Sitting in the theater for Cate Blanchett’s latest performance in Tár, I couldn’t help but realize just how much time was passing. The movie is long, sure, but that’s not what I mean. The film itself is something of a meditation on time in multiple forms. It’s about life and death, about music (to which time is essential), and about what we choose to do with the time we’re given. “Time is the thing,” conductor Lydia Tár (played by Blanchett) says at the outset. “Time is the essential piece of interpretation – you cannot start without me.”
As a ruthless artist at the top of her profession, Tár has her idiosyncrasies (to say the least) – including the way she wears her vintage gold timepiece. Which brings us to today’s column.
Why We’re Watching
Released last month, Tár officially marked the beginning of awards season – Blanchett is a lock for a Best Actress nomination at every ceremony up through the Oscars. But here at Hodinkee, we care less about gold statues and more about gold timepieces. So we couldn’t help noticing that Blanchett wears hers upside down throughout the movie. What could that mean?
To decode this simple bit of prop styling, it helps to know that Tár – like Black Swan and Whiplash before it – grapples with the anxieties of the fine arts, and the high-strung characters who practice them. Lydia Tár is a private person, never revealing to anyone what she really thinks, only letting her emotions out at the podium. It stands to reason that her AAA Canada Rolex replica watches is similarly hidden from the view of the audience – resting under her wrist rather than on top of it. Her time is her own, and her watch for her eyes only.
That’s all great, but she makes it hard for watch spotters like myself to make a definitive call on the timepiece, itself. It’s vintage cheap Rolex replica watches, for sure. But which one?
Here are some clues.
It has a white (or off-white) dial. A smooth bezel. And a leather strap.
Taking all that into account, I began guessing it was Swiss made fake Rolex Bubbleback watches or a Bombe – which, in either case, would make sense. Then came a scene that put the watch in front of the frame (albeit somewhat out of focus). But it was just enough to get a sense of the dial furniture, and case shape, and therefore make the call. That closeup showed that the perfect replica Rolex watches features applied Arabic numerals alternated with applied markers (even for the numerals and odd for the markers). The case had the squared-off motif that has come to define the Bubbleback range. This combination of case and dial made it clear that her watch is likely a yellow gold Bubbleback like those under the reference 5050 or similar. Now the Tár watch features Mercedes hands while many high quality Rolex Bubbleback copy watches feature alpha hands (pictured here). There was such variety within the Bubbleback range that a singular reference could have all manner of dial and hand combinations.
It says a lot about the character to be wearing vintage replica Rolex watches online site which is more than likely from the 1950s. You see, Lydia Tár’s mentor was Leonard Bernstein. She lives and breathes history, recites factoids about composers of yore, brings their work to thrilling new life in the present. With her, nothing is an accident. Her suits are bespoke. She knows about the power of presentation. And the power of symbolism.
If time is everything to her – and she says it is – the mechanical object on her wrist is an essential part of her being. In the film we see her interact with it, often glancing at the underside of her wrist in a natural ritualistic gesture. Blanchett makes it seem as though the Rolex fake watches wholesale is a part of her. When she gets out of bed, the first thing she does is pick up her watch off the nightstand. When she washes her hands, she takes it off and rests it on the sink. It’s the only object she really seems to bond with outside of a musical instrument. In the lonely world that she walks through, the watch is her companion.
When We’re Watching
In a scene that begins to show the deterioration of Tár’s psyche, we witness her hallucinating in her apartment in Berlin. She’s hearing musical notes being played seemingly from the apartment below her, though she’s never quite able to track down where it’s coming from. In one particular moment, she sits down at her own piano and plays the notes she’s hearing. She then rests her left arm on the piano playing only with her right, giving way to a semi-view of the China Rolex replica watches. Then we hear the thunderous sound of the orchestra as the scene shifts to her standing in front of the podium readying her players for the big performance. It’s the equivalent of a jump scare in a horror film, all set up by the Rolex.
Near the end of the second act, Tár learns that a leaked viral video is threatening to upend her career. As she views it on her phone, we get a fuzzy look at the luxury Rolex super clone watches. It’s not quite enough to tell the exact reference. But it gets us most of the way there. And more importantly, it sets up the entire final act of the film. Her Rolex, then, isn’t just a piece of wardrobe. It’s a plot driver.