Last Updated on November 27, 2024 by Stephinie Heitman
Maria is a 2024 Drama, and Biography Movie Directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Steven Knight. The film stars Angelina Jolie, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Alba Rohrwacher, released on November 27, 2024.
Maria the final film in Pablo Larraín’s trilogy of twentieth-century iconic women proves one thing about the Chilean director: he knows how to cast a leading lady. Another inspirational character is Maria Callas, the American-Greek Operatic singer, portrayed by Angelina Jolie in a four-act play within a play in which the bio of Callas is recorded to a fictional journalist. Starting with Maria’s image, where her face is partially obscured because she is lying on her back in her bed in her Parisian apartment in 1977, Larraín noted ironically that Maria is her kind of opera. The main experienced a higher form of tragedy by dying a martyr for the escapades of the society that could not fathom the continuation of her sins or the plea for liberty.
The tragedy is Larraín’s signature for his trilogy that began with Jackie which stars Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy, struggling with the aftermath of the assassination of her husband, John F Kennedy Jr., sequel to Spencer starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, dealing with an emotionally devastated Christmas with the royals. Both are presented as stories of defining women of the social class whose popularity is such that they were immortalized in asana-zen-like vigilance and condemnation by the society that wanted to be in harmony with the rhythm of their breathing.
As for the places, that were used in the movies, it can be mentioned that, where Maria is a little different from Callas, Maria–La Divina has survived in the public eye, the screenwriter Stephen Knight decided to start the movie with the last week of the singer’s life, as the beginning of the biographical story. It is quite a short episode in Maria Callas’ otherwise short and tumultuous life when she was either not singing at all or acting in the movie, and was so ill with anorexia and being given so many quaaludes that she had no idea what was real and what was a dream.
Having only two family members around her in the form of a housekeeper Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) and a loyal butler Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) along with her poodles, Callas starts with telling her autobiography and the epitaph which she wants to give to the world to a fictional documentarian named Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who exists only when she needs some
Callas is already a ghost – remote and ethereal – as seen in the black and white scene shot by Ed Lachman where Callas sings an aria. She is timeless, but she has become a part of the past tense already. Some of her famous roles as a Medea, Carmen, Anna Bolena, Floria Tosca, Cio-Cio-San, Violetta, and Norma performed in Milan, Paris, the New York ensure the positionality of Callas as the prima donna operatic. However, by 1977, Maria had been out of the limelight for three years after a string of bad revival performances.
The ‘Tigress recounts her life in chapters: Among them are ‘The Diva’, ‘An Important Truth’, ‘Curtain Call’, and ‘A Final Ascent’. Ed Lachman alters the filmstock to indicate what ‘really’ is happening in Callas’ world – warm-toned 35mm reminiscent of the European art house cinema of the 1970s. For scenes that are portrayed in the past, he uses black and white. The ‘documentary’ part is in 16mm, and the home movies, and stage performances are in both 16mm and 8mm which gives the constructed reality a sense of collage.
Larrían is not entirely truthful with his portrait of Maria Callas; “What is real and what is not is my business,” Maria says to Ferruccio Tammas and the same goes for Larrían: the man is depicting the woman and the artist and if such a thing is impossible then it can be attributed to the woman in question who was both fully honest and partly dishonest.
Maria seems more exploitative than the previous films in the trilogy The “indexical” aspect of the film is quite evident when Maria is frantically looking for her quaaludes or torturing herself with the recordings of her spoiled voice. Her lonely strolls through Autumnal Paris are beautiful, as is her incredible house, but Maria is isolated. Clad in black and with her face obscured by her oversized frames, Maria takes herself to opera coach Jeffrey Tate (Stephen Ashfield) where she challenges herself to see if there is a way back to the stage. Tate relaxes a lot with Maria unlike how he has always been with La Divina. Maria said that she is searching for the “human voice” – divinity now preserved on flawless playback.
This way Knight’s screenplay follows a real play in the form of vignettes. Maria, a young girl, and her sister Yakinthi posing as Greek singers entertaining Germain soldiers in Axis-occupied Athens in 1940 are featured. Their mother, Lista, played by Lydia Koniordou, possibly prostitutes Maria for financial gains or survival. Carmen, currently in training at the Greek Nationals Conservatoire, performs Bizet’s ‘habanera’ to a transfixed Nazi soldier.
Maria Callas will sing ‘Habanera’ again and again to audiences in a new opera house somewhere in the world. SL: Time Skip and La Callas are depicted fondly yet also harassed for assault and cancellation of performances.
As the next scene changes to the party in Venice in 1957, she is being honored and there she encounters Aristotle Onassis described by the narrator as ‘small and ugly’. Onassis says to her plainly that she will be his because he will make her feel for the first time in her life – Maria seems to accept his words politely and skeptically while looking at him with fascination.
Both are married but she accepts his invitation to have time together on his luxurious yacht ‘The Christina’ accompanied by her husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, portrayed by Alessandro Bressanello. Instrumental like Lista, Battista’s focus shifts to how Maria’s fame would be helpful to him. Accompanying Onassis is the first ‘holiday’ that Maria could recall having in her lifetime. The cigar-smoking Aristo makes advances to her with propriety that she finds scandalous. He confesses to her that he enjoys pilfering artifacts and beauty and takes her to see the statue of an ancient Greek Olympian Hermes to whom he says he is related. Maria laughs that he assumes he has got to go down to the level of a thief – she is not an object to possess.
Maria Callas was a part of David Frost’s program in 1970 where she said, ‘I am a duality of personalities.’ Sometimes she wishes to be Maria but there exists Callas which she has to become. She also mentioned her ‘friendship’ with Onassis who at that time was married to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. In the end, there are scenes in the film that try to look into the question of how necessary and how destructive their many years-long affair was. Onassis and taking her to JFK‘s birthday celebration where Marilyn Monroe entertained him with her singing. She jokes that Monroe cannot sing. He answers that no one pays attention to Monroe’s voice, similar to people not noticing Maria’s body when she is on the stage. Maria’s Aristo blooms in the company of this uncouth man.
Individuals have to tolerate him because he is very rich – this man is also a product of hard work like Maria, but Maria’s existence is dependent on the approval of the masses. She encounters JFK (again portrayed by Casper Phillipson) who speaks to her about Onassis and gives an inference that as his mistress, or ‘whatever’, Maria should be aware that Aristotle has invited Jackie to view his El Greco on his yacht and it is located in his bedroom. In the episode, Kennedy tries to say that they are friends; however, she quickly dismisses this, stating “We are not friends,” as they are both involved in a circle of cheating in their high-ranking positions.
Several months of vocal preparation were devoted to Angelina Jolie’s preparation for Callas’ role, and her voice was combined with recordings of Callas to create a unique sound. This is realized particularly in the penultimate scene in which Jolie is simply outstanding. While it is important for Jolie to look like she knows how it is being an artist like Callas in performance, where Liesel truly shines is in the moments when she indulges in her ‘normal’ human voice, which she shares with Bruna and Ferruccio.
Of course, following Callas’s words, Greeks are not afraid of death, and in the manner in which Larraín composes the life narrative of Maria Callas, death, in the form of Thanatos, seems to be invited continually. If Spencer was a ghost story to a certain extent, Maria is a prolonged death scene. Symbolizing death, the stranger envelops Callas in their shadows and darkness as she imagines her beautiful and less beautiful life. It is entirely impossible to overestimate Larraín’s work in terms of cinematography, with the incredible production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas, the opulent costumes designed by Massimo Cantini Parrini, and the heartrending performance given by Angelina Jolie in years.
“I do not cry on tragedies until they happen,” Maria Callas said in her last major interview. Stephen Knight and Pablo Larraín barely allow their Maria a moment where she isn’t steeped in some manner of pain; psychological, romantic, familial, artistic, or physical. Maria is exalted and exploitative: a marvelous piece of morbidity. Maria Callas’ rarefied talent sits behind Larraín’s managed misery. “There is no life off the stage,” is the leitmotif of Maria – a note too sour for one as extolled as La Callas.
Maria 2024 Parents Guide Age Rating
Maria is Rated R by the Motion Picture Rating (MPA)for some language including a sexual reference.
Language: Strong language is used occasionally, including profanities and emotionally charged dialogue.
Violence and Disturbing Content:
- Themes of psychological and emotional distress are prevalent.
- Depictions of drug addiction, including scenes of Maria using quaaludes.
- References to physical decline and anorexia are visually and thematically distressing.
- A few intense arguments and emotionally charged interactions.
Sexual Content:
- Implied extramarital affairs, including references to Maria’s relationship with Aristotle Onassis.
- Subtle sexual tension in conversations and situations, though not graphic.
- Hints of exploitation during Maria’s youth, suggesting possible abuse (non-explicit but implied).
- Some scenes show Maria in states of undress, partially obscured, but not explicit.
Substance Use: Frequent depictions of drug and alcohol use, including Maria’s reliance on quaaludes.
Overall: The film’s mature content, including drug use, emotional trauma and is not suitable for children.
