Change Your Image
chrenalyx
Reviews
7 raons per fugir (2019)
Beautiful mockery
A great collection of short film stories, that touch upon some big questions. I feel that this movie could easily offend some people, so I wouldn't be too surprised for negative reviews. The stories mock some pretty common patterns in society and they are all well executed and creative. I didn't feel like the scenes were drawn out. This is a highly political work. I think my favorite parts were the first and the last story. The first one is the funnier one and admittedly is what got me to watch the rest of it.
I feel like at points there could be more nuance, in the cases of the shorts on labor and on progress, but overall I found this to be a pleasant and thought-provoking watch.
Tár (2022)
A personal review of Tár
If anyone were to watch the trailer for Tár, they might be misled into thinking that this movie packs a lot more action or tension than it actually does. With a total runtime of 2 hours and 38 minutes, the film may be a disappointment to viewers looking for copious amounts of action, but that really is not its main point at all.
I consider this to be one of the most thought-provoking films I've seen this year, tackling subjects ranging from catchy subjects such as cancel culture, to timeless questions such as the relationship between the artist's work and their personal life, to the form and exercise of power within the public and personal realm, to the nature of copying in art, and finally to personal guilt, repression and identity.
Tár takes a deep-dive into these subjects by focusing on the main character - Lydia Tár - played by Cate Blanchett, who monopolizes screen time more than any other character.
What I found most interesting about this movie is that, just like anyone, I also thought that a movie about a famous maestro would include a lot of classical music. Yet, not a lot of music is played in the film, even though there is performance. Tár is performing in public. She is performing in the interview in the beginning of the movie and continues to do so, playing the role of the famous, all-powerful maestro. Her female identity and failings disappear, and she is the embodiment of all the characteristics and statements you would expect to hear from a famous, all-powerful maestro. This is why there is a marked difference between how she appears in public versus in her private life (ie. Running scenes), which is also where she is haunted by her past actions. This shows the importance of performance in positions of power - there is no Lydia Tár, there is only The Maestro. And the Maestro gets to decide who advances and who doesn't; the Maestro gets their way with aspiring musicians and conductors, the Maestro gets to judge and decide, and of course, the Maestro's wife is no more than that - their wife, not an equal partner in an equal relationship.
Director Todd Field uses mirrors a lot with respect to this: whenever Lydia is alone, in front of a mirror, we never get to see her face the camera. Instead, we only see her reflection in the mirror, which I think symbolizes this disconnect. There is also Tár's small "ritual" as we see her light two candles in front of her dark mirror at home, blowing "hush" as she puts the light out, as if attempting to "silence" her past misdeeds. We don't really see her reflection in that mirror, only a murky, dark-gray surface, as murky as the truth of what really happened, which the film provides no clear answer for.
Through Tár, the movie makes a statement on the art world, saying the same power structures that you expect to find in politics or industry still hold true here. And it's really not so much about the art itself. Tár might be considered a genius, but this is more because of her awards, her custom-made suit and eloquence rather than the music she directs. Near the end of her movie, we see her watch a tape of Leonard Bernstein, where her own views are echoed, suggesting there is no parthenogenesis in art.
Still, even this seemingly all-powerful construct is very quickly taken down once Krista's suicide becomes known and the edited video of Lydia lecturing the student is released to the public. The movie doesn't give us clear indications of Lydia's guilt or innocence, though, and I think this is intentional, to show the fragility of these structures and the speed through which the public can dictate when the Maestro needs to be "dethroned." Tár violated the rules of the game, not through her past actions, but by failing to pay mind to the impeccability of her public image, as her old male mentor openly admits to have done by eliminating evidence of his past harassment. Adding to the evidence of her position being quite literally a construct - we learn that her real name isn't Lydia, but rather Linda, when she visits her home.