MARIA

August 30, 2024

angelina jolie, kodi smit-mcphee, maria, pablo larraín, pierfrancesco favino, valeria golino, hollywood authentic

Words by JANE CROWTHER


Pablo Larraín’s latest portrait of a woman struggling under a media lens (completing the triptych with Jackie and Spencer) is his most linear and conventional approach to teasing out the pain, trauma and self doubt intrinsic to being a famous female figure in the 20th century – but it’s also his most emotionally resonant. That’s perhaps because Angelina Jolie, as opera diva Maria Callas, brings her own life experience of press obsession to the role in a performance that will certainly be in the awards conversation.

angelina jolie, kodi smit-mcphee, maria, pablo larraín, pierfrancesco favino, valeria golino, hollywood authentic

Written by Spencer scribe Steven Knight, Maria follows a 53-year-old Callas in the last week of her life in 1977 Paris, wrestling her artistic and romantic demons as her diet-ravaged body fails. An imperious, self-confessed ‘tiger’ who has weathered scandal (her affair with Aristotle Onassis), and criticism (from her mother and the media), Callas pops pills and sees visions from her life as her faithful butler (Pierfrancesco Favino) and housekeeper (Alba Rohrwacher) watch on. Split into four distinct acts, Callas explores the guilt, shame, pride, triumph and sadness that has coloured her career from being a shy girl in Athens singing for German officers for cash to the feted beauty ‘La Callas’ who has lost her magnificent voice. Hooked on sedatives, Maria invites a film crew into her life to document her last interview led by Kodi Smit-McPhee (pulling double duty at the Venice Film Festival on this and Disclaimer). ‘Is the film crew real?’ Maria’s butler asks doubtfully, gently, as he dutifully heaves her grand piano around her apartment on her daily whim. Maria is, at this stage, a glacial, imposing primadonna experiencing hallucinations who claims that ‘there is no life away from the stage’ yet tells a fan of the pain – both mental and physical – of performing. Taking her last bow, she crafts an emotional autobiography of sorts, a ‘human song’ of her life.

Knight carefully plots a path that allows opera buffs to enjoy parallels between Callas’ life and her roles while also informing the uninitiated of the key beats of the star’s career – taking in other famous faces including Onassis, Marilyn Monroe and JFK. In a pleasing full-circle moment with Jackie, Callas and Kennedy have a breakfast table conversation about love that elegantly illustrates the commodifying of famous women and Maria’s sharp wit that netted her a reputation as ‘difficult’.

angelina jolie, kodi smit-mcphee, maria, pablo larraín, pierfrancesco favino, valeria golino, hollywood authentic

Beautifully filmed and costumed, Maria is as operatic as any of the arias sung during the runtime and the supporting artists are a delight (Valeria Golino shines in a key moment as Callas’ sister who suggests that her sibling closes the door on the pain of letting music so destructively into her life), but the main event in every way is Jolie. The way she inhabits any space, moves with the elegance of a cat and talks in Callas’ precise, cool diction is mesmerising. And when she sings – the older Maria moments are mostly her own voice while the younger Callas is the diva’s real vocal – the emotion, drama and effort she brings to the music is genuinely impressive. Jolie trained for months to inhabit Callas and the results recall the lived-in performance of Cate Blanchett in Tar – a Volpi cup winner at the festival and gong magnet throughout the year. Jolie will likely be on the same trajectory.


Words by JANE CROWTHER
Maria is in cinemas now

TRENDING

Akinola Davies, Chibuike Marvelous Egbo, Efon Wini, Godwin Egbo, My Father’s Shadow, Sopé Dìrísù

MY FATHER’S SHADOW

‘I will see you in dreams,’ says one of the delightfully cheeky children at the heart of this haunting tale of hindsight, loss, identity and love…

2025 Academy Awards, Emma Stone, Greg Williams, Leica Q3, Louis Vuitton

EMMA STONE

Greg Williams takes pause to consider the bigger picture on images seen small on his social media. This issue: Emma Stone…

BUY

You may also like…

peter falk, ben gazzara, john cassavetes, gary oldman, gisele schmidt, sam shaw

SAM SHAW

Photographs by SAM SHAW Words by GISELE SCHMIDT & GARY OLDMAN The love of Sam Shaw’s photographs begins with Gary’s admiration for the films of John Cassavetes, the grandfather of independent American cinéma vérité. Gary is a self-described Cassavetes junkie. Having had little exposure to Cassavetes’ work prior to the start of our relationship, Gary immediately

timothée chalamet, edward norton, elle fanning, monica barbaro, james mangold

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN

Bob Dylan has purposefully been an enigma for decades and James Mangold’s traditional biopic of a small window of his life…

Blade Runner, Double Indemnity, George Wyman, The Artist, The Bradbury Building

CINEMATIC SPACE

Created for work but famed for film flights of fancy, Hollywood Authentic celebrates downtown LA’s Bradbury Building…