Cate Blanchett has a delusive portrayal of “Tár” which made most of the audience mistake the character Tár to be real, but the reality outlines a different story as this character does not exist either. Lydia Tár the head conductor, is entirely directed by Todd Field. Todd Field has made the character based on the passionate and devoted women of the industry, but Maggie Contreras’ new documentary does outline what gender imbalance the world of conducting and orchestras has. Worryingly as per the stats less than 3 percent of conductors around the globe are women.
But to challenge this inequality in the world of supremacy, La Maestra is an annual competition portraying the skills of female conductors who work towards achieving their names, helping with growing their status in male-oriented fields. La Maestra sheds light on the growing concerns and angle of equality and gender empowerment. In her first-ever shot at a feature, Maggie has a different approach, showcasing the beauty found in different viewpoints, she portrays the conduct of Barbara and Jillious Alcock. It’s beautifully done by Contreras, moving away from on-dimensional styling she showcases the multi-dimensional personality of Barbara and Jillious enabling the gripping experience.
All in all, conducting is most definitely an art form, be it any form of conductors’ interpretations, they hold their character above. No matter how broad the scopes of emotions get.
“Maestra” fully expresses the complexity of a conductor’s job and the process of filling every niche imaginable before stepping onto the stage. It accounts for the difficulty they face in getting their musicians ready to perform, which requires them to match each individual to the music of the symphony that was composed. It is a lot of detail-oriented plate-spinning under intense scrutiny and pressure thorough preparation coupled with the ability to improvise. Women do their best, no questions asked. Such a challenging juggling activity is performed by us every single day of our lives.
In this chapter, she introduces us to five characters. Zoe Zeniodi is a hot-tempered Greek who feels sad about leaving her twin son and daughter for months at a time while she works as an orchestral conductor in New Mexico. American Tamara Dworetz believes self-fulfillment esp professional ambition and a female role in her husband’s child can be reconciled. Ukrainian Ustina Dubitsky is moved with sad emotions as she observes the Russian forces invading her homeland and she boldly participates in competitions sitting on the sidelines. Polish Anna Sułkowska-Migoń who is currently in her mid-20s, is now going for a sort of competition for the very first time. And Mélisse Brunet, a French national who hails from Paris is also taking painful memories of a tryst as she returns back to her teaching at the University of Iowa.
The way each will prepare is also different such as Dworetz rehearsed while lying down on a rug in her Georgina living room, and Dubitsky shares with us the cute multicular stickmen that her daughter drew on the margins of her music.
One of the coolest revelations of what has been revealed in “Maestra” is the affectionate view these women have toward one another. There are not that many of them and therefore, have created a sisterhood to provide help. And this also applies to the process of elimination as well, where there are fourteen contestants on the first day, six on the second, and three finalists on the third day and they help and are kind to a person in such a friendly way.
The competition narratively is so well constructed that it renders Contreras’ decision in the third act with regard to the structure to be incoherent. At the peak of the film, she intercuts the scenes of two different characters on two different plot arcs, one is a performer born to shine, and one is reliving some painful moments from her childhood. This switch editing undermines the tension for the audience that there is sympathy towards both. Particularly for the woman in the final round of competition, it is a wasted chance where she feels she could give the best shot of her life to the audience.
However, “Maestra” does contain some surprises (unless you live in this special orientation of the classical music scene or search for what happened at La Maestra that more or less specializes in this particular piece of classical music taken at that time). What is not surprising, however, is the comments one of the older conductors of the panel did receive after marking her off after the second round, Wait, I think she should have smiled.
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