Tár draws blank at Oscars
NewsAfter the most arm-twisting PR camapign in memory to promoted Cate Blanchett for best actress in the sado-conductor movie, Tár came away from Oscars night with precisely nothing.
Not even a sound credit, though the sound was not at all bad and the decor was definitely worth a mention.
However, like many heavily-hyped conductors, it crashed on landing.
No more to be said.
As has been said before but is worth repeating, “Tàr but no, ta”.
I enjoyed some of the comments and dialogues that “Tár” elicited on Slipped Disc, although, all-too-typically, some of the contributors stooped to attacking the intelligence or integrity of those to dared to disagree with them.
I have no animus towards anyone who doesn’t share my very personal and subjective disdain for the film. Here’s hoping that most future Slipped Disc discourse, however hot the topic, remains civil and that parties more cheerfully agree to disagree.
And sadly two individuals still choose to give you ‘thumb down’ emoji on your olive branch comment!
How can you please those who feel so disdainful?
Why bother?
Alas, not wholly unanticipated.
And goodbye to that accented ‘a’!
exactly as deserved
Not enough explosions or cutting edge special effects in this film. It deserved better.
Yes, but it did click the Hollywood box that assertive lesbians are secretly screwed up and evil. You missed that one. Also, that classical conductors are imperious and willful. But you’re right, somebody should have lobbed a grenade, or planted a car bomb. Such oversight!
Actually, the Hollywood box that was clicked was making the classical music world evil.
Lots of great films didn’t receive an Oscar. Not receiving an Oscar hardly means that the film “crashed on landing”. In fact, Norman and “maestra” Marin Alsop have both written so much about it that they probably helped pump it up. No surprise that two would-be gatekeepers to the industry don’t want its dirty laundry exposed.
‘Maestra’ means a female junior school teacher.
Yeah but Everything Everywhere All At Once was more deserving.
And it featured a diversity-cast, of whom many of the winners emphasized their race. Slumdog Millionaire won years ago, and South Korean (and in Korean) ‘Parasite’ won just a few years ago. Try being white in a Bollywood film and expecting a prize, or better—the world of Korean cinema. Not happening.
Likely never will.
So interesting to read was this. If you didn’t find it in your feed, here it is:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-03-08/oscars-2023-michelle-yeoh-cate-blanchett-academy-award-rules
“White people shouldn’t win because they’re white and white people have won enough—hey see they’re white” was/is? essentially her point.
In retrospect, ‘Parasite’ was utter sh*te, nothing ‘Korean’ in it at all. Pure Oscar-fodder.
Yep, great times where people get all kind of jobs, trophies, advantage not based on what they do but who they are, and of course with double pleasure of excluding white people, especially white men, especially white men of 50 and over…
None of the performances in that film deserved an Oscar. Not to mention that they did not have any characters to act.
Maybe it’s just not that good a film. I couldn’t bear to watch past the first five minutes.
Oh whatever. Yes you could
I know folks who hated this film. Gratuitous name dropping, Wikipedia type dialogue, unnecessary scenes of confusion, a concertmaster/lover who didn’t play the violin and who was not well cast, a caricature conductor who was a student of Bernstein. C’mon. Our industry is better than this full of first-rate caring musicians who bring their best effort every night to their professional duties. I’m glad there were no awards given to this movie last night. For me it was unbearable and embarrassing to watch.
Wow, I had no idea that getting six Oscar nominations meant “crash on landing”…
Yes, to be ignored in nominations would have been more damning.
But nominated… it can live on to appear in later critics’ lists of films that “should have won.”
The lack of Oscars for Tar says more about irrelevance of the Academy then about the quality of the films awarded. Neither of the winners deserved the prize (maybe with exception of Fraser). The whole think was pure politics, ideology and fear not to be woke enough
It’s always been about politics. Everything is.
Like the current BBC management, Oscars people really have no interest in or care for classical music – why should anyone be remotely surprised?
An interesting movie, though. Neither a masterpiece, nor a bore. Just intriguing.
All the overt hostility and highly emotional responses towards this film are most intriguing. Would the critics amongst you prefer that Hollywood doesn’t delve into this sacred world? Why not constructively encourage filmmakers to do a better job in the future instead of showing such relentless negativity?
It’s alright. This stupid American way of culturally imposing Sparta – only winning counts – on the arts, should not be taken too seriously anyway.
As if it was about winning, one winner, all other losers, in the arts.
Collective derangement.
Panem et circenses.
No more, no less.
Seems to me that a lot of non-Americans here are taking it seriously. Some of us yanks do know better than to.
The typical American would not understand your references to Classical Antiquity, Psychology, or Latin; which only strengthens the correctness of your opinion of the stupid American way of cultural imposition. He understands better the dictum made famous by the great Vince Lombardi: winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.
There was a backlash against Blanchett, and her film, for her participation in the rule-breaking campaign to get obscure British actress Riseborough a nomination over American A-lister Viola Davis.
Payback is a bitch in Hollywood.
That’s alright, Blanchett still got one more Oscar than Michelle Yeoh and two more than Viola Davis in the category of Lead Actress.
I think it’s a superb film. So is The Banshees of Inisherin, which also won nothing. The Fabelmans is not on the level of those two but is very good, and it too had a zero at the end of the night. Likewise Elvis and Triangle of Sadness, which many people (not I) loved.
Some years, one particular film just aligns with sensibilities or speaks to its time and has broad enough appeal across age and other groups in the Academy to become a juggernaut. In this case it was Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is imaginative, touching, and worthy. All Quiet on the Western Front cleaned up most of the craft awards left over.
Let the “discrimination” trumpets blow for this sad trombone.
Isn’t that mixing a metaphor (“trumpets blow for this sad trombone”)? And for what it’s worth: there’s truly nothing more sad than bad trumpets.
“After the most arm-twisting PR camapign” (whatever that mysterious beast is), “Tár came away from Oscars night with precisely nothing.” Not really.
Most of the hysterically desperate arm-twisting that I have seen and heard in recent months was done by this blog as well as by several thin-skinned conductors supported by other easily offended musicians, and all of it pointed and screamed in precisely opposite direction, i.e. against that movie instead of for it. What Tar came away with was well-deserved pride of belonging to the company of quite a few great movies that did not win Oscars during these awards’ 95 inglorious years.
Exactly. I find hilarious that so many musicians got offended by the portrayal of an egomaniac conductor, but won’t say anything about the real egomaniac conductors in the REAL world.
A lot of the criticism of this film seems to centre around displeasure with how the music industry is portrayed. As a psychological drama, it is a masterpiece. It is disquieting film, and there are no easy answers to the questions it raises.
…. but ” all quiet on the Western Front” recorded at Air Studios Hampstead won best soundtrack.
Let’s wrap this up with one more point about the title: Tár…clearly the marketing team was stuck at home with Covid when they let this title through the gate.
Tar title is not a pleasant word in the mouth to say, and to most English speakers it reminds them of the smell of crude oil waste. Yuck.
The Bernstein film will be better (not because it features the story of a male conductor)
Why are people paying any attention to the Oscars anyway? I don’t know anyone who watches it.
Not winning an Oscar can be a badge of honor. Since when do those awards reflect true art vs populous tastes and trends? There were a lot of good movies this year.
NL: “…the most arm-twisting PR camapign in memory…”.
For an Oscar? Seriously? Your memory appears to be limited, Mr. Lebrecht – perhaps constrained by your already oft-stated and unbecoming detestation of Tár.
For those with a broader perspective, the many legendary campaigns by Harvey Weinstein would probably come to mind – not even to mention this year’s candidate for the most aggressive PR push, on behalf of Andrea Riseborough.
Of more relevance might be the fact that Tar lost around 10 million dollars at the box office. Has a film that didn’t even break even ever won best picture? This is against Everything Everywhere All at Once’s box office profit of at least 80 million.
They could have saved Cate Blanchett’s fee and done that film with CGI – Ava Tár! (irony)
I certainly wouldn’t trust the Oscars to tell a movie is worth watching or not…. especially one on music…