Cate Blanchett has won two Oscars across her career – one for Best Supporting in The Aviator, and one for Best Actress in Blue Jasmine. Looking back on her incredible career, which performance was more deserving of an Oscar? For me, it’s Notes on a Scandal – she’s brilliant, as is Judi Dench. Many will say Elizabeth, where she lost the Oscar to Gwyneth Paltrow that year. I thought she was great in last year’s Nightmare Alley, although I get why that film wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea. Anyway, Cate has a new Oscar-bait film called Tár. She plays Lydia Tár, a completely fictional composer and conductor. The film is directed by Todd Field, who hasn’t made a film in 16 YEARS! His last film was Little Children. Anyway, the trailer is finally out:
I went into this not knowing much about the film other than “she plays a conductor” and I was pleasantly surprised that it seems to have some kind of plot? The plot seems to be… a complicated genius is slowly driving herself mad because her brain can’t process all of the crazy musical thoughts she’s having. It feels like it also has some horror elements too, which is kind of cool. I bet this wins all of the Oscars for Sound, Sound Mixing, etc.
The thing you should know about Tár is that Cate has already shown up at the Venice Film Festival and taken home the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. The 2023 awards season is going to feature an all-out war between the Best Actress nominees, it’s just one of those years where everything is really stacked. But Cate is coming for wigs, clearly.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, poster for Tar.
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- Italy, Lido di Venezia, September 1, 2022 : Cate Blanchett attends the red carpet of ‘Tar’ at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2022 in Venice, Italy.,Image: 718417793, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: **** World right excluding Italy ****, Model Release: no, Credit line: Ottavia Da Re / Agenzia Sintesi / Avalon
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- Cate Blanchett attends the closing ceremony red carpet at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 10, 2022 in Venice, Italy.,Image: 721432334, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Maria Laura Antonelli / AGF Foto / Avalon
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- Cate Blanchett attends the Award Winners Photocall at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 10, 2022 in Venice, Italy.,Image: 721479191, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Maria Laura Antonelli / AGF Foto / Avalon
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- Italy, Lido di Venezia, September 10, 2022 : Cate Blanchett poses with the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress for ‘Tar’ during the award winners photocall at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 10, 2022 in Venice, Italy.,Image: 721634989, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: **** World right excluding Italy ****, Model Release: no, Credit line: Ottavia Da Re / Agenzia Sintesi / Avalon
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- 79th Venice Film Festival: ‘Tar’ – Premiere Featuring: Cate Blanchett Where: Venice, Italy, Italy When: 01 Sep 2022 Credit: Manuele Mangiarotti/IPA/INSTARim/Cover Images **North/South America, UK, Australia Rights Only**
Omg thank you for reminding me how fucking amazing Notes on a Scandal was!
And opposite of thank you for reminding me of Cate’s Elizabeth Oscar being stolen.
I’ll def go and see this, I’m an absolute sucker for a creepy score. And somehow Nightmare Alley completely passed me by so will go look that up too!
The black & white version of Nightmare Alley is beautiful. Creepy but beautiful
As a conductor, I find the trailer to be such a cliche. Especially because it’s about a female conductor, of course we can’t deal with anything rationally, said every man ever.
I don’t know, I feel pretty irrational sometimes when my kids have missed a release or entrance for the 3rd time in a row, lol.
If I see another film about crazy geniuses I am gonna scream. What a cliché. My husband is an established artist, I am an established curator and I work with a lot of people for whom interpreting and creating is their work and the source of their money. It is such a stupid cliche that people get overwhelmed by their creativity. There are intense moments but people get crazy because the world is insane. Art, on the other hands, can save lives and balance people’s minds.
Please give me a film about the joy of creating and sharing art.
I believe the film is about her possibly being abusive or problematic with staff/employees and dealing with a public fallout. Her genius and ego get in the way of her taking accountability.
Yes, I don’t think it’s about her losing her mind, just the toppling of her reputation/ego. I think it looks great, so excited for it.
I think GP did a good job in Shakespeare In Love but Blanchett’s Elizabeth was the work of a master from someone who had appeared almost from nowhere. Absolute thunderbolt of a performance.
It’s about the stale idea of the genius working towards a Big Event and all the little people around her that she keeps in admiration of her etc. Ahe is THE most talented person on the planet and the focus is on her as that. To make it a thriller is even more absurd.
Ever since I worked with someone in the armed forces of the police in the UK I can’t watch Line of Duty, although the Bodyguard was the worse offender, and the more you know about social care some films or series just want to make you scream at the screen. I am not for hyper realism only, but I do want stories that allow you to engage with real society in a creative and productive manner. Fantasy and dream should lead to awareness and flow of actions.
Somewhere Marin Alsop is rolling her eyes 😜
At the time, I was a much bigger Shakespeare in Love fan than Elizabeth fan (I was in HS lol.) But looking back I cannot believe she lost to Gwyneth lol. She was so good in Elizabeth.
Anyway I’m here for a Cate Blanchett Oscar campaign. All the looks!!
I think Gwyneth won on sympathy, not for any talented performance. Her father had recently died & her boyfriend (idk which – Pitt? Affleck?) had just dumped her, so poor little sad girl got an undeserved prize.
Her channeling Katherine Hepburn In the film aviator was amazing
I think the plot is more about hubris, power dynamics and perfectionism, but I’ll go see it.
Sounds a little like Whiplash.
Unpopular opinion: I dislike Cate Blanchett’s American accent. I find it flat, monotone, and a weird amalgam that doesn’t really sound like any actual American accent. I will never understand why, in a film like this, she doesn’t just use her actual accent. Why does she have to pretend to be American?
Are you sure the character was supposed to be American? Tår (sorry can’t get the acute) could be Spanish or French.
This looks really good and I’m excited. I will watch this in the theater.
I love that black caped dress
I read up more on this after watching the trailer. It is more than about her musical genius being kept in check, she is also a cheater, with students at her school, whose career will be derailed for it. So it gonna be about a self created implosion.
Agreeing with Jo and Laalaa and adding, that, as a professional orchestra musician it’s a bit frustrating to me :/ that on the rarest occasions that our business gets some spotlight in pop culture, it’s almost always cringe-y to plain wrong. So I’m scared of that happening again here… I’ve played in orchestras for 20 years now, she does a move I’ve never ever seen from a conductor and wouldn’t know how to interpret at all..
I saw this movie in a private screening a few weeks ago with a friend and it was SO pretentious!!! We were constantly rolling our eyes at the plot and the sometimes overacted performances. When leaving the theater we overheard an audience member saying, “Well, someone desperately wants another Oscar on her mantle”. I agree.
She was so great in Nightmare Alley (really enjoyed that movie) and I’m looking forward to this! Didn’t realize it was thriller/horror-ish but the vibe seems a little bit like Black Swan.