Alsop says "To have an opportunity to portray a woman in that role and to make her an abuser — for me that was heartbreaking."
I disagree. For a woman in that position to BE an abuser is heartbreaking.
For Alsop to have preferred the character to be a hero is her preference.
Maybe Alsop wanted a feel-good movie, or a movie that would somehow represent her. Maybe she has lived a real hero's journey in her own life, or maybe her biography would make a good künstlerroman, but Tàr is not a biography of her. It's a work of fiction. I haven't seen Tàr, but it sounds like it is a tragedy. Women can have tragic flaws and be evil. Actors should get to play grand tragic roles.
I don't know how the film ends, and I'm not asking for spoilers, but does the abused woman get justice in the film? Do we know the allegation is true, or are we kind of in murky territory where we might argue about who has the real power in any given scene? (I'm thinking of Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, for example.)
In drama, hubris lays the tragic hero low. I'm not sure what happens in Tàr, but drama is where we get to explore the myriad outcomes of human character and human interaction, including innocence, guilt, vengeance, mercy, and justice. To make Lydia Tàr's success and sexuality a heroic story would be to set it in a different era. In our era, it's what she does with her power that is interesting.
Alsop says "To have an opportunity to portray a woman in that role and to make her an abuser — for me that was heartbreaking."
I disagree. For a woman in that position to BE an abuser is heartbreaking.
For Alsop to have preferred the character to be a hero is her preference.
Maybe Alsop wanted a feel-good movie, or a movie that would somehow represent her. Maybe she has lived a real hero's journey in her own life, or maybe her biography would make a good künstlerroman, but Tàr is not a biography of her. It's a work of fiction. I haven't seen Tàr, but it sounds like it is a tragedy. Women can have tragic flaws and be evil. Actors should get to play grand tragic roles.
I don't know how the film ends, and I'm not asking for spoilers, but does the abused woman get justice in the film? Do we know the allegation is true, or are we kind of in murky territory where we might argue about who has the real power in any given scene? (I'm thinking of Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, for example.)
In drama, hubris lays the tragic hero low. I'm not sure what happens in Tàr, but drama is where we get to explore the myriad outcomes of human character and human interaction, including innocence, guilt, vengeance, mercy, and justice. To make Lydia Tàr's success and sexuality a heroic story would be to set it in a different era. In our era, it's what she does with her power that is interesting.