TÁR (2022)

Cate Blanchett as: Lydia Tár

Directed by: Todd Field
Selected Cast: Nina Hoss, Noémie Merlant, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong
Written by: Todd Field
Release Year: 2022
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R

Set in the international world of classical music, centers on Lydia Tár, widely considered one of the greatest living composer/conductors and first-ever female chief conductor of a major German orchestra.

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Prop photos; Behind the scenesRelated Videos

The videos after the trailers are playlists of featurettes, selected interviews and conversations, and film festival premieres with the cast and crew, just click on the playlist icon/thumbnails to see the other videos in it.

Quotes from Cate Blanchett

“It’s already rare for Todd to make a movie. So I wasted no time when he called me on the phone to tell me “I have a script”. And in general, I tend to be slow. I have a thousand things to think about and it takes me two weeks to read a script, but I devoured this one in 24 hours. It was very visceral. I felt that it was about something that affected my body and my spirit. That, coupled with the desire to work with Todd, was decisive in convincing me.” (Vanity Fair Spain, August 2022)
“In principle, the conductor should have been a man, in which case perhaps we would talk about it in another way. But the fact that she is a woman takes us into a space from which we can look at the issue more impartially.”
“There are a lot of explosive things that come up in this film and societal hot-topic issues that made this cinematic endeavor feel urgent and undeniable to make. Todd Field’s screenplay raises monumental, dangerous questions that the world is dealing with as of this moment. The film can be quite uncomfortable. It can be politicized and disseminated, and some may even feel disgusted by the characters, but at its core this is a nuanced, intimate, human story of a woman that synthesizes many things. It can be said it’s an examination of power, but for me, I want audiences to make their own interpretations and inspire lively debate.”
“To beat with one hand and shape the sound with the other hand was difficult. It’s such a mix of different skills and emotions. But I must say it was the most transformative moment of my life. There’s this intense feeling of an electric charge, giving the downbeat and hearing this big sound coming back at you. It’s something that I’ve never experienced before. In that space, standing at the podium, you really do feel like you’re the king or queen of the world.” (Vanity Fair, October 2022)
“The first time I read the script, I found the end quite tragic, but I was so uplifted by the end. I thought, “I really want people to see this,” and I wanted them to see it in the cinema. I was bowled over by the sound as well, and the silence. One of my favorite parts of the “Mahler’s Five,” for instance, is the silence at the end of the scherzo before the adagietto begins. I feel Todd’s use of silence was really powerful when in a film about music. So, there were so many parts of it that I felt like I wanted to go back and watch it again. He’s such an extraordinary filmmaker. I feel so, so deeply lucky to have worked with him.” (The Playlist, October 2022)
On the costumes: “Women also feel comfortable in pants and suiting! But still, unfortunately, stepping onto the podium as a woman is a political act. And so, to work out what tradition Lydia was bucking or buying into, and how this was reflected in the way she dressed, was an important early conversation. The baseball cap, for instance, [that Lydia wears when casually dressed for travel, is] a defiant venture towards her American-ness in a Eurocentric music culture.” (Vanity Fair, October 2022)

Quotes from Others

Todd Field:
— Director statement for the Venice Film Festival premiere: “This script was written for one artist, Cate Blanchett. Had she said no, the film would have never seen the light of day. Filmgoers, amateur and otherwise, will not be surprised by this. After all, she is a master supreme.
Even so, while we were making the picture, the superhuman-skill and verisimilitude of Cate was something truly astounding to behold. She raised all boats. The privilege of collaborating with an artist of this caliber is something impossible to adequately describe.
In every possible way this is Cate’s film.”
— On collaborating with Cate Blanchett: “I wrote the film for Cate. I didn’t do it consciously, when I sat down to start, she just kept showing up. And so I paid attention to that, I didn’t really doubt it. So by the time I got through to the end of the script, I’d spent a few months with her saying good morning at my desk…
Just intensely exciting, watching somebody, taking somebody and saying, without even telling them, watching them climb the manila line all the way up to a high wire and then saying, “Okay, pull the net out.” And then saying, “Well, could you go higher?” “Yeah, sure, I can go higher.” “Could you go higher still?” “Yeah.” “Can you leave the big top? How high can you go? And then what can you do on that tight rope?””
Nina Hoss:
— On the dynamics between Sharon and Lydia: “We didn’t talk too much about it. We just made sure that we both knew, how did they meet? How did it come about that they adopted a child? Like, for us it was a child from Syria when refugees came in. All these things: Who was the driving force in that, who does the daily chores? All these things to have an idea of how this couple functions. Are they still passionate? We basically went in and both thought, “Let’s see what happens.” We didn’t even know if we were going to kiss, for example, in the first scene.
I don’t know if this take was, but the initial choice. And that’s just the great thing, working with Cate Blanchett who is the most amazing actress. You know something can happen. Once you can go into the scene and you go, “Let’s see where we are going to take it,” and we know we’re going to react to each other. It’s this magical thing about acting.”
— On Sharon and Lydia’s relationship: “I remember when we did the first scene, it was just, I looked at Cate and I thought, oh my God, this is so easy in a way floating and think, I think there was no kiss at the end of the scene written down, but it just happened, because it’s two people who are really in love. And that’s what Cate and I also wanted to portray that this couple is okay. They do love each other really, and they meet through this beauty that they’re producing through music. And the two of them can really bring the orchestra to a high point. And also, Sharon knows we can do this fifth symphony, which is really one of the most beautiful symphonies you can listen to. And we can do something amazing with Lydia as our conductor. And this fascination and passion to what they’re doing I think is the main bond these two women have. And those are the things we were working on.”
— On Cate Blanchett: “Cate is a most fascinating actor and she immerses herself so much into whatever she takes on. That is fascinating and challenging in the best way, and I love a challenge.
She’s a very generous, beautifully funny, smart, highly intelligent and witty person so it was really easy to become this couple in front of the camera. There was a certain easiness to it; it didn’t feel forced at all.”
Noémie Merlant:
— On the film: “I think it’s a movie that you can have a completely different feeling about from one time you watch it to another.”
— On Cate Blanchett: “I’ve admired Cate Blanchett for a long, long time, even before I was acting. Francesca is always learning from and observing Lydia Tár, observing her creative process. And I was watching Cate’s.”
Sophie Kauer:
— On her reaction after reading the screenplay for the first time: “Todd is an incredibly gifted writer. It’s a shame that his script won’t be published as a book because there’s so much beautiful direction in there that, unfortunately, the audience will never know about. But I remember my first reaction was that I was so proud and touched that someone had gone through so much effort to write a film that features classical music so heavily and portrays it as this beautiful, glorious art form that people dedicate their lives to. The film acknowledges that the industry still has a lot of relevance today, while also touching on very sensitive issues and practices that need to be amended within it.
I also remember that I found it really hard to talk to anyone after reading it. I just had to sit for like two hours in my room thinking about it because the film raises all these questions and you go through such a journey with all these characters. What’s amazing about Todd’s filmmaking is that all his characters are so multi-dimensional.
It’s not like one character is good and one character is bad. It’s not like that at all. It’s all left open to interpretation, and you can really make whatever you want of it. I just couldn’t quite believe that I had been cast and that I was being trusted with this project. I feel so lucky.”
— On working with Cate Blanchett: “It was amazing to work with Cate, though. She’s a really, really kind and warm and supportive person, and she’s just so intelligent. She has so many amazing ideas, but she makes you feel very comfortable. My character can be quite rude to her character at times and, afterward, I would always be like, “I’m so sorry!”
The first scene we shot was actually the scene where she gives me the bear after I lose it, but that scene was also a bit different in the original script. I also started off by filming reaction shots while I was sitting in the orchestra, which was a nice way for me to ease into everything and learn how to react based on how close the camera is to my face. That was something that Cate actually explained to me.”

Trivia & Facts

Filmed in Germany, Thailand, and USA.
Todd Field’s third feature film, 16 years after his second film, Little Children (2006).
The film premiered In Competition at the 79th Venice Film Festival on 1 September 2022.
Cate Blanchett won her second Volpi Cup for Best Actress, her first was for the film I’m Not There (2007) directed by Todd Haynes.
Todd Field said that the role of Lydia Tár was written for Cate Blanchett and had she said no the film would have not been made.
Todd Field and Cate Blanchett had met over ten years ago, prior to working on this film, for a project with Joan Didion which did not happen.
TÁR was nominated in six categories at the Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Todd Field, Best Editing for Monika Willi, and Best Cinematography for Florian Hoffmeister, more accolades here.
Cate Blanchett is the first actress to win the three major film critics awards (New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics) for leading role twice — for Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine (2013) and for Todd Field’s TÁR (2022).
TÁR won Best Picture at the three major film critics awards: New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics.
Florian Hoffmeister won the Golden Frog from Camerimage Film Festival.
Cate Blanchett re-learned piano, learned American Sign Language, learned how to speak German and to conduct for the film.
When thinking as to who will play Sharon Goodnow, Todd Field and Cate Blanchett said they both said at the same time Nina Hoss.
This is Sophie Kauer’s first feature film who is a cello student at the time of her audition and the film’s release.
Cate Blanchett’s most critically acclaimed film.
As of 2023, Cate Blanchett holds the record for an actress with the most appearances in a Best Picture-nominated at the Academy Awards: Elizabeth (1998), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), The Aviator (2004), Babel (2006), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Don’t Look Up (2021), Nightmare Alley (2021), and TÁR (2022).
The screams Lydia hears when jogging in the woods are the audio of Heather Donahue from the climax of The Blair Witch Project (1999).
The entire scene of Lydia teaching students at Juilliard is filmed in a single take of ten minutes and twenty-five seconds.
Todd Field was driving while on the phone with Cate Blanchett’s agent, Hylda Queally and was delivered the devastating news that her client was booked for the next three years and wouldn’t be able to star in his movie. And then Field crashed his car. According to Field, because Queally felt sad for him crashing his car, she agreed that if Field wasn’t in too bad a physical condition, she could get home and send Blanchett the script, and she would read it. The rattling sound that can be heard in Tár’s Porsche as she drives was recorded from Field’s own car, never fixed properly after the accident.
During breaks from filming Borderlands (2024) in Hungary, Cate Blanchett was taking up piano lessons from Emese Virág, a professor at Franz Liszt Academy of Music to prepare for her role.
All diegetic music was recorded live on-set, including Cate Blanchett’s piano playing, Sophie Kauer’s cello, and the Dresden Philharmonic’s performances.
Cate Blanchett is also an executive producer in the film.
Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss first met while they were both filming in Budapest, they would meet during their breaks to discuss their characters’ backstory.
TÁR was named Best Film of the Year 2022 by several publications.
Cate Blanchett came up with the accent on a in Tár upon seeing the Hungarian word for pharmacy (gyógyszertár) while filming in Hungary.
Many viewers thought that Lydia Tár is a real person.
Lydia Tár’s real name is Linda Tarr.
According to Nina Hoss, the scene where Lydia Tár and Sharon Goodnow kiss was not in the screenplay and happened as they disappear into their characters.
Cate Blanchett said that the Rolex watch that Lydia Tár was wearing in the film is her actual watch which was gifted to her by her husband, Andrew Upton, after the birth of their second son.
In the film, you can see that Sharon Goodnow has a violin hickey.
This is the third time that Nina Hoss has played a violinist on screen and she has worked with the same violin teacher, Marie Kogge.
One of the four films to win the top prize, Golden Frog, at Camerimage Film Festival with Cate Blanchett starring in it. The other three other films are Elizabeth (1998) cinematography by Remi Adefarasin, Carol (2015) cinematography by Ed Lachman, and The New Boy (2023) cinematography by Warwick Thornton.
The Fundraiser (2023), is an accompanying short film for TÁR which screened after the Berlinale Talents Talk with Todd Field and the cast. Todd Field said that is the only time the short is going to be screened to the public. According to the audiences who saw it, it was the surprise birthday party for Lydia organized by Sharon, you can see some clips from the trailers.