and placed loyalists (like the 1st violinist, her wife) in key positions to consolidate her power. I wonder how many artistic institutions are much the same? I was stunned that her wife isn't very upset about her indiscretions, just whether her position is now vulnerable. Sharon is still playing first chair after Lydia is replaced, and she even mentions how their relationship is transactional at an earlier scene in their home.

When Lydia arrives home after her exile, the scene watching Bernstein VHS clip is powerful; it confirms in me that she really does in fact love, understand and NEED music in her life but her brother calling her "Linda" moments later tell me her aspirations, reinvention ("American Dream") and need to succeed at any cost end up destroying her. A lot to unpack. Looking forward to your next video Maggie!

[miss-behaving]

I saw another video where someone said that what makes Tar so interesting especially with the twist of making the character female instead of male. That it proves that power transcends gender and shows how patrichary is really about power and can be upheld by both men and women and it's about the system itself because in a twisted way, anyone can hold power.

[MaggieMaeFish]

The video got copyright claimed, but that's over and NOW IT'S VIEWABLE EVERYWHERE!! It's time to Tar! And Tar to time!!!

[maxmccarty]

Great episode Maggie! It's fascinating to see this film become something embraced by conservatives for the isolated scene where she "DESTROYS" that student with "FACTS AND LOGIC" when really she's just providing a twisted justification for her own bad behavior while exerting control. Such a damning scene, and really neat that Field shoots it in a single take while Lydia is still very in control of time. Really appreciated you identifiying all the ways Lydia distorts the truth with her references to classical composers/conductors throughout because that stuff flew way over my head!

[bestiestclair]

Loved your analysis! One of my friends was initially dismissive of this movie because, according to her, to portray a woman conductor in such a negative light seemed misogynistic. However, as a woman myself with two degrees in music I have met actual women professors during my education who are eerily similar to Lydia Tár (derogatory). I was once targeted in a masterclass in a very similar way to the student in Tár's masterclass. I too would love more media about women conductors who aren't pieces of shit and at the same time there are absolutely people like Lydia out there whose behavior deserves critique! It helps no one but those in power to sweep bad behavior under a rug just because the person misbehaving is a woman.

[kieleleron]

its interesting that 4:33 is brought up bc i was thinking about it the other day when i was reading about an anechoic chamber in Minnesota where its so silent no one has been able to stay in for longer than 45 minutes. 4:33 is the first think I thought about in relation to that story bc that's the only place you might actually "hear" silence as music. After this video I looked it up and it turns out an anechoic chamber is what actually inspired cage to create 4:33 in the first place! So cool!

[IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

A poem by Yehuda haLevi, a medieval Hebrew poet (translation mine):

Slaves of time are slaves of slaves
A slave of God alone is free
And though each person desires their portion
My portion is God, says my soul to me

I wrote a new compositional setting of that in college. It was performed once by my a capella group and then shelved because people preferred songs from the seventies that they knew

[ShellsGhost]

The saddest thing for me about streaming is the loss of commentaries. Criterion being the exception but I loved buying a movie and watching the director and actor's commentaries. My favorite was always final destination as the directors referenced all the symbolism and references and the actors were blissfully unaware and laughed over the production and shooting particular scenes.

My point being you should get paid 6 figures for doing these sorts of introspectives at your leisure.

[mango]

Omg Maggie this was so amazing. I’m not gonna lie I was starting to think I hadn’t payed enough attention during the movie bc people kept saying “tar is a bad person but she was correct” and It was confusing. So freshing to see someone not go down that route. Great job with this one! 💕

[individualvideos]

tar is easily my favourite big release movie of last year. its so refreshing to finally see someone talk about it in the way its feels like it was meant to be talked about. awesome job!

[allhailthealgorithm]

Another great moment of hypocrisy — much later, after Tár's whole rant at Juliard, Andris unknowingly insults her to her face by saying "Schopenhauer measured a person’s intelligence against their sensitivity to noise." And she fires back with "Didn’t he also famously throw awoman down a flight of stairs who later sued him?" and then Andris, taking Tár's position from earlier in the film, says "Yes, though it’s unclear that this private and personal failing is at all relevant to his work."

Just another example of the fact that she has no moral code beyond what suits her in the moment.

[sheren_b]

This helped add a lot of context, i had seen the movie last month ago and it was a perplexing watch to me on a number of levels but especially the ending, where it felt really orientalist, which from Lydia Tar's perspective makes sense, and compared to triangle of sadness which i think did a better job of representing filipino people i was disappointed that Tar would treat filipino people so poorly. so having a better understanding of the theme of time, its more interesting to me and makes me want to revisit my feelings about the movie.