Writer-Director Todd Field on Finding the Right Key for 'Tar'

Cate Blanchett stars as Lydia Tar,a world-renowned classical composer and conductor at the height of her career-until allegations of misconduct cause her world to unravel. "Cate and I would come up with things that would invert a scene, turn it on its head, push it 180 degrees," he recalls. To create the film's visual language, Field and his team did extensive lighting and camera tests before rehearsals began to correspond with different points of view: one "omnipotent," another in which the audience knows what Lydia knows, and another in which we're following the "baton toss" from one character to the next.