In Todd Field’s new film TÁR, Cate Blanchett plays a formidable conductor at the pinnacle of her profession, who leads a major Berlin orchestra. She tells Harriet Cunningham how she worked intensively to prepare herself for the role.

Cunningham also talks with actor Nina Hoss, cellist Sophie Kauer and Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir about the film and its depiction of the classical music world.

Cate Blanchett as conductor Lydia Tár in the film TÁR. Photo courtesy of Focus Features

We’re in the stalls of a modern concert hall, a landscape of tiered seats, like a honey-coloured rice paddy. The conductor, flanked by her assistant on one side and the concertmaster on the other, is poring over the full score of Mahler’s Symphony No 5. The...