Todd Field may be calling it quits after just three feature films. He made his feature directorial debut with In the Bedroom in 2001 and followed it up five years later with Little Children, but fans had to wait over fifteen years before he returned to the director’s chair with Tár. While speaking with Cinema Scope, Todd Field said that it’s “highly likely” that Tár will be his last film.
While some directors are able to pump out film after film for years, Todd Field doesn’t think he’s that type of director. “There’s a real challenge in making a film of any size,” Field said. “It’s not for the faint of heart. I wish I was cut out for different stuff, because I probably wouldn’t make more films. It takes a great deal out of me to make a film; I don’t know that I’ll ever make another one.” When asked to clarify if this meant that Tár would be last film, Field said, “Yes, I think so. I didn’t think about it until now. It’s highly likely.” Field admitted that he might be open to making another film somewhere down the road. “I suppose that’s possible,” he said. “I hope that’s possible.“
Todd Field does plan to continue writing, but the actual process of crafting a movie is too much. “If it were nice and easy, I would film all the time,” Field said. “I make commercials all the time, but that doesn’t take much out of me. I like the play, the techniques, experimenting with new equipment that comes out before it ever reaches the feature world, because I’m a technical geek at heart too. But those aren’t my things; those technical tools belong to multinational corporations. But if something is really yours, and really matters—and it had better matter, for the length of time it takes to make a film—you have to give it everything. And as you get older, you realize how valuable time is, there’s only so much time in that hourglass. I’m not in my twenties or thirties anymore—I’ll be 60 in year and a half. You start thinking about these things.“
We may have to wait to see if Tár does wind up being Todd Field’s last film, but I could certainly think of worse movies to go out on. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress.