Very few movies this year have received as much acclaim as TÁR. The new film from writer-director Todd Field is an ambitious and often captivating character study, one that dives headfirst into the niche world of classical music in order to tell a story that is both thought-provoking and surprisingly timely.
Sophie Kauer: Todd is an incredibly gifted writer. It’s a shame that his script won’t be published as a book because there’s so much beautiful direction in there that, unfortunately, the audience will never know about. But I remember my first reaction was that I was so proud and touched that someone had gone through so much effort to write a film that features classical music so heavily and portrays it as this beautiful, glorious art form that people dedicate their lives to.
So they opened the casting call to all the music conservatoires and universities and I sent in some self-tapes and some videos of my playing. I had no expectations whatsoever, but then I got asked to do a zoom call with Todd. We worked on scenes for an hour or so, and I remember thinking, “Oh, this is cool. I can tell my kids or grandkids one day that I did a Zoom audition with Todd Field and all these casting agents.
Because the film’s recordings were all done live, how much time did you have to practice for the performances in TÁR? Nowadays, I’m lucky that I’ve had a bit of experience playing as a soloist with an orchestra, but I was 19 when we started filming and there’s not that much that you can have achieved by that age in that respect. I’d also not had an in-person cello lesson for two years at that time because of the pandemic, so it was scary. I think we made it work, though, and it made the film all the more authentic.
The first scene we shot was actually the scene where she gives me the bear after I lose it, but that scene was also a bit different in the original script. I also started off by filming reaction shots while I was sitting in the orchestra, which was a nice way for me to ease into everything and learn how to react based on how close the camera is to my face. That was something that Cate actually explained to me.