Angelina Jolie stars as Maria Callas, one of the most iconic opera singers of the 20th century. The film follows the soprano in the final years of her life, as she retires to Paris after a tumultuous and glamorous life.
After Jackie (2016) and Spencer (2021), Pablo Larraín concludes his trilogy about remarkable female figures with Maria – a portrait of Maria Callas as never before seen. Starring Angelina Jolie, in a performance that earned her a Golden Globe nomination and will certainly not go unnoticed in the Oscar nominations. MARIA had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, where it was greeted with 10 minutes of applause.
Maria is in all cinemas in Romania, distributed by Bad Unicorn.
Maria is the third film in a trilogy that Pablo Larraín has dedicated to great, emblematic female figures in history: it began in 2016 with Jackie, a portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy (played by Natalie Portman), and continued in 2021 with Spencer, a biographical film dedicated to Princess Diana, played by Kristen Stewart.
The choice of Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas came naturally, because, says the director, “a diva can only be played by another diva.” The film’s action takes place in the last days of Maria Callas’s life, when the famous soprano retired, far from the success of the stage. The temporal placement is just a pretext to return to the past, to key moments in the artist’s life and career.
In the last years of her life, until her death in 1977, Maria Callas lived in Paris. She has always admitted in interviews that her personal and professional life was shaken by her 9-year relationship with Aristotle Onassis. He would give up Maria Callas to marry Jacqueline Kennedy.
“I learned a lot from her – more than I could probably explain, and she means a lot to me. The thing I feel most attached to her is that she was a truly kind person. I think people perceive her in a certain way, but I think her soul and heart were very different from how they are perceived. That’s why I identified with her. We are actually very fragile. I mean, when we have to fight, we fight, for ourselves or for those we love or for our art. But I think deep down, I identified with her fragility and loneliness,” says Angelina Jolie about her role in Maria.
The film explores her daily life, marked by loneliness and nostalgia for her past triumphs, while evoking her memories of love, sacrifice and passion for art. Through the lens of her final days, Pablo Larraín portrays a woman who is both strong and emotionally vulnerable. Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher complete a first-rate cast for this intimate story.
PROGRAMME & TICKETS: https://badunicorn.ro/film/maria