Cate Blanchett Will Make You Care About Classical Music in the TÁR Trailer

Following its triumphant premiere at Venice Film Festival, the first full-length trailer for Todd Field’s TÁR shows Cate Blanchett in what many are calling the performance of her career ahead of the film’s release next month.

The trailer begins as we are introduced to Blanchett’s titular Lydia Tár with a list of her achievements: she’s a renowned composer, the world’s most famous female conductor, an EGOT winner. The nearly three-hour long film follows the clearly accomplished Tár as she prepares to record Gustav Mahler’s fifth symphony with the German Orchestra, which she has been the conductor of for the past ten years. While all that is going on, Tár also has the added pressure of publishing a self-authored retrospective in the form of interviews, called Tár on Tár.

Despite all of this, it’s immediately clear this film isn’t about Tár’s success, but more so her downfall. As the trailer continues, Tár’s relationships seem to get the better of her, and secrets that emerge from her past risk destructing the life she so carefully curated. The Hollywood Reporter called TÁR “an intimate portrait of an artist possessed by her work, an exploration of the transportive vitality of great music and a clear-eyed consideration of cancel culture.”

TÁR is Field’s first film is 16 years since 2006’s Little Children. According to IndieWire, he wrote the film for Blanchett, and that instinct has already paid off. Blanchett took home the Best Actress prize at Venice for her performance, and she is already considered a frontrunner when it comes to this year’s Oscar race. It would mark Blanchett’s third Academy Award. She previously won for Blue Jasmine and took home the supporting actress trophy for The Aviator. She also has five additional nominations.

“She is a master supreme,” Field said of Blanchett in a statement. “Even so, while we were making the picture, the superhuman-skill and verisimilitude of Cate was something truly astounding to behold. She raised all boats. The privilege of collaborating with an artist of this caliber is something impossible to adequately describe.”

TÁR comes out in theaters on October 7th. Check out the trailer below: