Showing posts with label Netflix Tudum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Netflix Tudum. Show all posts

Friday, January 17, 2025







Netflix Tudum

Mastering Maria

Angelina Jolie transforms into the mythical opera legend Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s ethereal film Maria.

By Krista Smith
Jan. 17, 2025

Few icons are as mythic as Maria Callas, the most storied opera singer of the twentieth century.

The same could be said of Angelina Jolie. The Academy Award-winning actor and director of five narrative feature films is known not only for her stellar turns onscreen and behind the camera, but also for her 20 years championing a number of humanitarian causes, including human rights, environmental conservation, and access to education and healthcare worldwide. Both women, widely admired for their grace and glamour, pursued creative passions that put them at the center of public life, catapulting them to international celebrity.

So when it came to portraying Callas in Pablo Larraín’s deeply affecting cinematic portrait Maria, Jolie had plenty of entry points. “People had a lot of opinions about her,” the actor says. “I don't know of anybody who worked harder or tried [harder] to take responsibility to do the best job she could do. Playing Maria, I took it upon myself to protect the work.”

Maria sees Jolie disappear into the role of a 53-year-old Maria Callas in the final week of the singer’s life. The film opens in 1977 Paris, with the American-born Greek soprano reflecting on and reimagining the experiences that shaped her, including an adolescence spent living in distressing circumstances in Nazi-occupied Athens, a difficult relationship with her mother, discovering the sheer power of her voice, and taking the world by storm with her commanding and emotional performances. Throughout her life, she faced scrutiny for a perceived reputation as a demanding diva as well as her much-publicized love affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer) years before he married former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. “When you get close and discover why somebody might say she was acting ‘difficult,’ [you find] a woman who was dealing with health issues and went through a difficult time in her childhood,” says Jolie. “Maybe it just will always be that when a man demands something and a woman demands something, society receives them differently.”

Through it all, Jolie’s performance is riveting — she carries herself with the bearing of a grande dame of the arts, a must for the role. “This movie wouldn’t exist without Angelina,” says Larraín, who directed two earlier films about iconic twentieth-century women with Jackie and Spencer, both of which earned their leading actors Oscar nominations. “You can’t even attempt to make a movie like this without having [an actor] who could properly play her.”

Arguably one of her most stunning achievements is the way in which Jolie, who previously had no formal singing training, belts out some of Callas’s most famous arias. “It’s not [just] singing in Italian [that’s required]; it’s also playing a character [who herself is really an actor when she’s] performing a piece onstage,” Jolie says. “It was so beyond anything I was comfortable with that I think it shook me out of my fear.”

Ignoring any misgivings, Jolie got to work, training for months to be able to sing like the artist dubbed La Divina, as Larraín and his sound team, led by executive music producer John Warhurst, devised a clever method for merging the star’s voice with Callas’s: Jolie’s voice is dominant in scenes that take place during the later years of Callas’s life, while Callas’s is more prominent during the sequences in which the star performs at the height of her fame.

“Angelina really had to go for it — not only because it made the movie more possible in terms of the illusion, but to also create the right process for her as an actress,” says Larraín. “Angelina was absolutely exposed [while] singing, sometimes in front of two to five hundred extras, and she had to sing out loud by herself [on set]. All that the people would hear was Angie’s voice alone. She was metaphorically naked, voice-wise, in front of hundreds of people. Everyone loved her because she was not only doing well, but she was also so brave.”

Bravery, commitment, and passion? The perfect approach for a cinematic tribute to an enduring artist like La Divina.

An edited version of the conversation follows.

Krista Smith: Pablo reached out to you about playing Maria Callas before the script was even written. What do you remember about that first conversation and what interested you in taking on this part?

Angelina Jolie: Pablo and I had met many years ago, and I loved his work. We talked about one day finding something [to work on together]. I was very happy to know that he was calling and that there was something to discuss. [But] anytime you’re asked to play a real person, you pause because you have to feel ready to do your best to bring justice to this person’s life and take that on. I was taken aback because I don’t sing, or I didn’t sing. I knew of her and her music, but I didn’t fully know her. So, as I thought about it and read up on her and heard how Pablo saw her, I understood more who this woman was. And then I started to find our connection.

And then the script comes in. What was it like to see it on the page and realize what would be required?

AJ: It took me a minute. I think I would’ve been even more scared if I really understood all that I would later come to understand about what was expected. But in the beginning, I thought, Well, you’re acting as a singer, you’re going to have to make sure you can sing along with her. I didn’t understand that they needed me to actually sing and learn to sing opera. Pablo and I agreed, O.K., I have to learn the arias. I have to get an Italian coach. I have to do a singing class. I did that for a long time until we all realized I [would] need [to learn from] an opera singer because singing and singing opera are not the same class. Pablo and I were then both informed that to really do the [sound] mix right, I would have to perform with no musical accompaniment, with none of her voice being heard, only my voice in the room or on the stage in front of the audience and in front of the crew. That’s when the reality hit home.

How did you get yourself there to be able to do that on set?

AJ: Well, the funny thing is, for it to be convincing, you have to be very loud when you sing opera, as loud as you can be. Whether you feel confident or not, you still have to be very loud. When Maria is in her full glory and it’s her onstage in the film, the absolute majority [of what you’re hearing is] Maria’s voice, even though I still had to sing [on set], alone, by myself. Pablo did a wonderful thing in that he cast a group [of extras] that stayed in the audience [throughout filming]. They were with me through a few performances, and these wonderful people would become so essential to the piece. I think the first day I met them I said, “I apologize for what’s about to happen in case I hit the wrong notes loudly.” It helped me [that] I was performing to a real audience. They were really kind people who knew that I was trying my best, and [that] I wasn’t an opera singer, but I was learning. We were connected in the attempt and in the storytelling. Their understanding and support were everything.

The production design, the hair and makeup, and the wardrobe drop you into her world. Apart from her physicality, her singing, how did you build her internal life? How did you and Pablo work through that together?

AJ: He’s a wonderful director. He has such a vision, so creative, so strong, but also very curious and open about how actors are feeling and what’s personal to them. Sometimes directors [excel at understanding] what is very good visually, but [they’re] not necessarily good with humanity. He’s a rare person who understands both. I always felt a part of the process. I felt like he was wanting me to connect to her more than tell me what he wanted from her. He wanted to guide me and give me space, and we would learn together from the situation. The music was key to everything. He grew up listening to opera. His mom would take him to the opera all the time. Of the [films] he’s done, certainly about women that we know, this is the one he probably feels that he knows the most — her world. I learned a lot from him about the music. And he gave me space to understand the woman.

Another truly moving aspect of this film is the way it showcases Maria’s relationships with her housemaid Bruna, played by Alba Rohrwacher, and her butler Ferruccio, played by Pierfrancesco Favino. The three of you have this poignant, beautiful chemistry.

AJ: They’re extraordinary actors. We became a real team through the piece. And I think we all collectively care for these real people, and we thought often about how extraordinary these relationships were. Ferruccio is still alive, but he’s not on talk shows saying bad things about Maria. He protected her — they maintained a real connection outside the world of gossip and people hurting or using people. They were her real friends. They had real love for her, and she loved them. We all felt that, and we all felt connected to that.

What is your favorite part of the day when you’re going to work?

AJ: I like the moment when you’re deeply in the trenches trying to fix something or fight for something or push yourself to a limit to see if you can. I like those moments. I like it when work is hard, and I like being a part of a team of artists. [That’s] a special thing about making films that maybe Maria didn’t have as much. So much of her life was her alone standing on that stage. When you’re an actor, director, anybody that’s in a film crew, you’re a part of a team and that’s a wonderful feeling to be a part of a collective, making something together. And my sons worked on this one, so that was also nice. They were doing [assistant directors’] work and some of the photography.

Are they future filmmakers?

AJ: I don’t know. A.D. work’s not easy work, so it’s good that they do that to cut their teeth. Pax does some still [photography] and some video, but I think being a useful part of the crew and just being of service is what’s important. We’ve worked together on quite a few projects, mostly ones I’ve directed. But I realized after the first big scene that I never cry in front of my children; not like [I did in Maria]. They can see you weep a little, but anyone who’s a parent knows that you do not show your children that level of pain. You don’t want them to know you feel that or carry that. So, when I saw their faces after one of the first big [emotional scenes], we talked. I think the important thing is they knew that they are the reason I don’t feel like that [in real life]. But then it also was good for them to see their mom try for something she’s not necessarily good at, to experience their mom try and fail at some things and work really hard and be really nervous and struggle — to see that we all get through it together.

Maria has a great line in the film talking about opera, saying you must give absolutely everything to it — records are perfect, but a performance has to be alive. It gave me chills because there is something that happens when you experience opera in a live setting.

AJ: Yes. There’s something alive and dangerous to it when anybody’s trying something so big — you can just feel you’re in the presence of somebody expressing that much onstage. And for [the performer], there’s a real connection to the audience. That was something that helped me a lot as well — I love performing. I don’t perform for myself; I perform for an audience. It was nice to come back to that, just that work and trying to do something and make it as good as I could for the audience.


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Sunday, December 22, 2024





For Jolie, who would be given the assignment of bringing Callas to life, the role had a similar attraction. “I’ve never played a performer before,” Jolie said. “It was an honor and sometimes a bit of a head trip to be me playing her and us playing a third person onstage. As an actor, I wasn’t doing my performance of, say, Anna Bolena, but Maria’s. It was me trying to understand why she made those performance choices.”

The actor came away with an even greater respect for Callas’ perseverance as an artist. “She couldn’t see,” Jolie said, pointing to the enormous prescription glasses Callas wore late in her life. “When she was young, she couldn’t wear those glasses and be onstage. It wasn’t accepted, so she had to memorize everything very differently. When you understand that, you see this person’s survival instinct. It wasn’t that she just wanted to be this; she had to survive and hide it and find a way around it and work twice as hard.”

Can I listen to the Maria soundtrack?

Yes. The full original motion picture soundtrack is available from Warner Classics. Although the film blends Jolie’s voice with the opera singer’s to heighten the sense of audiovisual immersion, the new album features restored audio from Callas performing the extracts of nine operas that appear in Maria. The arias include “Casta Diva” from Norma, “Vissi D’arte” from Tosca, “Sempre Libera” from La Traviata, “O Mio Babbino Caro” from Gianni Schicchi, and “Ebben? Ne Andrò Lontana” from La Wally. In addition, there are also numbers from Medea, I Puritani, Anna Bolena, and Otello.

“The music was her life,” Jolie said of Callas. “Her relationship to her voice and her body, her ability to sing, her presence onstage, and her communication with the audience — it was her life. It was the key to her as well.”


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Friday, December 13, 2024



Netflix Tudum

What Operas Does Angelina Jolie Perform in Maria?

Take a deep dive into the music featured in the new film about soprano Maria Callas.

In Maria, Maria Callas’ life is an opera. The new film from director Pablo Larraín follows the famed singer through her final days in Paris, filtering the mournful end of her career through the music she loved so much. As played by Angelina Jolie, Maria is a tragic figure straight from one of her operas. “This is a movie about someone who becomes part of the tragedies that she played onstage,” Larraín told Netflix.

Fittingly, those stage-bound tragedies also found their way into the film, in ways both large and small. “There’s some sort of a hidden map in the film, where the piece of music that we use — whether it’s only orchestration or with vocals in it — is related to the moment in the film,” Larraín said. “They’re not just there because they worked [musically] where they are — they’re there because they have a dramatic purpose. Opera is a form of transcendence, and it’s a form of expressing emotions that you cannot [only] say with words.”

Callas had quite a few of those emotions. Read on for a full list of the opera excerpts in Maria.

Otello: Act IV: “Ave Maria” — Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: During the intro to the film, Maria sings this aria into the camera, and memories of her glamorous life pass by. We hear the musical theme several times again throughout the movie.

Opera description: “Ave Maria” is Verdi’s musical setting of the traditional Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary. It doesn’t move the plot so much as serve as a meditative and reverent invocation of Jesus’ mother. Callas was a deeply religious woman.





Norma: Act I: “Casta Diva” — Vincenzo Bellini

Scene: Maria sings the aria in the kitchen for her housekeeper, Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher), intercut with performances of Maria in Norma when she was younger.

Opera description: “Casta Diva” is performed by the title character, Norma, a druid priestess and daughter of the king. As she prays to the moon goddess for peace, she reveals her internal conflict, torn between her duties and her forbidden love for the Roman general Pollione.

Callas loved to sing this role — she performed it more than 90 times in eight different countries. It’s also the first opera her partner Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer) heard her sing.



Il Trovatore: Act II: “Vedi! Le Fosche Notturne Spoglie” — Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: Maria imagines a choir singing the Anvil Chorus on the Trocadéro in Paris.

Opera description: The scene depicts the lively and vigorous life of the Romani as they sing about the joys of hard work, love, and wine. This boisterous chorus contrasts with the darker themes of revenge and tragedy featured in the opera.



Gianni Schicchi: “O Mio Babbino Caro” — Giacomo Puccini

Scene: Maria sings with conductor Jeffrey Tate (Stephen Ashfield) at the theater for the first time.

Opera description: The aria is sung by Lauretta, Schicchi’s daughter. She pleads with her father to allow her to marry the man she loves, threatening to throw herself into the river if she can’t. It expresses sweet love, a contrast with the one-act opera’s comic atmosphere of jealous feuding in medieval Florence.



La Traviata: Act III: “Intermezzo” — Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: When Maria sees Onassis on the street, she walks over into her memory of meeting him at the Dorchester hotel in London.

Opera description: La Traviata is about a courtesan, Violetta, who lives a life of luxury and carelessness to forget about her consumption. She falls in love with a man, Alfredo, but his father covertly prevents their marriage. The prelude to Act III is a short orchestral work that conveys a deep sense of reflection, capturing the tragic core of the story and foreshadowing her death.

One of the only pictures of Callas in her own apartment in Paris is of herself as Violetta.



La Wally: Act I: “Ebben? Ne Andrò Lontana” — Alfredo Catalani

Scene: A waiter at a café plays a recording of Maria singing the aria, but she doesn’t want to hear it.

Opera description: Young Wally is in love, but her father forbids the union. The aria is sung by Wally when she decides to leave her home forever, and it expresses her deep sorrow, conveyed through a haunting, lyrical melody.




Medea: Act III: “E Che? Io Son Medea” — Luigi Cherubini

Scene: Back home from the café, Maria listens to her recording of a signature role alone at home and is transported back to a performance of Medea onstage.

Opera description: In ancient Greece, Medea is a sorceress who helped Giasone (Jason) steal the Golden Fleece. They married and had two children before he fell in love with Princess Glauce, left Medea, and took their children. At Giasone’s wedding to Glauce, Medea appears; Giasone refuses to return to her, and Medea kills Glauce with a poisoned dress and then her own children. Medea grapples with the horrific decisions she’s made, and the music reflects her emotional turmoil.

Callas performed Medea in 1958, just moments after Metropolitan Opera general manager Rudolf Bing fired her. It was one of her most impressive performances.



Carmen: Act I: “L’Amour Est un Oiseau Rebelle (Habanera)” — Georges Bizet

Scene: Young Maria sings for a German soldier.

Opera description: Carmen is a Romani woman who falls in love with a Spanish soldier but is torn between her feelings and freedom. The aria is about how love is like a bird that cannot be tamed.

In 1962, Callas performed two arias from Carmen at Madison Square Garden, in front of President Kennedy.



Madama Butterfly: Act II: “Coro a Bocca Chiusa” — Giacomo Puccini

Scene: Maria has just told her interviewer Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee) about her mother. In Maria’s imagination, a choir and orchestra perform the Humming Chorus outside a theater in the rain.

Opera description: Cio-Cio-San and her child wait for the return of Pinkerton, the child’s American father, as the chorus hums softly to bridge Acts II and III. The delicate melody reflects Butterfly’s hope before the impending tragedy.



I Puritani: Act II: “Qui la Voce Sua Soave” — Vincenzo Bellini

Scene: The aria is featured in a memory of Maria singing in Venice in 1949. She learned the role in a week when the lead got sick, and it became her breakout performance.

Opera description: It’s a deeply emotional aria sung by the Puritan character Elvira, who’s been driven to madness by the belief that her lover, Arturo, has abandoned her. She reflects on the memory of his sweet voice and their lost love. Elvira’s delicate yet intense vocal lines convey her fragile mental state and the profound sorrow that consumes her.



Parsifal: Act I: “Prelude” — Richard Wagner

Scene: This enigmatic orchestral work soundtracks a memory of Maria and Onassis on the yacht Christina.

Opera description: Parsifal is about the titular character’s quest to save the Knights of the Holy Grail by returning the Holy Spear and finding the Holy Grail. The “Prelude” sets a mood of contemplation and religious fervor with musical themes for the Grail and Communion.

Just as Parsifal prepares to set out on his quest, Maria prepares for her own journey: her relationship with Onassis.



La Traviata: Act I: “Sempre Libera” — Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: Maria listens to her recordings on high volume; her butler, Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino), tells her the neighbors have complained.

Opera description: Violetta sings the aria after Alfredo confesses his love. She’s torn, wanting to be free to live her life but wondering if Alfredo is her true love.



La Traviata: Act III: “Addio del Passato” — Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: Maria meets Kennedy in New York.

Opera description: Violetta sings this aria in the last act. Her competing lovers have survived their duel, but it’s too late, because her illness has worsened, and she doesn’t have long to live.



Anna Bolena: Act II: “Piangete Voi?” — Gaetano Donizetti

Scene: After meeting her sister, Maria sings with Jeffrey at the theater and is transported back to when she performed the opera at La Scala. She doesn’t know that she’s being secretly recorded.

Opera description: This is a sorrowful aria sung by Queen Anne Boleyn as she faces her execution. Anne reflects on her tragic fate and expresses a mix of resignation and despair. She questions those around her, asking if they weep for her, but ultimately accepts her doom.



Tosca: Act III: “E Lucevan le Stelle” — Giacomo Puccini

Scene: After her confrontation with a journalist, Maria walks outside with Mandrax. She tells him about visiting Onassis in the hospital. Afterward, she cries at home.

Opera description: This aria is sung by the painter Cavaradossi as he awaits his execution for aiding a political prisoner’s escape. Reflecting on bittersweet memories, Cavaradossi is overcome with sorrow at the thought of never again seeing the diva Tosca, the love of his life. The aria blends nostalgia, love, and despair into a powerful expression of longing.




Tosca: Act II: “Vissi d’Arte” — Giacomo Puccini

Scene: Maria sings alone, in her apartment, while people on the street hear her voice.

Opera description: Tosca asks Scarpia, the chief of the secret police, to free Cavaradossi, and Scarpia offers to do it in exchange for sex. She pauses in this aria to reflect on her life, questioning why she, who’s lived for art and love, is now being punished with such suffering. The aria is a prayer, full of anguish and confusion as she pleads for understanding.

Tosca was one of the few operas Callas still performed later in life. In 1965, she failed to complete four scheduled performances, and it was the last time she performed in an opera.



Nabucco: Act III: “Va, Pensiero, Sull’ali Dorate” — Giuseppe Verdi

Scene: The “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” plays over the end credits.

Opera description: In this poignant chorus, enslaved Hebrews reflect on their lost homeland and express their deep sorrow and yearning for freedom. The scene has a sense of bittersweet melancholy, highlighting their resilience and hope for liberation.



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Thursday, December 12, 2024



(Check out the site to see the rest of the interesting graphics)

From Paris to La Scala, how the film came to life.

By Kristin Iversen
Dec. 11, 2024

“You are born an artist or you are not,” Maria Callas once said. The opera singer was not only born an artist, she also became an icon of her craft — an artist without parallel, known throughout the world as “La Divina,” the divine one.

In Maria, directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie, the legendary diva’s final days are reimagined as she reflects on and reckons with who she is and the life she’s led. “This is a movie about someone who is looking to find her own voice and understand her identity,” Larraín told Netflix. “It’s a celebration of her life.”

Callas’ life spanned the globe and reached dizzying highs and profound lows. Larraín said, “This is a movie about someone who becomes part of the tragedies that she played on the stage.” Still, though, he said, Maria is “about someone that was never a victim. We are talking about someone that is in control of her will and her destiny, who knows what she wants to do and how she wants to do it.”

The film offers a glimpse into that world — one of tragedy and triumph — after she retreated to her home in Paris. La Divina’s larger-than-life persona was still intact, even as Callas the person was faltering, unsure of how to move forward. Her world was meticulously constructed by Larraín, Jolie, writer Steven Knight, production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini, among others, and captured exquisitely by cinematographer Ed Lachman.

Below, dive into that dazzling world, and let the artists who brought it to life guide you through its many wonders. As Callas herself said of those who were born to be artists: “You stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a firework. The artist is always there.”

THE LOOKS

Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in ‘Maria.’

Whether onstage or off, Callas had a flair for the dramatic — for glasses so big they served as shields, hair so long and flowing that it became easy to hide within, shawls and coats so cleverly constructed that they swathed her like extremely luxurious chain mail. It makes a certain kind of sense that wearing clothes and styling her hair was another way of expressing artistry for Callas. All the world’s a stage, after all, and she was one of its preeminent players.

The clothes

“I made more than 60 creations,” Parrini told Netflix. “All the costumes of the operas and performances are perfect reconstructions of the dresses worn by Maria Callas.” But, he noted, “The dresses from the ’70s, since there are very few images of her in the last period of her life, were designed by me by analyzing her state of mind and her taste. She dressed mainly in black, always remaining very elegant.”

This elegance — this restraint, this desire for control — is so evident in the character’s clothes and stands in stark contrast to the lack of control she feels over other elements of her life. It’s a tension that recalls Callas’ observation that “opera is a battlefield.” She clearly feels like she needs to face the world in whatever armor she can assemble.

Still, at home, in the privacy of her own space, Maria can allow herself to be vulnerable, best seen in the flawless ivory dressing gown that she wears while drifting from room to room. Parrini explained that the robe was “made in Rome by hand based on my design. I wanted something ethereal but with an aesthetic importance … I wanted it to echo ancient Greece in color and shape, to make her look like a sort of priestess. It is like her second skin, the thing that protects her and envelops her in the domestic sphere.”

The accessories

“I re-created her entire wardrobe with extreme passion, trying to put myself in her shoes and imagining what she would have liked,” Parrini said. That passion is evident in the meticulous dedication to the scarves, hats, and glasses in the film, which always capture the spirit of the originals, even as they vary in specific details. Perhaps the most interesting accessory in the film is the eyewear, which wasn’t merely a sartorial addition for Callas, but a necessary means of support — even of endurance.


On the left column are photos of Maria Callas in a variety of poses and outfits. On the right hand side, are comparable photos of Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas wearing similar clothing, glasses and hats.

Left: Weston/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Archivio Apg/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images, Getty Images. Right: Pablo Larraín/Netflix. As Jolie told Netflix, “There’s something I learned about her, that she couldn’t see. When someone looked at the prescription glasses that she wore later in her life, they said to Pablo, ‘That lens, that prescription, this person’s almost legally blind.’ ”

Jolie continued, “When she was young, she couldn’t wear those glasses and be onstage. It wasn’t accepted, so she had to memorize everything very differently. When you understand that, you see this person’s survival instinct.”

The crowning glory

Pablo Larraín

So much about style — the external presentation of our most private selves — is ineffable, just like so many art forms, including opera. As Larraín told Netflix, “Opera is a form of transcendence, and it’s a form of expressing emotions that you cannot say with words.” This type of expression is manifested in Maria’s hair in the film; the unraveling of her perfectly coiffed tresses matches the unraveling of her sense of self, of her control over her fate.

THE LOCATIONS

The film takes place over just a few days and all in one city, but it simultaneously spans decades and continents — and was filmed in Budapest, Greece, Paris, and La Scala in Milan — as Maria reflects on her life. The immediacy of Paris — the streets, her apartment, the opera rehearsal hall — captures so much of who Maria has become. Lachman told Netflix, “Visually, I was trying to incorporate the psychology of her character through color and color temperature, contrasting the warmth of her interior world to the coolness in blues and greens of the exterior world. That’s an unsettling, invasive force in her life.”

Paris

Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas, Pierfrancesco Favino as Ferruccio and Alba Rohrwacher as Bruna in ‘Maria.’
Pax Jolie-Pitt

If there ever was a city for an icon like Maria Callas to be at home, it would be Paris. And yet, there’s a discomfort in the way she inhabits the outside world — she knows she’s being observed. Or, at least, she thinks she is. Maria walks through Paris with a documentary crew trailing her, but, as Lachman pointed out, that crew is “part of her psyche, her mind.” This can be seen as she walks down the generously proportioned boulevards. “The camera is not visually aggressive,” Lachman said. “The camera is very subdued in the way it observes her … I was shooting documentaries in that period, so we sourced the camera that would’ve been used … There was an authenticity to not only the film’s stock, but also the lenses we used.”

“We tried to capture that extraordinary world that she was part of with the different textures in her life, a heightened sense of reality,” Lachman said. “She lived her life as a diva while she was struggling with her health and personal happiness.”

The apartment

For production designer Dyas, a visit with Larraín to Callas’ real apartment on Avenue George Mandel in Paris made it clear that they wanted “our set to be as faithful as possible and reflect a genuine connection to the outside world.” Though it was re-created not in Paris but in Budapest, Dyas made sure that the location they chose even had “the right sun exposure” to reflect Callas’ actual home and its “tall, elegant windows and high ceilings.”

Dyas told Netflix that re-creating the apartment created a “significant challenge” because there were so many elements to incorporate. “On the surface, Maria’s tastes seemed traditional — she had a deep appreciation for history and a keen knowledge of art,” Dyas said. “However, it quickly became clear that Maria was the mastermind behind her memorable style and presence, staging every element of her life. Her travels, cultural heritage, and professional experiences all influenced her style.”

Pierfrancesco Favino as Ferruccio and Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in ‘Maria.’ Vincent Macaigne as Doctor Fontainebleau in ‘Maria.’

Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas and Pierfrancesco Favino as Ferruccio in ‘Maria.’ Pierfrancesco Favino as Ferruccio and Alba Rohrwacher as Bruna in ‘Maria.’

The apartment stood in stark contrast to the cold and unforgiving world outside its doors. Dyas was inspired by “the mood and tones popular in Paris in the mid to late 1970s. These included earthy shades like brown, beige, tan, burnt orange, mustard yellow, and forest green, complemented by brighter accents of rust, tangerine, copper, and subtle shades of dusty pink and mauve. We aimed to limit the palette to a harmonious blend of earthy neutrals with carefully chosen bold, vibrant pops of color.” All of this created a space that could be both a centering and grounded environment for Maria, even if it was just another construct for her to maintain.

Illustration by Tim Vienckowski

And about that piano. Dyas explained, “Maria had very specific tastes when it came to her pianos. She started taking lessons at age 10 and became an accomplished pianist. Throughout her life, she owned several exquisite pianos, including a grand Steinway that was famously housed on Onassis’ yacht. For our film, we crafted a custom undersized piano because it had to be rolled around Maria’s apartment and maneuvered through the narrow doorways. A full-sized grand piano simply wouldn’t have been practical.” (Not with all that moving around it wouldn’t!)

The opera

The fragility of Maria toward the end of her life is never seen more clearly than when she’s on the final stage where she will perform — all alone, striving for a perfection she’s desperate to attain again. Dressed all in black, hair pulled back, she looks serious — severe — as she attempts to regain her sense of self. Screenwriter Knight told Netflix, “Maria had the most maddeningly complex relationship with her voice, as if she felt her voice was indistinguishable from her soul. In other words, without a voice, she had no self, or perhaps her self became invisible.”

Alba Rohrwacher as Bruna and Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in ‘Maria.’



On this stage, her presence pales in comparison to her prior performances, and yet it is clear she’s singing to survive. Knight explained, “Pablo and I picked up on the true fact that shortly before she died, she was in the process of trying to rebuild her voice but without any real intention of performing for other people. Perhaps she wanted to die whole, in one piece, her self and her voice reunited.”

THE LIFE

“I was trying to tell a whole life through a few days of living,” said Knight. “Pablo and I agreed it should be the last days of her life. I think this decision helps to make sense of the flashbacks, as if a human being is recollecting and reviewing the span of her life before she leaves this planet forever. It would be nice to think that all of us would get the opportunity to do this, and I wanted the experience of flashing back to not be torture for Maria but a cathartic replay. She is rewinding the cassette and playing the important pieces. My idea was that as a consequence of reviewing her life in the knowledge that she is dying, Maria will ultimately be at peace and ready to go wherever it is that we all go. Maria was reviewed and reviewed all her life. This movie is Maria reviewing herself.”

The performances

“There’s some sort of a hidden map in the film,” Larraín said, “where the piece of music we use, whether it’s only orchestration or with vocals in it, is related to the moment in the film.” This map that Larraín speaks of encompassed many of Callas’ most powerful performances and revealed the ways in which she didn’t just perform these roles — she embodied them, and they became a part of her.

“The music was her life,” Jolie said. “Her relationship to her voice and her body, her ability to sing, her presence onstage and her communication with the audience — it was her life. It was the key to her as well.”

The personal


On the left are archival images of Maria Callas and on the right are stills of Angelina Jolia as Maria Callas in ‘Maria.’ Left: Jack Garofalo/Paris Match/Getty Images, Sony Pictures Classics/Everett Collection, Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images. Right: Stills courtesy Netflix.

Where was the separation between the personal and the performative? It’s an ambiguous line, one that it’s hard to imagine Maria herself fully understood. As Knight said about Callas and similarly gifted artists, “Their genius is not just something they turn off and on, it is part of their being, which comes into play in all aspects of life. ‘Diva’ is a term often used with contempt or amusement, but perhaps we are speaking about people with a heightened desire to attain perfection, not just in their discipline but in life.”

And is it possible to speak of desire and discipline and not mention love? While the romance of this film is tinged with grief and tragedy, it’s still possible to recognize the deep connection that Maria felt with Aristotle Onassis. Knight said about the “two Greek lovers” that “so much is known and so much is unknown about this relationship, but I can say with certainty that they loved each other. It was true love that endured logic and disdained common sense, as love always does. Two people who left nothing undone. Perhaps a happy relationship with a happy ending would have been unworthy of them.”

THE LAST ACT

Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in ‘Maria.’

So many of the great operas — from Turandot to Madama Butterfly to Anna Bolena — end in tragedy. Nobody knew this better than Maria Callas. Tragedy is part of the human experience, something that nobody can escape, no matter how exalted their gifts, how special their talent, how fiercely they love. So perhaps there’s grace in the tragic. Jolie explained, “This film is about her relationship to her voice and her pain and her deep love. Her true love is her music.” And that love can be heard — and felt — by all of us, years after Maria sang her final note.

The Looks-Wardrobe Sketches: Massimo Cantina Parrini. Unit: Pablo Larraín/Netflix. The Apartment-Interior Illustrations: Guy H Dyas. Unit: Pablo Larraín/Netflix. The Performances-Archival: Sony Pictures Classics/Everett Collection, Tim Graham/Evening Standard/Getty Images, Marka/Universal Images Group/Getty Images, Bettmann Archive/Getty Images, Mondadori/Getty Images. Unit: Pablo Larraín/Netflix.








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