Maria Review

Maria is the third and final film in Pablo Larraín’s “Ladies with Heels” trilogy, a series of films about important 20^th Century women. This film focuses on the opera singer Maria Callas during the last week of her life.

It is 1977, and Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie) lives in Paris. It has been four and a half years since she last performed in public, she takes a cocktail of prescription medication and has hallucinations. Callas considers a return to the stage and tells her life story to a TV journalist (Kodi Smit-McPhee), but her butler, Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino), and housemaid Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) are concerned about her health.

The previous films in the “Ladies with Heels” trilogy have been well regretted. Jackie and Spencer earned their lead actresses Oscar nominations and I gave Spencer a glowing review. Maria seems like it would follow suit since it premiered at the Venice International Film Festival like the previous two films. Larraín reteamed with his Spencer screenwriter Steven Knight. Maria can be seen as a comeback role for Jolie who hasn’t acted for three years and she has already earned herself a Golden Globe nomination which could be a precursor to a potential Oscar nomination.

Jolie was the highlight of this film, proving herself as a blockbuster star and a contenting actress. Playing Maria Callas was a juicer role for Jolie since her recent roles were more action-oriented. Jolie brought dignity and poise as a woman who harboured a lot of pain. She was trying to keep her dignity. Callas was similar to Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana in Jackie and Spencer since all three women were at a low point but trapped in the public eye.

Maria’s story can be described as a ‘reflections of a dying woman.’ She spends a lot of her time talking about the important moments and relationships in her life. These include her relationship with her mother (Lydia Koniordou) and Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer). These personal relationships were tied to her relationship with music. Callas’ mother made her sing for SS Officers and Onassis forbade her to sing. The end of her life was the only time she got to sing for herself, but she was rusty, and worst of all, her singing was taking a toll on her health.

The other important relationship Callas had was with her staff. Her butler and housekeeper were loyal to Callas. They were concerned for her health and grip on reality. They monitored her and knew her habits about her pill consumption. Callas resisted their help. Yet she did have concern for her staff and showed it in her unique way. It bore some similarities to Spencer since Diana was closer to the staff than her in-laws.

Callas also shared her philosophies about music, such as not listening to her own recording and that music was something that should be done in the moment. This made her a prickly character at times. Her talent was a blessing and a curse.

A lot was going on thematically and technically Maria was fine, but the film was lacking. There wasn’t the sense that Callas lived in a guiled cage like Jackie Kennedy or Princess Diana and in Spencer there was tension due to the Royal Family and household creating a hostile environment. Maria didn’t have much going on beyond a few stylistic flourishes due to Callas’ hallucination and the meta-textual use of the TV interview which stated the plot of the film.

Maria was a great-looking film that had excellent performances, but it was a cold, shallow experience, especially after Spencer. There was a lot to admire but it was hard to engage with.