You can argue with many people about the qualities of film actresses. Only one thing everyone agrees on: Cate Blanchett. No one will question her superior prowess, whether it's the role of a lesbian lover in Todd Haynes, a run-down high-society woman in Woody Allen, an underworld goddess in the fantasy fairy tale "Thor" or the elven queen Galadriel in the realm of the "Lord of the Rings".

Andreas Kilb

Feuilletonkorrespondent in Berlin.

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Since she became internationally known as the Virgin Tudor Queen Elizabeth in Shekhar Kapur's 1998 costume film, Cate Blanchett has dominated the screen in every one of her performances. What is astonishing is that she never followed the demands of the film industry when it came to the pace and direction of her career. When it came down to it, she always followed her own head. After her first career peak in the noughties, when she was seen as Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator", as a KGB agent in "Indiana Jones" and in her signature role in the sequel to the "Elisabeth" film, she withdrew for a while to her Australian homeland to lead a theater troupe with her husband before she triumphantly returned to the cinema with Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine".

Distance between professional and private existence

For every studio production she appears in, there is at least one project such as "Stateless", a miniseries that tells of the conditions in a refugee camp in Australia. Even "Tár", the film shot mostly in Berlin, with which she was nominated for an Oscar for the eighth time, is anything but a mainstream product.

In "Tár", directed by Todd Field, the 53-year-old Blanchett plays a brilliant and domineering conductor who throws more and more sticks between her legs through her own ruthless behavior until she finally stumbles over them. What Lydia Tár can't manage in her life, her actress has organized all the better for herself: the distance between professional and private existence. Since 1997, Blanchett has been married to Australian author and playwright Andrew Upton, with whom she has three children of her own and one adopted child. Her family hardly ever appears in the gossip press. For this, their commitment to climate protection and humanitarian initiatives is also recognized outside the cultural section.

So if Cate Blanchett wins another Academy Award for Best Actress at the next Oscars on March 12 – her second in this category and her third overall – then no one will be able to see this award as a bow to the zeitgeist. It is quite simply the prize for the currently best film actress of her generation. May she play many more unforgettable movie roles like in "Tár".