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The 2022 movie “Tár” leads to a series of controversies around its depiction of the main character, Lydia Tár. The film is a great production, yet the world presented in the film is not reality.
“Tár” is about the story of Lydia Tár, the widely-recognized top classical music conductor for a major German orchestra. It is directed by Todd Field and stars Cate Blanchett. The themes include gender, sexual orientation, race, power dynamics and cancel culture.
The film creates the fictional protagonist as the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, a hyper-masculine lesbian, who is oppressive and predatory to both men and women. She is not a very favorable character, particularly because she conducts sexual improprieties toward a promising young musician.
Lydia Tár adopts the title of Maestro, the masculine Italian word for “master,” which is used for distinguished musicians regardless of their gender. She usually wears dark suits and pants and never appears in a dress or skirt, which is against stereotypical women’s apparel.
Tár marries Sharon Goodnow (Nina Hoss), and they have a young adopted daughter, Petra (Mila Bogojevic). Tár introduces herself as Petra’s father at school. The patriarchal role she adopts reveals a sense of misogyny through her intention to separate herself from other women.
The classical music industry has been male-dominated for a long time. Gramophone, the British classical music magazine, released a list of the best 50 conductors of all time in 2017. The list includes no women, according to Medium.com.
Today, among the 25 largest orchestras in the United States, Nathalie Stutzmann remains the only female music director, following Marin Alsop’s tenure ending Aug. 31, 2021, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, according to The New York Times.
The film mentions Alsop as one of the greatest female conductors. Lydia Tár states that she has no complaints about gender bias in the world of classical music because many incredible women before her already did the “real lifting,” including Alsop.
However, Alsop has many labels similar to Tár’s and is considered to be the real-world counterpart of this character. Alsop claimed that the film offends her as a woman, a conductor and a lesbian, according to the interview with The Sunday Times. She disagreed with Tár’s line and believed that the gender barrier for women in the classical music profession is still significant today.
The film depicts Tár despising women‘s and ethnic and sexual minorities’ dilemmas, while she stands at the top of the hierarchy. Her authority overshadows her male colleagues. Tár’s assistant conductor, Sebastian Brix (Allan Corduner), kneels on the stairs when approaching her to give advice.
Tár exhibits superiority and manipulation. She turns a blind eye to the systemic violence and eventually becomes a perpetrator.
Power, an essential feature of masculinity, compensates and overrides gender bias in this film. Tár’s attitudes and behaviors suggest that, instead of committing to changing the system, she climbs to the top by acting hyper-masculine and completely conforming to the patriarchal rules.
In a scene when she conducts a class at Julliard, Tár has a conflict with a student named Max. Max identifies as a BIPOC and pangender person, who is uninterested in conducting pieces from “misogynistic,” white cisgender male composers like Bach. Yet, Tár calls Max’s preference due to identity an “allergy” detrimental to a conductor’s career.
To further oppose Max’s view on Bach, Tár defends her stance on separating art from artist by emphasizing her appreciation for Beethoven, despite herself being a “U-Haul lesbian.” Lea DeLaria, a lesbian comedian, first created the phrase to describe the stereotypical impression that women in same-sex relationships tend to move in quickly with their other half, according to Curve Magazine.
The phrase is “a counter balance to the heterosexual stereotype of the commitment-phobic straight man who is pathologically unable to take the plunge,” according to Metro.co.uk.
Ironically, Tár is disloyal to her marriage commitment. She habitually makes young acolytes her mistresses and constantly lies to her partner to conceal the betrayals.
Noémie Merlant plays Francesca Lentini, Tar’s personal assistant. She leads in the French romantic movie “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Cate Blanchett also leads in the Oscar-nominated film “Carol.”
A similarity among the three movies is that all protagonists are females in same-sex relationships. The two mentioned above apply dreamy aesthetics and nostalgic colors to demonstrate exquisite lesbian romance.
Diversity in lesbian media representation is valuable, but “Tár” seems to substitute a man in the outer casing of a woman. In the interview with The Sunday Times, Aslop said to “assume that women will either behave identically to men or become hysterical, crazy, insane” is “anti-woman.”
Sexual harassment and abuse are alarming issues in the classical music profession, because of conductors’ authority in making final decisions and the power disparity between the maestro and orchestra players, according to The Atlantic.
Male conductors performed most behaviors that fall onto Tár in reality. After the #MeToo movement reached the field of classical music, famous conductors were accused of sexual harassment and assault, according to MsMagazine.com.
In the real world, a woman at the top of the pyramid in this long male-dominated industry is significantly rare. Adding hegemonic masculine attributes to her and eventually pulling her off the podium almost slanders both same-sex attracted women and successful female professionals. “Tár” provokes a critical examination of the field of classical music, but remember, it is not a truthful reflection of the female situation.
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Email Laury Li: yuting.li2@pepperdine.edu
