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Cate v Hate
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Cate Blanchett recently won a Golden Globe for her performance in non-scifi film Tar - a drama about an American lesbian conductor who among other things faces allegations of sexual misconduct.

The film has been criticized by real world German lesbian conductor Marin Alsop as "anti-woman".

Cate responded to those criticisms in an interview with Martha Kearney on BBC Radio 4 but media coverage of her response hasn't been entirely accurate.

We read Deadline's article and one of their claims made us literally wince.

Blanchett said a man couldn’t have captured the nuance of the “corrupting nature” of power.

That female supremacy laden paraphrase is distinctly at odds with the substance and tone of Cate's quoted remarks.

So we went to the source. Transcript of that section of the interview follows.

Martha: We see the kind of pressures on Lydia Tar, the musical genius, but also accusations of pretty appalling behaviour which is more the kind of behaviour that we hear about predatory men in the arts. So what do you think about the fact where the tables were turned and it was a woman facing those accusations.

Cate: Well I think it is a meditation on power and the corrupting nature of power and I think that that doesn't necessarily only happen in cultural circles. It can happen, she could just have well have been a master architect or the head of a major banking corporation. It is also about the creative, giving birth to something end of the creative process. But the destructive urge behind that as well. And I feel that there's a self-combustion in her. Because I think that when you reach, when you're about to surmount a peak as an artist you realise that the only truly creative next step is to run downhill. So is she an architect of her own destruction?

Cate: But in answer to your question I was surprised actually because the film is not literal in any way. I kept thinking about Tarkovsky, as much as you know. It's a very existential metaphysical examination of someone's psyche as much as it is the literal things you're referring to. But I don't think you could have talked about the corrupting nature of power in as nuanced a way as Todd Field has done as a film-maker if there was a male at the centre of it because we understand so absolutely what that looks like. And I think that power is a corrupting force no matter what one's gender is. I think it affects all of us.

Martha: You'll know the criticism of the film that's been made by Marin Alsop, herself a very famous conductor, and who people point out parallels. She's a very famous conductor in the United States. She's a lesbian. She has a relationship with someone in an orchestra. They have a child together. And she thinks the film is wrong.

Cate: Wrong? Look I have the utmost respect for Marin Alsop. She's a trailblazer of a musician and a conductor. It's a very provocative film and it will elicit a lot of very strong responses for people. What Todd and I wanted to do was to create a really lively conversation, so there's no right or wrong responses to works of art. It's not a film about conducting and I think that the circumstances of the character are entirely fictitious. I looked at so many different conductors, but I also looked at novellists and visual artists and musicians of all stripes. It's a very non-literal film.

Martha: Let me put to you what she said. She says, "There are so many men, actual documented men this film could have been based on but instead it puts a woman in the role but gives her all the attributes of those men. That feels anti-woman.

Cate: That's interesting. She's entitled to her opinion, absolutely. But it's a meditation on power and power is genderless.

So Cate did not claim that a man couldn't have captured the nuance of the corrupting nature of power.

Rather the film and surrounding discussions would be less nuanced had the main character been male.

Which we can already see in Marin's criticism.

Women are just as capable of sexual predation and other wrongdoings as men.

This is far from the first film to portray that but it is contentious in the current political climate.

One of the reasons Disney might be hesitant to renew The Orville is because it dares to tread this ground.

Nobody blinked an eye at an all male civilization - the Moclans - being horrible bigots etc., but season 3 saw the matriarchal and bigoted Janisi come to the fore.

With they and the Union commencing diplomatic relations more Orville would almost certainly mean more Janisi and more exploration of gender supremacy which is evil regardless of who's on top.

Deadline's whoopsie?

It strikes us as suspicious but regardless of how it came about, you can see for yourself how easily the media can twist the truth 180 degrees.

Deadline's polar opposite paraphrase could very easily be picked up on social media by political interests intent on derailing conversations around the film.

Or at any point in the future by anyone who sees potential advantage in falsely portraying Cate as a man-hater.

Cate also briefly mentioned her upcoming role in the Borderlands sci-fi film in the context of what we'll see her in next and it being based on a video game.

Also indicating that she doesn't know when it will be released.

[ Main Image: Martha Kearney and Cate Blanchett. Credit: BBC. ]

References

BBC Radio 4 (January 12, 2023). Interview: Cate Blanchett. BBC.

Haring, Bruce (January 14, 2023). Cate Blanchett Defends ‘Tar’ From Symphony Conductor’s Criticism. Deadline.