Maria Callas/Angelina Jolie

[+ Italiano]

The last movie/biopic by Pablo Larrain has just premiered and received mixed reviews at Venice Film Festival, it is about the last week of life of the legendary opera singer Maria Callas.

Someone is already talking about Oscar nomination for Angelina. I found her an odd choice for the iconic opera Diva, especially for the lack of resemblance. It will be soon on Netflix, will watch it there

https://youtu.be/hVz6o45Mea8?si=3L1OnyOKPrtwgono

Edited September 8, 2024 by Italiano

[+ Italiano]

Perplexed....

 

 

[sutherland]

The trailer held my interest and I'd see the film.  I wonder if the film touches the question of whether or not she was impregnated by A. Onassis.

[jeezifonly]

Why is it we love to fictionalize history’s most tortured, mysterious divas - Marilyn Monroe, Edith Piaf, Maria Callas, Mary Todd Lincoln?

I spent years around serious singers, and if Maria has scenes involving rehearsal or performance and Jolie doesn’t know how to breathe, I will have to tap out. Dramatically. 

🤣

[samhexum]

On 10/31/2024 at 6:51 AM, Italiano said:

Perplexed....

 

On 11/3/2024 at 6:51 AM, sutherland said:

The trailer held my interest and I'd see the film.  I wonder if the film touches the question of whether or not she was impregnated by A. Onassis.

 

On 11/5/2024 at 2:44 AM, jeezifonly said:

Why is it we love to fictionalize history’s most tortured, mysterious divas - Marilyn Monroe, Edith Piaf, Maria Callas, Mary Todd Lincoln?

I spent years around serious singers, and if Maria has scenes involving rehearsal or performance and Jolie doesn’t know how to breathe, I will have to tap out. Dramatically. 

Johnny Oleksinski

‘Maria’ review: Angelina Jolie is stunning as Maria Callas in her last days

Near the end of “Maria,” 53-year-old Maria Callas, the opera diva stunningly played by Angelina Jolie, attempts to make it through the challenging mad scene from “Anna Bolena” in an empty Paris theater.

Like poor Anne Boleyn, these are the final, messy days of her life. But the singer’s executioner is her frustrating inability to deliver.

“Audiences expect miracles,” Maria says. “I can no longer perform them.”

Callas, so adept at the physical and vocal rigors of operatic mad scenes she released an entire album of them, gets a cinematic one in the form of Pablo Larraín’s affecting psychological biopic — a requiem for arguably the greatest soprano of all time.

The visually sumptuous film begins with Maria being found dead on the floor in 1977 France, where she spent her last years. Yet Larraín gives the narrative some hopeful drive as, in the seven days prior, she decides she wants to sing again — not as a comeback, but just to regain her lost voice. To once again become La Callas.

The soprano’s diminished instrument, still pretty to the untrained ear, has fallen from its stratospheric peak due to a mix of debated factors: 80-pound weight loss, a quaalude-like drug called Mandrax and a lack of confidence in middle age.

Maria’s lonely. She’s single following a relationship with the now-dead Aristotle Onassis, and keeps only the company of her butler (Pierfrancesco Favino), housekeeper (Alba Rohrwacher) and two poodles. “Ninety-nine percent of you wants food, and one percent is love,” she says to the dogs.

Without music, she has nothing.

Not eating as she pops pills like M&Ms, Maria hallucinates that an interviewer (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is speaking to her for a documentary. They stroll around the City of Light in autumn as she vulnerably exposes her past: singing for money in Greece, triumphing on the stage, meeting Aristotle (Haluk Bilginer), feeling jealousy toward Jackie O. It’s a traditional but effective setup.

Jolie, whose combination of artistry and larger-than-life stardom makes her the only actress who could play this part right now, is luminous. Her eyelashes open like curtains to reveal those piercing Callas peepers — a trait she shares with the late diva. 

And she’s softer than expected. Callas’ offstage notoriety was a result of her volatility. While there are glimpses of harder edges, Jolie plays her as frail. Too tired and weak to explode anymore. 

A quibble is that I never believed Callas’ recorded sound was coming out of Jolie’s mouth, even though the actress trained to appear to sing properly. There’s nothing to be done about that. The diva’s voice was so unique, so alien, that it could really only emanate from the genuine article.

Of course, nothing here is meant to be realistic. Many events depicted didn’t really happen, and details are highly exaggerated.

Similar to Jackie,” Larraín’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis film starring Natalie Portman, and “Spencer,” his Princess Diana movie with Kristen Stewart, “Maria” is more emotional than literal.

But, as always, the unusual director affectingly drills down to the essence of a woman who’s falling apart in public view. And unlike last year’s Marilyn Monroe travesty “Blonde” — not his — Larraín’s film doesn’t use creative license to disgustingly exploit his subject.    

Audiences will, I suspect, embrace his latest effort more than his previous two. “Maria” eschews the bizarre and ugly in favor of a more human story. Just as in a good Puccini, heart prevails over intellect.

A sound I heard for the first time at a Larraín movie: sniffles.

 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2024 by samhexum
for absolutely NO @%!*ING reason at all!

[+ Italiano]

I went yesterday to the NYC premiere. 
FInal thought: MEH.

A missed opportunity, as the idea (the last week of life of Maria Callas in September 1977, with obvious flash backs of her life) could have been quite interesting.

Beautiful sets, mediocre direction, Angelina makes a great effort but she looks like a Sunset Boulevard Diva who has nothing of the tormented charismatic Maria.

Glad I saw it, but wouldn't even watch it again on Netflix.

[+ ApexNomad]

1 hour ago, Italiano said:

I went yesterday to the NYC premiere. 
FInal thought: MEH.

A missed opportunity, as the idea (the last week of life of Maria Callas in September 1977, with obvious flash backs of her life) could have been quite interesting.

Beautiful sets, mediocre direction, Angelina makes a great effort but she looks like a Sunset Boulevard Diva who has nothing of the tormented charismatic Maria.

Glad I saw it, but wouldn't even watch it again on Netflix.

Thanks for the review. I often find it hard to separate such well-known actors from the iconic figures they’re portraying. For instance, when I watched The Iron Lady, I couldn’t help but see Meryl Streep playing or imitating Margaret Thatcher the entire time, rather than losing myself in the character.

[samhexum]

1 hour ago, ApexNomad said:

I often find it hard to separate such well-known actors from the iconic figures they’re portraying. For instance, when I watched The Iron Lady, I couldn’t help but see Meryl Streep playing or imitating Margaret Thatcher the entire time, rather than losing myself in the character.

I had the same problem when George Clooney played Batman.

[+ WilliamM]

On 11/28/2024 at 9:15 AM, samhexum said:

I had the same problem when George Clooney played Batman.

I would add Judy Garland,  especially in 196 1961 to this list and perhaps Ella Fitzgerald 

[Ali Gator]

Watched it last night on Netflix.  Very uneven for me to enjoy (though Jolie was spectacular).

[+ Italiano]

On 12/12/2024 at 9:42 PM, Ali Gator said:

Watched it last night on Netflix.  Very uneven for me to enjoy (though Jolie was spectacular).

Angelina is very good, but not for a second she resembled (and I am not talking about the improbable physical resemblance) to the real Maria. Even her gestures during those flashbacks of Callas on stage were so NOT Callas....

[Manhattan]

While it's certainly not terrible, it's a pretty typical bloated two hour bio/drama.

The production team made all the correct signals for a serious film - they cleared the use of vintage furs with PETA! They filmed on the Onassis yacht! Angelina Jolie took months of voice lessons!
 

None of these things have any effect on the movie. Jolie's voice is mixed in for less than five percent of the singing at the end, PETA has nothing to do with the quality of a film, and most people wouldn't recognize Onassis' yacht. 

Angelina Jolie doesn't give much of a performance but she does wander around looking very regal and she is photographed beautifully. 

[marylander1940]

[MikeBiDude]

I really wanted to like this…but for me it was a bit slow and not all that interesting. I did learn a few things I didn’t know, good background on her.

[samhexum]

I read the Greek tycoon when it came out, and I believe her character's name was Matallas.

[samhexum]

I didn't realize her son is a new member here. [ @Callas ]

[Callas]

Just now, samhexum said:

I didn't realize her son is a new member here. [ @Callas ]

Thanks for tagging me! I didn’t know we have this topic.

 

i watched the film on Thanksgiving at the Paris theater in nyc…

 

i cried for the last 10 mins 😭

 

Callas fan ofc, but also Jolie fan

[Callas]

Except for when Jolie acts singing, the rest is great - Oscar nomination worthy.

 

i guess nobody, even outstanding opera singers, can act the singing Callas, whose magic was also her presence on stage 🥹

La Divina in Il Pirata

 

Edited December 27, 2024 by Callas

[samhexum]

39 minutes ago, Callas said:

i guess nobody, even outstanding opera singers, can act the singing Callas, whose magic was also her presence on stage

It's that much more dramatic if you play the video at 2X speed.

[+ Italiano]

Angelina looks and behaves like Maria in her final days as I look and behave like Denzel Washington:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxkuGbj9GgY

[d.anders]

On 12/27/2024 at 1:14 PM, MikeBiDude said:

I really wanted to like this…but for me it was a bit slow

I fell asleep about a third of the way in. I have to re-watch it, but need to be caffeinated when I do. It is a visual feast, but I'm not much of a Jolie fan. I think Lady Gaga's face would have worked better. No one would have needed to teach Gaga how to sing. I wasn't quite buying the Jolie singing hype, but the lip-sync/edit seems to be very good. I do admire Jolie's bravery. The end result could have been an easy disaster, and she managed to avoid that.

Edited December 31, 2024 by d.anders

[Marc in Calif]

On 12/27/2024 at 11:05 AM, Callas said:

I guess nobody, even outstanding opera singers, can act the singing Callas, whose magic was also her presence on stage 🥹

La Divina in Il Pirata

And in that clip, she wasn't even on an opera stage!

She was simply being the singing Callas in front of a tuxedoed orchestra and next to a conductor. No set. No other soloists or chorus around her.

Just bare-naked acting for an audience! Nobody else had ever done that, and nobody has done it since.

[Callas]

Tech failed her so badly. Wish recording was popular sooner to capture her prime years.

[+ ApexNomad]

Angelina Jolie’s performance felt polished but hollow, missing the emotional depth and authenticity needed to truly embody the legendary singer.

[StableMentalDefective]

Jolie was wonderful right until the VIssi D'arte which was a little too much.

And I can't be the only one who dares to say that Joan Sutherland's Vissi is sooo much better than Callas.