AFI FEST 2024: ANGELA JOLIE SCORCHES AS OPERA DIVA MARIA

Maria Callas’ signature role, as Bellini’s druid priestess Norma was recorded live at the Palais Garnier on December 19, 1958.  It was this concert which marked the soprano’s debut at the Paris Opera, a major social event for Parisians and for which Callas donned her most elegant couture and a million dollars’ worth of jewelry. This is the moment audiences will meet Angelina Jolie as ‘La Callas’ as she drips with glamour and grace captured through Larrain’s lens in black and white splendor.

In 1995, Zoe Caldwell took home the coveted Tony Award for her portrayal of Callas in ‘Master Class.’ Yet, the real Callas appeared in 100 films and only one of them, a short film from 1968, “Mona Lisa,” featured her as an actress. This operatic phenom blazed a trail on and off stage and screen that has yet been duplicated because there is only one Maria Callas.

Directed by Pablo Larrain, Maria is a psychological reimagining of  the famed Greek-American soprano’s final days before her death on September 16, 1977. His unique vision to guide the audience through her journey by Mandrax, placed in human form by Kodi Smit-Mcphee as the muscle relaxing sedative she ingests daily, is just one of the reasons this film is intriguing from top to bottom. Larrain excels with taking women who are very high profile  (Jackie, Spencer) elevating a singular moment from their lives to expose them as human beings that are fallible, emotionally abused women struggling at odds against themselves, as well as, those who inhabit their orbit.

Most artists this brilliant often pay a price for that gift.  In Callas’ case, she fell in love with a married man (spectacularly portrayed by Haluk Bilginer as Onassis), missed out on motherhood only to replace it all with an unbridled her passion for music.

Inhabiting the life and career of a diva on the edge, Angelina Jolie is simply magnificent in the title role. The innocent vulnerability, understated nuances, coupled with fiery determination of a woman who vows to leave this earth on her own terms, is captivatingly beautiful and hands down the crowning jewel performance of her career. Her final scene will gut you to the core as you watch an artists come to grips with her mortality by singing one last time.

Alba Rohrwacher (Bruna Lipoli), Valeria Golino (Yakinthi Callas) and Pierfrancesco Favino (Ferruccio Mezzadri) are individually and collectively spectacular as compliments to Jolie.

Of course, Edward Lachman’s cinematography is stunning alongside the production design from Guy Hendrix Dyas and costumes by Massimo Cantini Parrini.

Maria is a beautiful tribute to a turbulent, complicated life and woman who became one of the greatest artist of the 20th century whose music continues to permeate our souls for centuries to come.