Todd Field’s Path to Tár
The film “Tár” has inspired vigorous discussion among its viewers. “The idea that there’s a fairly robust conversation about this is incredible,” the “Tár” director Todd Fields recently told @MJSchulman. https://t.co/Qd4jzhHbDH
- The New Yorker (@NewYorker) January 14, 2023
This is a very long article (worth a full read) so here are a few highlights
Amazing he has but three film credits to his name as a feature director: In the Bedroom (2001), Little Children (2006), and Tár (2022), and all are acclaimed
Highlights
He’s had essentially five six careers
1-Batboy, for the Portland Mavericks, a baseball team owned by Bing Russell and his son Kurt Russell (yes that Kurt) and was a co-creator for Big League Chew™️
2-Jazz trombonist, who taught himself to play by ordering albums from overseas featuring the greats, and then transcribed the sheet music to learn the parts
3-Bar Manager, in NYC where his customers included Liza Minelli and Meryl Streep (this career is discussed but not counted in the article)
4-Actor, who appeared in some low budget and indie films plus well known fare such as Fat Man and Little Boy, Twister, and Eyes Wide Shut, and tv roles as a series regular on Once and Again plus various guest actor parts
5-Director, whose three feature films garnered universal praise and is set to go three-for-three on some Oscar category nominations
6-Stay at home and Little League dad. Nepo alert daughter Alida (36) and Henry (30) are both actors (plus he has an older son who was a medic in Afghanistan and a younger son is ~ 15-16)
His first filmmaking experience
▪️ He got an M.F.A. at the A.F.I. Conservatory and planned to quit acting, until Stanley Kubrick saw him in the indie drama “Ruby in Paradise” and cast him in “Eyes Wide Shut.” Kubrick answered his technical questions, showed him dailies. But it was Tom Cruise, Field said, who told him, over dinner, “You’re going to make movies.” Field said that he had an idea based on a 1979 short story by Andre Dubus, but he probably couldn’t get the rights. Cruise laid his megawatt can-do attitude on him: “You’re just making excuses. Figure it out.” Field wrote the script, got the rights, and made “In the Bedroom.”
▪️ The film débuted at Sundance, in 2001, and was acquired by Miramax. Field was devastated, because Miramax meant Harvey Weinstein, who was notorious for recutting movies into shreds. “I was weeping in the bathroom,” Field said. “I called up Tom Cruise and said, ‘Something terrible has happened.’ He basically said, ‘This is how you’re going to play it. It’s going to take you six months, and you’ll beat him, but you have to do exactly what I’m going to tell you to do, step by step.’ ” The plan: let Weinstein cut it to ribbons, wait for it to test poorly, then pull out the raves from Sundance and suggest that he release it the exact way it was when he’d bought it. Field followed Cruise’s advice, and it worked. “In the Bedroom” grossed more than twenty-five times its budget and was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture.
During his 16 year hiatus
▪️ He wrote an original script about a military recruiter, “For God & Country,” but Leonardo DiCaprio passed, as did Christian Bale.
▪️ He spent a year writing a political thriller with Joan Didion /snip/ intended for Blanchett
▪️ He “wasted about ten years” adapting the novel “The Creed of Violence,” after cycling through interest from Brad Pitt, DiCaprio, Bale, and Daniel Craig
▪️ He tried to adapt the novels “Blood Meridian” and “Beautiful Ruins”
▪️ He directed commercials
Snippets about Lydia Tár
▪️ He’s amused someone made a parody tweet that Lydia was a real person and others ran with it
▪️ He’s bewildered people think the last act is in Lydia’s imagination ❓❓❓
▪️ He toys with the journo about the (fake) awards Lydia won to achieve EGOT status in keeping with her character’s background (fun theories)
Source