Thank you for this insightful post, Zohar. I have been haunted by this film since I saw it recently. I do think you are being somewhat charitable to her character who perhaps was indeed - during her earlier years - inspired by the sublime nature of art, but has become a scripted machiavellian character giving her fawning audience in the opening scene just the right mix of egocentric grandiosity and pseudo-critical music theory that they seem to want from their hero. Ultimately, her "crime" is hubris. And for that she is brought low ("Tar" also conjures tar-and-feathered).
I, too, think the two rabbinic concepts that she articulates in that prescient first scene are key. Her kavvanah (like the intentions of Justice Bret Kavanaugh, in his own ratification hearings) is critical. But I think her intention, as demonstrated by her actions, is no longer the intention which once inspired her career. It has become base and arrogant. And teshuva (return), and the powerful Talmudic idea of teshuva turning past misdeeds into merits, also hinges on kavvanah, as you know. Only when the intention of that teshuva is for love and connection, do the rabbis believe that the significance of the past can be radically transformed. Hard to say we see any love and connection that is not utilitarian for Tar throughout most of the movie (except her love for daughter, as her wife acerbically points out). But I agree, there is something that makes me want to root for Tar beyond just the fact that many of her accusers are "entitled brats". As the Hasidic masters teach us, there is in everyone a spark of purity, even if it is concealed by the dross that has accumulated on it over time. None of us are all pure or all tainted. And so too, Lydia Tar is a complex character. That's what makes this film so compelling for me.
Thank you for this insightful post, Zohar. I have been haunted by this film since I saw it recently. I do think you are being somewhat charitable to her character who perhaps was indeed - during her earlier years - inspired by the sublime nature of art, but has become a scripted machiavellian character giving her fawning audience in the opening scene just the right mix of egocentric grandiosity and pseudo-critical music theory that they seem to want from their hero. Ultimately, her "crime" is hubris. And for that she is brought low ("Tar" also conjures tar-and-feathered).
I, too, think the two rabbinic concepts that she articulates in that prescient first scene are key. Her kavvanah (like the intentions of Justice Bret Kavanaugh, in his own ratification hearings) is critical. But I think her intention, as demonstrated by her actions, is no longer the intention which once inspired her career. It has become base and arrogant. And teshuva (return), and the powerful Talmudic idea of teshuva turning past misdeeds into merits, also hinges on kavvanah, as you know. Only when the intention of that teshuva is for love and connection, do the rabbis believe that the significance of the past can be radically transformed. Hard to say we see any love and connection that is not utilitarian for Tar throughout most of the movie (except her love for daughter, as her wife acerbically points out). But I agree, there is something that makes me want to root for Tar beyond just the fact that many of her accusers are "entitled brats". As the Hasidic masters teach us, there is in everyone a spark of purity, even if it is concealed by the dross that has accumulated on it over time. None of us are all pure or all tainted. And so too, Lydia Tar is a complex character. That's what makes this film so compelling for me.