Lauded American born Greek opera singer Maria Callas’ (2nd December 1923 – 16th September 1977), final days are captured in Maria.
By then her famed soprano voice has gone and she hasn’t performed in years. As played by Angelina Jolie, she is holed up in her luxury Paris apartment. With her are her two loyal staff, Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) and Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) and two small dogs. She is popping pills as if they are lollies and having frequent hallucinations. She pines for the love of her life, shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer).
A TV crew, led by interviewer Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee), arrives to film a documentary on her life. And she is prevailed upon to make one final attempt at singing like she used to, which proves futile. In her mind, she remains the diva for which she was noted as being. She can be aloof, dismissive and indignant, but still covets adoration.
This is very much an interpretation of Callas’ end, by writer Steven Knight and director Pablo Larrain (who also collaborated on Spencer). Flitting between black and white and colour, and interspersed with actual footage of Callas performing, it hardly paints a pretty picture. The film reveals how she met and was pursued by Onassis while she was still married. It details how he didn’t want her to sing. It harks back to her difficult, impoverished childhood with her sister and how she was estranged from her mother.
It is difficult to discern how much of what is presented is fact and how much is fiction, but one thing in clear. Hers was hardly a trouble-free life. While watching Maria, I couldn’t help but think of Larrain’s earlier biopic Jackie (on First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy). There are similarities in style – elements of fantasy and whimsy.
Angelina Jolie inhabits the soul of Callas with style and sings well, although I wasn’t always sold on the lip syncing. I appreciated the representation by Pierfrancesco Favino of manservant Ferruccio, as he tried everything possible to try to help Callas in spite of herself. Having said that, it quickly became clear that the end was near and that she would continue to do what she wanted to do.
Ultimately, there is a turbulence and sadness about Maria, the film in its representation of a feted songstress who lived for the stage. As shown here, she soared and then stumbled.
Score: 7/10
Alex First
Here are Greg King’s thoughts about the film:
Maria Callas, who died at the age of 53 in 1977, is regarded as one of the greatest opera singers of all time. But her life, luminous career and her later health struggles deserve better than this mediocre biopic. Maria is the third film in Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s intimate trilogy depicting three powerful and famous but emotionally fragile women in the final days of their life. First up was Jackie, his 2016 biopic of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, with Natalie Portman in the title role, which was followed in 2021 by Spencer, his treatment of the tragic life of Princess Diana, with Kristen Stewart as the doomed royal.
Maria follows a nonlinear narrative structure and, as with his previous films, Larrain employs an impressionistic approach to his subject. His approach to the material seems cold and detached. Larrain uses a mix of film stock and visual mediums to present his take on Callas. He moves between black and white and colour; he also incorporates archival footage of Callas on stage performing some of her most famous roles at venues including La Scala, Covent Garden and New York’s The Met; and newsreel footage is juxtaposed with Jolie’s performance. During the final credits, we get to see some archival footage of the real Callas in a more relaxed and happy mood, which offers a contrast to the gloomy tone of much of the material.
Jolie delivers a fine performance in the title role. She is haughty, imperious and aloof. Even though she doesn’t resemble Callas too closely, she does capture the essence of the diva. She finds a vulnerability and wounded quality. Jolie apparently spent seven months training for the role, but Larrain uses Callas’ own vocals for the majority of the musical sequences, and Jolie’s lip synching is a little obvious. (This is a bit disappointing when you consider that the actors in the superior Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown performed all of their own vocals.) Caspar Phillipson, who played John F. Kennedy in Larrain’s Jackie, briefly reprises his role here.
Maria is certainly a handsomely mounted production. The production design from Guy Hendrix Dyas (who also collaborated on Spencer) is superb and Massimo Cantini Parrini’s costumes enrich the film. Ed Lachman’s cinematography is rich and textured. Ultimately though, this is a flawed biopic. I felt that I didn’t learn anything more about Maria Callas than I knew before I entered the cinema. That is disappointing. There was an excellent documentary in 2017 called Maria By Callas, which provided an intimate look at the diva’s life, using her own words. Those wanting to find out more about this tragic figure would do well to check it out instead.
Score: 4/10
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Alex First is the editor of The Blurb. Alex is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He also contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.