EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis). I had a magical evening yesterday, watching one of the limited previews of “Maria” with Angelina Jolie as Callas at the landmark “Angelica” movie theater in downtown Manhattan (It will be on NETFLIX this Wednesday, December 11). What a spectacular performance!! She has already been nominated for an Oscar, and she deserves it… Director Pablo Larrain’s creation is an effort to dive deep into the emotional volcano that Callas has been throughout her life, especially in her last few years – until she died in 1977. In Paris, where Onassis had died in 1975…
A journalist follows her around Paris, asking her questions about her past… When the discussion comes to her visits with Onassis until the end – even when he is on his death bed – her answer is stunning: “We are Greek, Death Is Our Companion…” Well, it was known that the Diva, the “girl from Athens” as she was known early in her career in Opera circles, was not shy of her Greekness… Let’s say she used it to explain things that were inexplicable or at least not understandable to people around her…
The movie also focuses on the central aspect of her diva career. “Tell me how it felt to be onstage,” the journalist, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, says to Maria Callas in the new trailer for Maria. “An exultation,” she responds. “An intoxication. I thought the stage itself would burn.”
The director dives into a very controversial part of her personal life (but it’s hard to find any part of Maria Callas’ life that is not controversial) during the German occupation of Athens (1941-1944). Born in New York, Maria returned with her mother and sister to Athens in 1937, where she received serious musical education. The family went through very difficult times, as did the rest of the Athenians. Tens of thousands of people died in Athens during the famine of 1941. Maria and her sister are pictured in the movie as doing “favors” for German Army officers. The issue is quite controversial and to this day, historians and biographers do not agree whether these stories were true or the result of jealousy by competitive actors at the Athens Opera…
I will stop here. Below is the movie trailer and lots of information from Netflix.
You can listen to the amazing soundtrack here….
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In Maria, Angelina Jolie Burns Up the Stage
Jolie has already earned a Golden Globe nomination for her stunning performance performance as Maria Callas. Previously she won an Academy Award for her performance in Girl, Interrupted, and has displayed her incredible range in films including Changeling, The Good Shepherd, Maleficent, and Those Who Wish Me Dead.
Renowned Chilean filmmaker Larraín is known for such films as Jackie, Spencer, No, Neruda, and 2023’s El Conde, which garnered a Best Cinematography Oscar nomination for Edward Lachman’s chiaroscuro work.
Larraín says, “I’m excited to partner again with the Netflix team who care so passionately about movies. This film is my most personal work yet. It is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas who, after dedicating her life to performing for audiences around the world, decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity, and sing for herself. I’m deeply honored to tell this story and share it with audiences worldwide like Maria did with her life.”
Maria marks a new collaboration between Larraín and Lachman, who was also nominated for Academy Awards for his work on Carol and Far From Heaven. And it’s the second Larraín film written by Steven Knight following their work together on Spencer; Knight was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Screenplay for his work on Dirty Pretty Things and is the creator of Peaky Blinders.
Academy Award nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Valeria Golino also star.
Find out more about Maria below.
What is Maria about?
Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie is Maria Callas, one of the most iconic performers of the 20th century in acclaimed director Larraín’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, reimagining the legendary diva in her final days as she reckons with her identity and life.
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 on stage and her communication with the audience, it was her life. It was the key to her as well.”
You can listen to the first single from the album below:
Who is in the cast of Maria?
The cast of Maria includes:
- Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted; Changeling)
- Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog, Dolemite Is My Name)
- Alba Rohrwacher (Hungry Hearts, Happy As Lazzaro)
- Pierfrancesco Favino (Padrenostro, Adagio)
- Valeria Golino (For Your Love, The Beautiful Game)
Can I see a trailer for Maria?
Yes! You can check out the trailer for Maria above. “Perhaps we could speak of your life away from the stage,” Smit-McPhee’s character suggests to Maria in the clip. “There is no life away from the stage,” she responds. That bears out in the footage we see from the film — no matter where Maria goes, she’s the center of attention, whether she likes it or not.
When is the release date for Maria?
Maria streams on Netflix starting Dec. 11. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 29.
Has Maria been nominated for any awards?
Yes. For the 82nd Annual Golden Globes Awards, Angelina Jolie was nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama ahead of the 2025 ceremony.
Jolie is a gross creepy ghoul not worthy to play Maria Callas.
Another Hollywood lesbian liberal who should be charged with child abuse turning her daughter into a boy. Sick freak!
Do you think Jolie is refined enough in appearance? — or a bit too coarse (common)? — not so much in her acting which is an accomplished imitation of sorts, but in her own features and carriage? I think it is better to hold Callas, the selfsame, in memory.
The film’s trailer reminds me not so much of Callas (except the music, of course) but more-so of another film, “300”, or yet another (if you prefer) “Alexander”, which is an American imaginative interpretation that replaces history with popular clichés.
Worst in this instance in my view is the condoning (in effect) of fas*cist collaboraton through the film’s depiction of the young diva doing favours for the Na*zis in occupied Athens, a notion that is based on hearsay if based on anything other than whimsy. It, predictably, will embed s paradigm in the minds of suspectible viewers: “If Callas did that, then I can too” — a justification for people such as Mitso and Bako along with Bart today, but the wrong message for our youth.
Of course it’s better to hold Callas in memory as we remember her… You make a lot of valid points. As you know we already have at least one movie about Callas and my guess is that we will have more movies and documentaries… The personalities involved in her life (Onassis, Jackie, Kennedys and a number of others) have fascinated people for decades. Angelina Jolie’s role as an actress was not to depict the “real” Callas – but to offer an interpretation of her in the late years of her life, according to the scenario and the producer.
I was also upset about the Nazis. The truth is that the famine of 1941 was a catastrophe for Athens. I have heard it from my dad who was saved by luck when he miraculously found a little fishing boat to take him back to the island… There was enough food to save him there… It was one of the many disasters the Germans inflicted on Greece throughout history. They did it again recently when they bankrupted Greece in 2011-15 instead of bankrupting their banks.
Historians and biographers are not sure what exactly happened with the Italians and the Germans and the two girls, Maria and her sister. A shipowner (of the Empiricos family) was helping them during the war. The Athens Opera was operating and Maria’s talent had already bloomed. She was able to sing a vast array of roles. Naturally she attracted jealousy by others in the field…
But focusing on the Germans is surely to cause a lot of questions in Greece… We can turn them to a positive direction by emphasizing the question: “When will the Germans pay reparations to
Greece for WWII”?
Sam
No one knows how we, ourselves would have reacted if we lived during the German occupation of Greece. The survival instinct takes over. When you are hungry, you do whatever you must do, to fill your stomach.
Its easy for us to criticize the people that lived through that period, from our comfortable perch. But let’s not condemn them, unless we “walked a mile in their shoes”.
I have read the book “Greek fire” by Gage, the writer of Eleni and “A Place For Us. . A very well written biography that is based on facts. Gage says that Maria sang for the Germans and was rewarded with food. There is no evidence whatsoever, of her having actually collaborated with the Germans other than her singing, which was her ticket to surviving another day. Who can blame her for that?
Finally, I’m not sure what your inclusion of “Bako” Bart and “Mitso” has to do with the Callas story, other than to prove your pro conspiracy bona fides.
The two sisters sang for the Italians before the did for the Germans – that much is known… And it was likely for food… But we will never know, because of the circumstances… Sensationalizing this part of her biography is trul;y questionable… But also provides us with an opportunity to shed light in this most barbaric German occupation of Greece – of the several that happened over the centuries and still happening today…
Yes, the occupation coninues today, not so severely (not yet) but continues nevertheless; hence the criticism about the film that sensationalizes whatever actually might have happened (if anything) by the protagonist during WW2 and thus glamorizes the notion of collaboration today in WW3.
(And it might be effective if the Greeks swoon over the coarse Jolie. Better to listen to the refined Callas herself and to admire her as seen in videos of real performances.)
I don’t believe she did “favors”–yes-food was scarce but this piece of sensationalism that was somehow alleged seems out of character. They should have left it out.
Not sure where to post about this, Sacred Alaska is available for steaming if anyone wants to see it, only $4 to rent and a portion of the $4 will help the struggling Alaska Diocese:
https://sacredalaska.vhx.tv/
More info here:
https://orthochristian.com/165522.html