Maria (2024)

We think Angelina Jolie is good in the title role of this biopic about the last years of renowned opera singer Maria Callas. The actors familiar to me in the supporting cast are Kodi Smit-McPhee as her interviewer Mandrax and Valeria Golino as her sister Yakinthi.

Pablo Larraín directs from the script by Steven Knight. This is the third and final movie in Larraín's "Ladies with Heels" trilogy, after Jackie and Spencer, which are about, if you didn't know, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and Diana, Princess of Wales, respectively. Jolie did not get an Oscar nomination for this role, although Natalie Portman did for Jackie and Kristen Stewart did for Spencer.

The soundtrack is comprised of various opera recordings, mostly performed by Callas herself, and the closing credits has a song by Brian Eno. Jolie sings for the older, failing Callas, and the first two items in this list of the movie's trivia tell us a bit about how that came to be. Danish actor Caspar Phillipson plays JFK in this movie, as he did in Jackie and Blonde (the Marilyn Monroe biopic--not directed by Larraín).

Although the movie's pace is on the slow side, I, for one, was captivated by the magnificent cinematography by Edward Lachman and the opulent wardrobe by Massimo Cantini Parrini. Details on their work are in this article.

If you would like to watch this movie, I recommend waiting to read this spoiler-laden article until afterwards.

One of the running lists on my blog is of tropes that I call rules. Here's the complete list. Maria observes Rule #2 by showing the Eiffel Tower in so many scenes of Paris.

Jolie was last blogged for Salt, Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog, Golino for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Larraín and Knight for Spencer, Lachman for Wonderstruck, and Parrini for Cyrano.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are a bit pitchy, averaging 75 and 76%. Jack and I watched it on Netflix on March 23.