TÁR (2022) - Ideas & Ending Explained

Analysis of Todd Field's TÁR, starring Cate Blanchett. Lots of spoilers, don't watch if you haven't already seen.

TWITTER:

PATREON (bonus content + support the channel!)

LETTERBOXD:

DISCORD:

[skullzalliances]

I think the conversation with the child where she says "I'll hurt you and you can't tell another adult because I'm an adult and they won't believe you" - I think reflects her outlook professionally as well in terms of how she feels untouchable in her position of power compared to her "lesser" peers

[Koolstr]

The scene towards the end of her picking the masseuse has all the candidates lined up exactly like an orchestra, with her positioned as the conductor again, and she ended up picking number 5. To me, this didn't just clearly represent Mahler's 5th symphony, but her realization that the one thing she's been missing this entire time in her life (remember how she couldn't find her book in her house on the 5th symphony, it was missing) wasn't just the 5th symphony she never got to conduct in the end, but rather what that symphony represented - love. Or more accurately, love and lust.

Recall how in the beginning interview of the film, she expresses how she perceives the 5th symphony (which she called a mystery) to be about the raw, unbridled love between Mahler and his new wife. In actuality, such a new love is naturally accentuated heavily by strong lust between newlyweds. Meanwhile, Lydia as a conductor has been entrenched in (and ultimately buried by) her unbound lust towards other women.

Her picking this masseuse, who was arguably the prettiest one there and whom she obviously found the most attractive & ended up instinctively picking, was decided by her subconscious lust. She picked her from an orchestra of masseuses just as she picked out the prettiest girls from her orchestra members to lust over. She finally realized that and thanks to her being number 5, connected it to the missing symphony in her life that she just could not find or figure out. What she's been lacking this whole time is love. Raw, purposeful love to pair with her lust. This is why she felt such a strong revulsion at the realization, that she ended up throwing up on the spot. She realized how misguided she's been this whole time and only figured it out after it was all too late, after all had been lost. If she focused on imbuing her life with love, everything could have been different.

#5 = 5th Symphony = Love = Missing Piece. What a powerful & poignant connection & metaphor. This film blew me away with all its utterly brilliant details like this.

[springsogourne]

She didn’t “find” her wife’s pill, the reason Sharon couldn’t find her pills was because Tar had them and was taking them, she said she found a stray one in the drawer, but it was from the new bottle that Rachel filled.

[pedrosoares]

The one thing about the ending I found the most interesting was that it built up her trip to Asia as something new and less important but also very serious. There were clips of her seriously focusing on her work and taking it as seriously as any other music for a big orchestra, only for us to be shown the music she was conducting was for some low-stakes fandom event. Although at a much lower level and in spite of being entirely questionable as a person, she keeps on taking her new job just as seriously. Almost as to say that although she is deeply flawed on a personal level, her professional integrity was and is never to be questioned, she deserves the praise. Here again linking to the conversation about art vs artist

[jasonrihel]

This was a masterful film. By far my favorite sequence, though, was the way Lydia manipulates events to get the young cellist she fancies the solo. This was such a keenly observed example of how people like Lydia abuse their power in full view of everyone. She rigged the conditions to get exactly the outcome that she wanted, and everyone in the orchestra knows it. Yet, anyone who might want to call her out on it would have nothing concrete to point to. Choice of music favoring a cellist? Well, she put it to a vote! Saying the soloist would be from "in house"? Well, that's just a curtesy to my team, isn't it? Demanding auditions, insulting the first chair so she doesn't even try for it? Isn't that just democratic? Quick auditions, favoring the girl who is prepared? Didn't the first chair suggest that? Even at the end, when her wife says the new cellist can't do it because she isn't officially part of the orchestra yet-- didn't Lydia even then agree and start to call out the other cellist for the good news? So insidious-- everyone sees what is going on, but everything was done so they are left to question their own lying eyes.

[emillion]

The incident with the neighbor has a far deeper meaning. It is her repulsion to the dim blue-collar life she may have had had she remained as Linda. Suffocating in lower middle-class obscurity, a caregiver to an aging parent. Trapped in a role daughters are expected to fill. It bookends nicely with an earlier scene with her wife who is aging and in declining health (albeit in a more affluent home).
Tar, for all her upward mobility, eventually must face the same family dynamics like most of us do: "In sickness and in health. richer or poorer"... respect and honor lifelong commitments pledged to our partners. She chose instead, selfishly (as many men of power do), to risk it all.

[JDotWill]

It seemed like her assistant was against her from the beginning. & Olga was a complete mystery. She disappeared into that building, went on that trip with Lydia to New York, lied to her about being jet lagged & she was recording & mocking Lydia during her book reading.

And I’m assuming Lydia’s reaction to the massage parlor was a moment of forced reflection. It was an extreme example of the kind of behavior that put her in that position

[benjamintillema]

5:24

It wasn't Krista's apartment. Lydia's assistant, Francesca, had suddenly quit and Lydia showed up at Francesca's apartment to confront her only to find it abandoned and in disarray. Francesca, Krista, and Lydia went to Peru together and formed a tight bond. Part of this bond was making/deciphering anagrams as some kind of secret code. The lines of the symbol are the result of rearranging the letters. You see this in Fracesca's apartment with a piece of paper changing "Tàr on Tàr" to "RAT ON RAT".

10:40

Lydia didn't really "solve" any problems. She already had her wife's pills because she was using them for herself, using them I guess to protect her image. Having a prescription for anti-anxiety medication would damage her refined reputation, so she uses her wife's pills behind her back instead. And as for the daughter, I don't think a grown women threatening a child, like an eight year old, on school grounds really is a solution, and frankly it's amazing that that didn't backfire spectacularly but I'm going to guess the movie already forgot about that by the second act.

[andreserives]

I find it interesting that Lydia Tar as a character is so very similar to Mahler. Mahler was a composer and a conductor who would get wrapped up in a plethora of scandals with women in his orchestra's and opera's which forced him to go elsewhere and climb the power ladder once more. Mahler disrespected anyone with authority over him. And he even had a struggling marriage that Tar eludes to at the beginning. Which is probably why she is so obsessed with recording all of his symphonies. So separating the art from the artist is not as easy as we may think?

[prettytalia]

I love that the mystery forces the audience to draw their own conclusions. But what I love most is that the movie illustrates that the abuse of power involves more than just the two parties (the abuser and the abused). For example, Francesca, Sharon, Olga, Elliot, Sebastian, etc all knew what Tár was doing. And they used it to their own respective advantages.

[booked]

I have a theory that Olga had known Krista. During Olga and Tars lunch she mentioned that she was in a junior choir. In the short article clip of Kristas suicide it mentioned she was a conductor of a junior choir. I further think that Olga and Tars assistant were definitely in on canceling her since in the beginning we see her assistant live streaming and chatting about her, and then we see Olga doing the same thing during her book reading. I also can’t help but think about the book she was given at the start, with that pattern on the inside which we then see again in her home and her daughters room.

[westworlds]

I like that you can find things you didn't notice from watching again. I saw this movie two times and theaters and didn't notice this story point: someone on Twitter just posted screenshots of the film and there are literal GHOSTS of women hidden in the film. I can't tell if they are both Krista but one is. Like Tar is being HAUNTED for her misdeeds. Just insanity - this movie is so layered.

[ad-sd-vids]

“Tar, starring future 3 time Oscar winner cate blanchett”

[HeelPower]

The film is even more complex and ambiguous than that. TÁR does not just award the cellist the solo role because of attraction. Its interesting that cellist actually wins the blind auditions through unanimous vote.

Lydia is legitimately talented and exceptionally capable in her role, but this is almost inseparably intermixed with her very problematic personal life.

I think the movie suggests that perhaps this sanitized view of artists may at times be inachievable in the real world.

[Daria.Sergienko]

Has anyone else noticed how often Tar tends to call other people "robots" when she wants to evaluate them negatively or emphasize their lack of emotional intelligence? It might tell us something significant about her position on many things: for example, I think in fact she deeply appreciates the authenticity of wild human nature and pure uncontrollable emotions that any of us have (her interest in Asian culture makes sense considering that). That inner freedom gave her an ability to see things from many perspectives and to become a truly great Artist, but it also made her vulnerable and destroyed her eventually. Maybe there was a crucial point in Tar's life when she gave herself that inner permission to do some dangerous and controversial things in order to stay "human", not a "robot"?

[Progger]

Pretty sure it was Francesca's apartment she went into and saw the "Rat on Rat" doodles on the paper. After all, it was drawn on the cover sheet of a manuscript of Tar's book, which Francesca, being her assistant, would have had access to.

[herm]

One thing I picked up on is how Lydia seems to scoff at the idea of feminism; refusing to be a female icon, wanting more men back in the orchestra, not knowing about national women's day, only for her to be struck by the way women are treated in other countries and be absolutely disgusted by it.

[rhythmoriented]

Thanks so much for doing this. Tár in my opinion as a film is a true work of art. Not only are the performances great, the screenplay and direction are seamless, but this work holds a mirror to our society in a manner that is fodder for seemingly endless discussion. Favorite film of the year.

[jjbenavidez]

100th like! Excellent analysis as always.. a few things I noticed:

- Lydia's brother called her Linda, implying that Lydia Tar may be her alias she made up to have a more artist-like name
- The opening credits did not have Cate Blanchett or any other actors on it, just crew members

Going to watch this a second time before I declare this a masterpiece, but God dam... this movie is phenomenal

[AlexBeene]

I just saw this last night, and I deeply appreciate your breakdown because it made me appreciate the film even more. The first 30 minutes I at first found to be pretentious, but having your thoughts on why Field included the credits first - to highlight the crew instead of the star - are brilliant. Great video!