Tár/Art: Lydia Tár ascending to Godhood, struck down like Icarus

"Tár" arrogating to ascend to Godhood: Have you ever experienced an artwork that grips you viscerally, sensually, inexplicably? It’s like a painter has seen through your eyes, or a musician holds a key to your soul, and the rhythms and tones open your heart and you simply do not know why? The first time you were taken by that piece of art that gutted you, your "Starry Night" -- did you separate the artist Van Gogh from the art? You were smitten, and the experience is as much of the artist as it is a projection of your own experience, dreams, pains and desires. Do you deny that you ever saw yourself in that work? In darkness we hear Lydia Tár coaxing, “Just ignore the microphone. Sing as if it’s not there.” At the end, we hear a voiceover from the video game, “Monster Hunter”, a ship captain’s speech, “Once you step aboard this ship, there is no turning back. And those who choose may step aside. You will not be judged.” Tár makes art, caring not a whit for the opinions of the audience, because that is what drives her, beyond all else. She knows the bargain she made, summed up by the final message of the movie: If you dare to ascend to this stage, you will be judged, perhaps even attacked. You will hunt monsters, and in the process perhaps even become one for a while.

I think the Monster Hunter scene is a small triumph. It would disgust the Lydia Tár we are introduced to in the interview to see herself doing something so beneath her. However, I think there was a very important moment of self reflection in her home watching Leonard Bernstein where she sheds her ego and remembers what drove her to her career. Beneath the facade and all the power plays and pretensions there has to be a genuine love for art for someone to reach the heights she has. "You want to dance the masque, you must service the composer. You gotta sublimate yourself, your ego, and, yes, your identity. You must, in fact, stand in front of the public and god and obliterate yourself." She lost what made her great in the first place. Losing everything and going back to her roots as Linda Tarr in Asia is what redeems her. She is no longer the control freak who threatens a child at school. She throws up when she imagines herself in a transactional scenario at the massage parlor. In the end, despite performing 'lower' art, she has finally sublimated herself in service of the art, not the other way around. Source: medium.com