Maria is a biopic about famed opera singer Maria Callas. Beyond being a super-star performer, she was the focus of tabloid worldwide attention when she became the well-publicized companion of billionaire Aristotle Onassis who famously married former First Lady Jackie Kennedy. It was a real-life glitzy soap opera of dazzling, epic proportions.
The movie was written by Steven Wright and directed by Chilean-born filmmaker Pablo Larraín, whose earlier work included the film Jackie (2016) starring Natalie Portman, about the life of Jackie Kennedy.
Like Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941), Maria begins with the death of its main character on September 16, 1977 in her Paris apartment. Like Citizen Kane, her story is told in flashback, largely focusing on the week leading up to her death.
She is a lonely, bitter woman living in a gilded cage of a self-imposed prison with her maid and butler—a towering star on a mission to return to the stage to reclaim her former fame and glory. She schedules daily rehearsals in complete secrecy working with an adoring, supportive pianist.
She is a woman haunted by the past and the choices she has made. A two-man documentary film attempts to delve into her life story, from humble beginnings when she was forced to sing for Nazi officers during World War II, to her soaring rise to fame, fortune and power in the years that followed.
She is portrayed as an unstoppable force, a woman who wants complete control of her career. She is a complex character with glaring contradictions, such as her choice to be the willing companion of a man who hated opera music and didn’t want her to sing. What resulted was a long absence from the stage and the spotlight of attention that fueled her passion.
Pablo Larraín does a masterful job recreating the world of Maria Callas. It is rich in detail in terms of the settings, the fashion, the jewelry and the opulence of her world.
It was a jet-setting alternate reality reserved for the rich and famous. Maria delivers all the trappings of life at the very top—the lavish parties, the luxury yachts and privileged lifestyle that most of us will never know.
It is an intoxicating fairy-tale existence that becomes brutally painful following a harsh turn of events and a spiraling fall from grace.
Central to power of Maria is the riveting performance of Angelina Jolie in the title role. She becomes the part, turning in one of the best performances of her career. Her transformation is underscored in the final credit sequence in which we see footage of the real Maria Callas. The resemblance is remarkable.
The same can be said regarding the casting of the spot-on, look-alike, major supporting roles, in particular, Haluk Bilginer as Aristotle Onassis and Caspar Phillipson as JFK.
The movie will probably come under fire for its length and slow, deliberate pace. In its defense, the form fits the content.
Maria is a film with a European cinema sensibility and sophistication, regarding the art direction and lighting. It incorporates a mix of visual styles from lush color to glamorous black-and-white, to simulated home movies.
The creative approach is restrained and understated overall, punctuated with the explosive intensity of Maria’s legendary stage performances as well as her tortured emotional outbursts.
It is movie that succeeds where other recent musical biopics such as Bradley Cooper’s Maestro (2023) have horribly failed. Maria is a story with nuance and depth. It is a fitting tribute to its subject. A modern-day tragedy steeped in spectacular wealth, power, and sizzling, real-life tabloid scandal.
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