Maria Callas may not be a name that a lot of modern music lovers may know, but if you’re a fan of opera or of classical music her life and her story is one you may have heard before. And this year, Netflix is bringing the classical opera singers’ life to theaters. Focusing on the last week of her life, Maria Callas was known as being an artist, a diva, and a woman who had a scandalous affair with Aristotle Onassis while both were still married to other people.
Set in the 1970s and in Paris, the movie follows Maria as she battles with health issues and tries to self-medicate with Mandrax, another name for what most audience members would know as quaaludes. While she uses the medicine to lesson the pain of her own medical issues, she is trying to refind her found and sing again while devolving into a bit of insanity. Due to her failing health, or the extreme amount of medicine she is taking, Maria is self-narrating her autobiography to an interviewer that only she can see, while her staff watches on and tries everything to keep her healthy and alive.
The movie itself is interesting, set up almost like an opera with looming music pulling you through the story. It flips between Maria’s current state and different parts of her tragic life, lovers, and her career highlights and lows. It takes the often overbearing and pretentious feeling world of Opera and brings it down to a more human level.
And at the helm of it all is Angelina Jolie bringing Maria back to life. There’s not much more that you can say about Jolie in this role except she is absolutely stunning and the fact she is actually doing the singing, it takes it to another level. It may be how Maria was written or maybe, how she was actually in real life, but the character version seems almost as cold and disconnected from the rest of the world as opera often seems to be.
Maria is moving and sad, just like the operas the movie is trying to bring back to the masses. But it is, without a doubt an art piece and one that is made for a very specific audience type. The slower pace and artist flipping between reality, her past and what she envisions is interesting but will be harder for some audiences to stay engaged and interested. Thankfully, the movie does start a bit in French but the majority is in English, which is a wise move for the Netflix viewing audiences here.
Maria will be in select theaters on November 27th and will be streaming on Netflix on December 11th.
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About Maria
Academy Award®-winner Angelina Jolie is Maria Callas, one of the most iconic performers of the 20th century in acclaimed director Pablo Larrain’s operatic MARIA. The film follows the American-Greek soprano as she retreats to Paris after a glamorous and tumultuous life in the public eye. MARIA reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days as the diva reckons with her identity and life.