Chilean director Pablo Larrain created a non-official trilogy about iconic women of the 20th century. It started with “Jackie” (2016), which captured Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis in the days following her husband’s assassination and continued with “Spencer” (2021), in which Princess Diana spends Christmas with the Royal Family. Larrain portrays these women in transformative events. Now, with “Maria,” he partners with Angelina Jolie to capture the final days of opera singer Maria Callas as she reflects on her past. In another melancholic biopic—probably the gloomiest of the three—Jolie gives a spellbinding performance that makes the film stand out, as everything revolves around her.
Maria Callas sits in the pantheon of legendary opera singers, revered for her rare and powerful skills as both a vocalist and performer. Her life was heavily publicized, especially after her long-time lover, business tycoon Aristotle Onassis, left her for Jackie Kennedy. Callas, who suffered from a rare muscular disease that left her unable to sing, died in 1977, alone in her Paris apartment from a heart attack.
The film tells a fictionalized version of Callas’ final week as she wanders through the streets of Paris. In a series of interviews, opioid reliance and haunting her domestic staff, Jolie fills every scene with a pensive study of the singer’s solitude and tumultuous life. Larrain, with cinematographer Edward Lachman, creates a vivid atmosphere with stunning images of Paris and Callas’ apartment. Despite the heavy tone of the narrative, the cinematography never falls into the trap of overwhelming gloom. Instead, the imagery serves as an allegory for Maria’s internal world.
The set design is nothing short of beautiful. From the empty theater where Callas attempts to reclaim her voice to the crowded concert hall in flashbacks of her prime, every scene is meticulously crafted. Callas’ apartment, filled with rich colors and expensive furniture, mirrors her external beauty, but beneath the surface lies her sadness and inability to sing. Like her, the surroundings are a facade, hiding a more profound sense of loss.
Larrain’s artistry in creating these spaces, combined with his understanding of Callas’ magnitude, helps cover up a script that takes time to find its footing. His preference for telling stories within a specific window of time sometimes assumes the audience already knows the character’s backstory. So, even if Jolie brings grandeur, it can take a while to start caring about the opera singer. This comes from a film that gives a backstory in the opening credits through a supercut of takes of Angelina Jolie in different stages of the singer’s life. But it is so abstract it only gives a feeling and not much to carry through.
Without Angelina Jolie at the center, “Maria” could have easily been a flat, conventional biopic. But Jolie embodies Callas with such dignity that the entire film gravitates toward her. In the flashbacks, she elevates the expository writing of the script, showing us how Callas’ presence was once grandiose and commanding. If anything, the movie is worth watching because her performance alone shines so bright that it overshadows the more moderate performance of her colleagues—who, to be fair, are intentionally not given much detriment to Jolie.
Jolie, who spent over seven months training for this role, admitted she was nervous about performing in public. While the film primarily uses original Callas recordings, the final scene melds Jolie’s voice with Callas’ in a breathtaking moment.
“Maria” is ultimately an echo chamber of Larrain’s artistic decisions, but Jolie’s powerful portrayal resonates the loudest. If the director and cinematographer are the movie’s body and mind, the actress is the heart. Every other aspect of the film becomes secondary, even the beautifully shot Paris, orbiting around Jolie’s dominating presence. She is indeed magnificent!
Rating: 3.5/5
“Maria” is currently being screened at the New York Film Festival and will be released in select theaters on Nov. 27 before premiering on Netflix on Dec. 11. Tickets are available here.
