I didn't see enough new movies this year to contribute to the poll, but I wanted to point out something in Tar that non-musicians might not have noticed. For background: I sing in a major symphony chorus and have done Mahler 2 with the guy that the character who steals her score is based on (Gilbert Kaplan). The film gets SO MUCH right, …
I didn't see enough new movies this year to contribute to the poll, but I wanted to point out something in Tar that non-musicians might not have noticed. For background: I sing in a major symphony chorus and have done Mahler 2 with the guy that the character who steals her score is based on (Gilbert Kaplan). The film gets SO MUCH right, but I particularly enjoyed the small touches like the Lully-gets-gangrene story that music history profs would always pull out to get a laugh.
Anyway, (SPOILERS for the ending of Tar incoming) there's a cool, subtle touch in the ending. She puts on headphones to conduct the video game concert. When you do one of those or a live film score or anything like that, the conductor is listening to a click track (at a minimum: they might also have a display in front of them giving cues and tempos). This keeps the music in time with what's on screen. Think back to the opening interview during which she talks about the importance of the "metronome" right hand and how the conductor controls time. In the end, she's lost her power over time.
I think I was caught up enough in everything else about the film (the benefits of seeing it in a theater where I couldn't get distracted during the slow bits) that any discrepancies didn't bother me. Off-stage brass isn't uncommon in Mahler and other works (like putting trumpets around the hall for the "last trumpet" part of the Verdi or Berlioz requiems), but I don't know whether the opening riff would have been off-stage. It's usually more for pastoral horn calls. What bugged me about the linebacker bit is wondering how she got backstage when she had to be on a persona not grata list. It might have worked better if she'd bought a ticket and started shouting from the house. Same commotion, but less Hollywood.
That scene and the brother with the on-the-nose dialogue about "you don't know where you belong" were the two false notes (haha) for me. Some of her gestures were too jabby, and they never would have chosen the opening piece that close to a performance, but there was so much else right that I could overlook things like that. It was impressive/gross how Tar managed to still be skeevy with a blind audition process. The way that the gender balance of symphony orchestras changed after blind auditions became the norm says a lot about the old boys' network, but horrible people will find a way to pervert anything.
That said, I've only seen it once, and I may well feel more nitpicky if I watch it again.
I didn't see enough new movies this year to contribute to the poll, but I wanted to point out something in Tar that non-musicians might not have noticed. For background: I sing in a major symphony chorus and have done Mahler 2 with the guy that the character who steals her score is based on (Gilbert Kaplan). The film gets SO MUCH right, but I particularly enjoyed the small touches like the Lully-gets-gangrene story that music history profs would always pull out to get a laugh.
Anyway, (SPOILERS for the ending of Tar incoming) there's a cool, subtle touch in the ending. She puts on headphones to conduct the video game concert. When you do one of those or a live film score or anything like that, the conductor is listening to a click track (at a minimum: they might also have a display in front of them giving cues and tempos). This keeps the music in time with what's on screen. Think back to the opening interview during which she talks about the importance of the "metronome" right hand and how the conductor controls time. In the end, she's lost her power over time.
I think I was caught up enough in everything else about the film (the benefits of seeing it in a theater where I couldn't get distracted during the slow bits) that any discrepancies didn't bother me. Off-stage brass isn't uncommon in Mahler and other works (like putting trumpets around the hall for the "last trumpet" part of the Verdi or Berlioz requiems), but I don't know whether the opening riff would have been off-stage. It's usually more for pastoral horn calls. What bugged me about the linebacker bit is wondering how she got backstage when she had to be on a persona not grata list. It might have worked better if she'd bought a ticket and started shouting from the house. Same commotion, but less Hollywood.
That scene and the brother with the on-the-nose dialogue about "you don't know where you belong" were the two false notes (haha) for me. Some of her gestures were too jabby, and they never would have chosen the opening piece that close to a performance, but there was so much else right that I could overlook things like that. It was impressive/gross how Tar managed to still be skeevy with a blind audition process. The way that the gender balance of symphony orchestras changed after blind auditions became the norm says a lot about the old boys' network, but horrible people will find a way to pervert anything.
That said, I've only seen it once, and I may well feel more nitpicky if I watch it again.
Thanks for this! I did not know how the live film score worked so I appreciate the additional context.
That’s a brilliant insight!
TAR the gift that keeps giving. Fantastic film. Going to rewatch now.
Thanks for the share!