Cast: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher Director: Pablo Larrain Rating: 3.5/5 Runtime: 124 min Chilean director Pablo Larrain completes his trilogy of films about celebrated women beginning with ‘Jackie’, ‘Spencer’ and now ‘Maria’ based on Greek opera legend Maria Callas. is a tragedy that finds its subject with greater control over her own fate.
But Larrain’s film is more about the acute loneliness of being Maria Callas, La divina - considered to be the greatest opera singer of her time. The film opens with Jolie as Callas singing “Ave Maria” from Verdi’s Otello. The voice we hear belongs to Callas but Jolie’s has been mixed in too.
We see Callas steer through ups and downs during her final days. Larraín and screenwriter Steven Knight bring it all to life. Callas seeks the acceptance of her devoted staff, Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) and Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino), turns inwards and has imaginary conversations with self, is bitterly nostalgic about her younger days when she and her sister were forced to entertain German soldiers, fends off nosy fans and the hurtful press and also has a rocky romance with the Greek-Argentine tycoon Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer).
Callas’ penchant for adulation and her inability to regain the glory of her singing voice scarred her soul. Knight’s screenplay reminds us of how talent can be torturous - especially when it doesn’t come up to scratch anymore. In this film the ailing and neurotic.
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