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Maria: A Diva Takes The Biopic Scene By Storm

In Hollywood’s latest instalment of the recently crazed outpouring of hit-and-miss biopics, from the lacklustre Blonde to the nuclear Oppenheimer, the bar has been raised as Angelina Jolie delivers her magnum opus, in the compelling and visually captivating Maria. 

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By Harry Mayes, MA Neuroscience

Maria explores the final days of opera singer Maria Callas, before her tragic death. The film addresses her perception of self, her career and attitudes towards the meaning of life, and takes a metaphysical and moving approach in telling the tragic truth of Callas’ final moments, her struggles with drug addiction, internal crisis and losing her voice.

A woman from humble beginnings who was launched into global mega-stardom, Maria Callas is one of the most famous opera singers to have ever lived. She defined and pioneered the diva archetype, and the film's writing does well to depict this. It illustrates how Callas suffered for her art and spared no expense, with Angelina Jolie delivered a mesmerising portrayal of the once-in-a-lifetime talent’s final days, spent in seclusion with just her handmaid and butler. 

Image Courtesy of IMDb

The narrative takes us to emotional heights, accompanied by powerful and heart-breaking operatic solos, we are walked through the hardships of stardom, following Callas’ rough beginnings performing for Nazi soldiers, all the way through to her final days and her ultimate loss of voice. However, this is balanced by her drive to finally find her true voice, not the one she used to sing for a battalion of soldiers or a packed auditorium, but one for herself.

Visually the film is stunning, with the combination of cinematographer Edward Lachman’s dreamy surrealist camerawork and Pablo Larrain’s direction offering an intimate and honest portrayal of Maria. If I were to choose just one standout moment, it would have to be the opening scene. An emotional Jolie as Callas performing ‘Ave Maria’ clad in black and white, crosscut with flashbacks to her glamourous life, perfectly setting the reflective tone for the biopic, and the introspective nature of the film.

Taking up opera lessons for 7 months in preparation, the use of Jolie’s own vocals was deeply impactful on the storytelling. The mesmerising arias allowed for a clear and moving depiction of the disparity between the power of Callas’ vocals and her internal strength at the height of her career (as seen in flashbacks), versus the vocal and mental weakness seen in her final days. Jolie’s haunting and beautiful renditions of the operatic classics allowed for such a range of emotion that may not have been found in the recorded versions of Maria Callas’ songs. 

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With the added dimension of grand operatic recitals, I and many others believe this to be Jolie’s best performance to date. She captures the broad range of emotion seen through this tortured characters unique journey. These traits of Callas allow Jolie to flourish particularly in the aptly named second act, ‘La Diva’. Jolie's performance showed restraint and vulnerability in poignant ways, all of which perfectly depicted Callas’ struggles with her sense of self and her complicated emotions surrounding her voice in her final years of isolation. 

The most captivating method of storytelling in this film is the metaphysical depiction of her addiction to the drug Mandrax. This manifests in conversations that, to her butler and handmaid, appear to be with herself. From her perspective we see that she is talking to a film crew who are interviewing her about her life. These imaginary interviews occur throughout the film, in a restaurant, walking through Paris, at home, and act as a powerful conduit to deliver flashbacks of her life. These include her reminiscing on career highlights, her late ex-husband, and the start of her career as an overweight girl from Athens who got a lucky gig. They also provide an important layer of Callas’ introspection – with the minds creation of a film crew showing how defined her life was by the perception of others and the media.

The decision to regard the journalists with the same moniker as her drug ‘Mandrax’ is a powerful illustration of the effects the drug had on her senses in her final years. Yet it also shows a state of awareness and lucidity, Callas' has an awareness of the effects the drug is having on her and her acceptance of this through this stylistic choice add another layer to Callas.

Image Courtesy of IMDb

It is, for the most part, hard to fault Maria, yet there are a few moments that fall short. For a narrative in which the metaphorical exploration of her addiction to Mandrax is extremely well written, the final scene featuring the housemaid and the butler literally fading away to symbolise Maria's death felt cliché and failed to live up to the rest of the film. However, this brief lapse was entirely dwarfed by Jolie’s final, emotional, and tear-jerking rendition of ‘Vissi d’arte’. In this moment, before she passes, Maria finally finds a voice for herself and not ‘for others’. 

So perfectly capturing the essence of and devotion to her work, this biopic is a true ode to Maria Callas. It authentically captures her dependency on drugs, one that is so often seen in the arts, as well as confronting the reality that artists can face when they are no longer in their prime. But most importantly, it highlights what an interesting, brutal, and talented woman Maria Callas was. Complimented by beautiful cinematography, operatic anthems, reflective writing, and an Oscar worthy performance from Angelina Jolie, this film feels like an aria itself.


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