The case of Placido Domingo flies over the new film by Cate Blanchett

Countless women in the world of cinema began to denounce about six years ago that they had suffered sexual abuse.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
01 September 2022 Thursday 09:48
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The case of Placido Domingo flies over the new film by Cate Blanchett

Countless women in the world of cinema began to denounce about six years ago that they had suffered sexual abuse. The Me Too movement was launched as a result of the Harvey Weinstein case in the United States and immediately crossed borders and sectors. In 2020, around thirty singers accused Plácido Domingo of harassment.

Californian director Todd Field has now brought the matter to the big screen in Tár, which opens with a video from Domingo's room. But the filmmaker has given the matter two laps. Field's stalker is not a man, but a woman, and the manner in which he is played is so subtle that he draws a very blurred line between harassment and a simple attempt at seduction.

Field wrote the role for Australian actress Cate Blanchett, who becomes Lydia Tár, a successful, strong-willed and proud conductor married to one of the violinists on her team. The couple, who have a young daughter, live in Berlin. Life smiles at Lydia, but she is haunted by a ghost from the past, she had an affair with one of her young students from her conservatory. The girl sends him messages about her and tries to contact her, although Tár has already turned the page on her and is now trying to seduce a cellist who has just joined the orchestra.

Life takes an unexpected turn for the protagonist when her first lover commits suicide and the press accuses her of being a stalker. His wife leaves her, he loses his job, the girl he wanted to conquer stops talking to him... "She is on Olympus, she has reached it as an artist, but as a human being she knows that the next step will make her fall", he has pointed out the actress in a press conference after the premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival.

A film that can bring you many joys. For now, Blanchett has already entered the pools to win the Coppa Volpi for best female performance and who knows if this role of a cold woman who goes from heaven to hell does not also bear the stamp of a future Oscar nomination.