"Tár" is the cinematic watchword of the coming awards season, even if you don’t know how to say it. Tar? Ter? Tah? What is that acute accent over the A, and what accent will Australian chameleon Cate Blanchett deliver to us on the screen? This is only the third film from director Todd Field, whose scant resume has nevertheless racked up plenty of nominations, but never an Oscar win. His 2001 debut “In The Bedroom,” about two parents’ grief when their son’s romance with an older woman ends in murder, earned a Best Picture nomination and acting nominations for its stars Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, and Marisa Tomei. What would prove to be his relatively quick follow-up in 2006, “Little Children,” an adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s novel, balanced the story of an affair between two surbanites with the anxieties of a neighborhood sex offender. It earned nominations for Fields’ and Perrotta’s screenplay and actors Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley. Quiet but tense, Fields' films are intimate character studies pierced by violence and sexual transgression. Now 16 years later, “Tár” delves into the world of classical music, with many questions hanging over this film: can it take Fields to his first Oscar win? Can it take Blanchett to her third? And what brutality can take place within the life of a conductor? Is there a monster within the Mahler?
"Tár" will have an advanced screening on Oct. 27 at The Moviehouse in Millerton, N.Y.
Patrick L. Sullivan
