Tar Director Responds To Critics That Film Is ‘Anti-Woman’

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Since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year, Todd Field’s film Tr has been met with acclaim, earning a host of rave reviews and emerging as a strong contender to earn multiple Oscar nominations.

The film tells the story of Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tr, a renowned musician and conductor whose life is turned upside down by a number of accusations as she prepares for a landmark live recording of the 5th Symphony by Mahler.

But despite the good reviews, the positive reception has not been entirely unanimous and last week American conductor Marin Alsop slammed the film in an interview with The Sunday Times, calling it “anti-woman “.

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Alsop is referenced in the film and has a number of striking similarities to Lydia Tr. After watching the film, she said, “I was offended as a woman, I was offended as a boss. orchestra, I was offended as a lesbian”.

As the film finally arrives in UK cinemas today, RadioTimes.com spoke exclusively to Field about his thoughts on Alsop’s comments and the writer/director explained he can sympathize with the issues of Alsop at least to some extent.

“I mean, we talked to a lot of conductors, women and men,” he said. “And you know, I share his concern that there has never been a female conductor in a major German orchestra, which makes it a fairy tale. There has never been a female conductor in one of America’s Big Five Orchestras Why?

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“And so I think it’s an important question, I think it’s important to understand it,” he continued. “But again, it’s not…you know, it’s important that this character know their onions and the conversation is about that medium, but that’s really not what the movie is about, the movie talk about power, our hope was to invite an audience to ask their own questions and have their own opinions, and everyone is entitled to that.”

He added: “And that’s kind of what we were looking for, in terms of power, so as far as I know it’s genderless. And so we’re all very familiar with patriarchal abuse of power, we don’t We don’t read about women or lesbians who abuse power every day, and there’s a reason men have always had it.

“And I’m hoping that by having this character not be male, it might provide an opportunity to look at power for what it is, which is something that anyone touches. will be corrupted [by].”

Cate Blanchett also recently responded to Alsop’s claims, explaining during an interview on BBC Radio 4 that while she had “the greatest respect” for the conductor, she disagreed with his conclusions.

“I don’t think you could have spoken about the corrupting nature of power in as nuanced a way as Todd Field did as a filmmaker if there was a man at the center of it,” he said. she declared. “Because we fully understand what that looks like. I think power is a corrupting force, regardless of gender. I think it affects all of us.

Tr is out now in UK cinemas. Check out more of our film coverage or visit our TV guide and streaming guide to see what’s on tonight.

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