By Elisa Leonelli
December 28, 2024
Maria, the film about legendary soprano Maria Callas, directed Pablo Larraín and starring Angelina Jolie, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, then was presented at festivals in Telluride, Toronto, New York, London, Los Angeles. Released in US theaters November 27, and on Netflix December 11, Maria arrives in Italian cinemas January 1, 2025.
Thus the Chilean director concludes the trilogy that he began with Jackie (2016), where Natalie Portman played Jacqueline Kennedy, and continued with Spencer (2021), with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana.
Larraín says: “Maria seemed to me to be the right conclusion for this series of three films, after Jackie and Spencer, because they are three iconic women who shaped the second half of the last century. I knew that for Maria Callas I needed to convince the right actress to play her, because Callas was not only an opera singer, but also a great actress, therefore the film could not exist without Angelina Jolie. Angie disappears inside the character, showing vulnerability, sensitivity, humanity, strength and intelligence.”
MARIA. Angelina Jolie (c) Netflix ©
Jolie confesses: “I was intimidated by the idea of playing Callas, which I knew very little about then. I only knew the power of her music and her art, but at first I thought that I could pretend to sing, as is often the case in cinema. Then, when Pablo explained to me that I really had to sing on set, I was terrified, but I had faith in him, and in fact he helped me by finding the best teachers for Italian lessons to learn the correct pronunciation, for techniques of breathing and standing necessary to sing opera. Only by doing that could I understand Maria Callas and find the key to interpreting her.”
The director explains the narrative arc of the film, which takes place during the last weeks of Callas’ life in her luxurious Paris apartment, where she lives with the faithful driver Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) and the devoted maid Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher). In flashback we also relive her years with her mother and older sister in Athens, Greece, occupied by the Nazis during World War II, the love story with the shipowner Aristotle Onassis, and several interpretations of the famous arias performed by La Divina on stages around the world.
MARIA. Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in Maria. Cr. Pablo Larraín/Netflix © 2024.
“Of all the operas that Callas performed, the majority is made up of tragedies (Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, Madama Butterfly and Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti) where the protagonist dies on stage at the end, then receives applause and flowers are thrown at her. Therefore she had been accustomed for decades to the ecstasy that accompanied death on stage, when the curtain fell, and she was not afraid of it. So I wanted to show the last tragic weeks of her life, which she confronts with determination, discipline and stoicism, without ever feeling like a victim, maintaining control of her own destiny, knowing what she wants, trying to find her voice again, to then being able to die in peace with herself.”
MARIA. Angelina Jolie (c) Pablo Larraín/Netflix
Jolie reveals: “As a young woman, I liked punk music and I still listen to it, but now that I am a certain age (49) I appreciate classical music and opera more, because I realized that only certain sounds can express such an intense level of pain, love and despair. When we listen to this kind of music, we experience an immensity of emotions that deeply move us. It was a real privilege for me to explore the life of an artist like Maria Callas, it was like a kind of psychotherapy that I didn’t know I needed, and after having studied her seriously, it was easy for me to fall in love with her. Even today, when I hear her sing, I feel like listening to a friend; in particular, the aria “Ave Maria” (from Giuseppe Verdi’s Othello) reminds me of sweet memories of my mother; so I react with great emotion in a very personal way. I still haven’t been able to separate myself from Maria Callas.”
Larraín offers an explanation of how they filmed in Budapest the scene of the orchestra playing in Paris in the rain the “Humming Chorus” by Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly: “It would not be possible to use real instruments in the rain, these violins, violas and wooden cellos are ancient. The musicians would tell me I was crazy. So we had to build them mostly fake. Let’s not forget that Cio-Cio-San has a son with her husband, an American sailor stationed in Japan, then he leaves and she is always waiting for him to return. She feels desperate and cannot sleep, so the whole town sings this sweet melody to reconcile her sleep. In the film, it’s an unusual abstract image of Butterfly in Callas’ memory.”
The director, who had employed the style of magical realism in his other films, also uses fantastic and metaphorical elements here. Callas can’t sleep, so she takes higher and higher doses of the tranquilizer Mandrax (Quaalude), the name of the journalist (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who interviews him for a television documentary that we understand exists only in his imagination.
MARIA. Angelina Jolie (c) Pablo Larraín/Netflix
Jolie expressed her hopes for the effect she would like the film to have on the audience: “My fear was to disappoint Callas fans and opera lovers. I wanted to honor her memory and do her justice. Towards the end of her life, she felt very lonely. She had been horribly criticized when her voice was no longer up to her heyday. She probably died without knowing that many decades later there would be a lot of people who still love her, and when they see our film they feel sad for her. I hope this film inspires many young people to explore opera, to be moved by this very powerful art form.”
Larraín amplified this theme: “Nowadays there is a distance, almost a fear of opera in the majority of the audience. This art form was born in the 16th century, when someone had the idea of staging a play where actors sang instead of talking, and it remained a form of popular entertainment for centuries. In the early twentieth century Enrico Caruso popularized it in New York, then Maria Callas in the 50s, Luciano Pavarotti in the 60s, and now Andrea Bocelli does the same thing. In her farewell tour of 1974, Callas sang with the tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano duets from the best-known works of Italian composers in the tradition of Bel Canto, precisely with the intention of reaching and moving a wider audience. If our film is able to have a similar effect, to create interest in opera in 100 viewers or a million, putting it back in its proper position, it would be beautiful and then we will be able to say that we have succeeded.”
Click here for Italian text