The final days, hours, and minutes in the life of Greek opera singer Maria Callas are reimagined to vivid effect in Pablo Larraín‘s latest biopic in miniature, “Maria.” As the third and last film in his trilogy of doomed historical women, following “Jackie” and “Spencer,” “Maria” stars Angelina Jolie in the title role. It’s one that demanded seven months of training in the art of opera singing — though what’s ultimately in the Venice world premiere out this fall from Netflix is vocally a blend of Jolie’s more nascent chops with Callas’ iconic and inimitable pipes. Watch the trailer for the film below.
Jolie is widely tipped as a Best Actress Oscar nominee for her role as a pill-swilling, self-pitying, vocally fraying Maria Callas in a drama with dialogue that bites, thanks to screenwriter Steven Knight behind the wheel of Callas’ demise. When Callas’ sister (Valeria Golino) tells her she’s looking awfully thin, Callas snaps back, “Well, look at everything that’s being taken away from me!” Her voice, her public repute, and her dignity — the vanishings of which are all mostly self-steered.
“Maria” is set in Paris in the late 1970s as the diva reckons with her legacy, rages internally at her mother, rues over old flames, and saunters alone around town for attention from fans.
Along with Jolie in the cast is “The Power of the Dog” Oscar nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee as “Mandrax,” named for the hypnotic sedatives Maria’s been downing (and hiding from her house staff in drawers and the pockets of cardigans). Callas’ hallucination is a reporter sent to make an imagined documentary about her life. Meanwhile, her loyal housekeeper (the great Alba Rohrwacher) and tortured servant (Pierfrancesco Favino) provide adulation and even an ear when she starts bellowing out arias over breakfast in the kitchen.
Read IndieWire’s review of “Maria” from David Ehrlich, who praised the film and the rest of Larraín’s trilogy as “unusually nuanced in its double-edged depiction of the relationship between icons and their public.” And read IndieWire’s interview with Larraín and Jolie here.
“Maria” starts streaming on Netflix on Wednesday, December 11. But first, the film will play select U.S. theaters for two weeks beginning on Wednesday, November 27. Here’s the trailer for the film.
