By Sonja Hansen
Your changes have been saved
Email is sent
Email has already been sent
You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.
Manage Your List
Follow
Followed
Follow with Notifications
Follow
Unfollow
Thread
Link copied to clipboard
Sign in to your MovieWeb account

Maria, the new biopic directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Angelina Jolie, is already climbing the ranks in Netflix's Top 10. The film covers the last years of Italian opera singer Maria Callas's life in Paris with her butler Ferruccio (Pierfranceso Favino), and housemaid Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) as they all attempt to manage her declining health, drug addiction, and resulting hallucinations.
Related
The True Story Behind Angelina Jolie’s ‘Maria,’ Explained
Angelina Jolie plays Maria Callas with stunning commitment and authenticity, here's the true story of Callas' life.
Maria reflects on her own story as though she were speaking to and interviewing herself, pausing to correct herself and be more truthful. Jolie said on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Kimmel that the narrative device was Maria "talking to her drugs" and that the story's arc follows the style of operatic tragedies, in which the protagonist inevitably suffers from the consequences of their own actions.
Getting to Know Maria Callas
In conversation with Larraín for Vogue, Jolie spoke of how she was inspired by the strength with which Callas carried herself in the face of disrespectful journalists and public backlash. "When I see a human being doing their best to hold their head up and get on, I find that very moving and those are the type of people I tend to like," she told Vogue. "And I recognize that in her. I would see interviews, some horrible things are said to her, right? Horrible questions, rude things. Even people would throw things at her. And you could see her just hold her nerve."
Jolie said that in researching Callas, she was struck by the isolation of her life. Jolie mourned the absence of love and girlhood in Callas's life as she had been placed under immense pressure as a professional singer while still a child. She told Larraín for Vogue that if she could tell Callas one thing, she would tell her how she had "come to really like her as a person and really care about her," and that she'd want to "stay up all night and be girls together."
The star of Girl, Interrupted spoke about the extensive vocal training she underwent because "you can't fake-sing opera," she said on The Tonight Show. Through her lessons, Jolie's coach revealed that she is actually a soprano and that her natural speaking voice is much lighter than she had previously thought. Jolie told Vogue that she may have been suppressing that "softness" for years. Despite seven months of practice, Jolie remained dubious of her singing ability, and she told Kimmel that she bought the entire cast and crew ear plugs as a production present.
In addition to learning about her own vocal abilities, Jolie commented that her appreciation for opera grew immensely and that it's now her top musical genre. She hopes to bring awareness that the film is accessible for folks who are completely unfamiliar with opera. "I wasn't raised with opera and felt like I would have to get this education because I wasn't sophisticated," she told Vogue. "And I found quite the opposite. I found that it's so deep in the human experience, and it's so for everyone."
Whispers of a future Oscar nomination for Jolie have echoed through the halls of Hollywood based on her impressive performance as well as Larraín's track record. Both of the stars of his prior biopics — Natalie Portman in Jackie (2016) and Kristen Stewart in Spencer (2021) — went on to clinch Oscar nominations. Should she earn an Oscar nom, it would come on the heels of Jolie's Tony Award win for producing The Outsiders: A New Musical, which put her one award away from the coveted EGOT status.
Maria is available in theaters and to stream on Netflix.

Your changes have been saved
Email is sent
Email has already been sent
4 /5
Maria
R
Pablo Larraín (Jackie, Spencer) directs this biographical psychological drama film about opera singer Maria Callas, focusing on the final stretch of her life in Paris.
- Release Date
- November 27, 2024
- Runtime
- 123 Minutes
- Main Genre
- Biography
- Director
- Pablo Larrain
- Cast
- Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Valeria Golino, Stephen Ashfield, Alessandro Bressanello, Vincent Macaigne, Lydia Korniordou, Rebecka Johnston, Botond Bartus, Marcell Lengyel, Philipp Droste, Jeremy Wheeler, Luca Gréta Felhalmi, Zora Gerda Fejes, Kay Madsen, Toma Hrisztov, Christiana Aloneftis, Aggelina Papadopoulou