‘Maria’ Is a Star Vehicle For Angelina Jolie

It would be accurate but facile to dismiss Netflix’s Maria as one prima donna portraying another, given that celebrated movie actress Angelina Jolie is essaying the last week and past memories of famed opera diva Maria Callas.

It would also be easy to categorize this Cannes-acclaimed new film as an example of the current eruption of the movie business into a streaming trend where such famous first-class celebrity acting names as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Saoirse Ronan, Scarlett Johanssan etc. and such top ranked directors as Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood are making movies directly for Netflix, Peacock, Hulu, Disney, Max and Apple with only cursory runs (if any) in actual movie theaters. In this case Maria is available to watch for any Netflix subscribers.

This trend in film-making has already changed the impact and influence of new movies, part of it due to the lingering concern after COVID-19 about mingling with other people at cinemas and much of it reflecting the new reality of how moviemakers can make money with home screens and a public indifferent to monthly charges, not always realizing what streaming services are built in to their cable-like setup or require a separate cost.

Maria is a particularly interesting case since it almost screams for a high-powered home audio system to fully enjoy. This is more about the private pleasures of opera (the voice separated from the sometimes distracting stage maneuvers) augmented by high fidelity systems – and particularly potent in impressing listeners anew with the greatness of La Callas, whose historic recordings, even when given some dramatically contrasting voices, are still the main attraction.

Also, Jolie again proves a magnetic screen persona, perfectly lip-syncing Callas where needed and also capturing the aloof almost poetic musings of the real Callas (a nice screenwriter method by Steven Knight). Callas frequently spoke in interviews like a mystic cryptic philosopher despite her upbringing in poverty – perhaps a deliberate attempt to deepen her mystique.

Jolie captures her intonations and aloofness expertly, though it does feel a bit like one diva channeling another. Jolie’s study of Callas’ operatic technique pays off in the moments when Maria, who died in her fifties and went through periods of non-singing, senses her voice and heart failing. It is here that Jolie and other singers are stepping in. We actually spend much of the movie anticipating that Jolie will move from Callas’ famous enigma to her actual death.

But this is also the problem with the film. Chilean director Pablo Larrain has done some intriguing earlier films focused on when dictator Pinochet ruled his county, but he has made his fame in the U.S. focusing on the invented psychological deterioration of famous women – Jackie Onassis and Princess Di in Jackie (2016) and Spencer (2021). Though some critics praised them, neither Natalie Portman as Jackie nor Kristen Stewart as Di moved past imitation to humanity.

Unfortunately, Maria is cast in the same (watch her fading away) psychological vein. The wealth imbued death throes of Maria Callas are lingered upon, with a mystic overview including flashbacks and movie clapperboards in case the audience can’t separate what is in Callas’ hallucinations as opposed to realities.

Along those lines we get a cynical view of self-centered Aristotle Onassis (both her and Jackie’s escape from reality) as well as more tender view of the obedient servants who run her life as butler and cook (fine Italian actors Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher). We can only watch in distress as she medicates herself and sings herself to death (something of a fabrication though it is notorious that Callas died in her fifties in elegant isolation).

Director Larrain’s films about the distresses of the famous are the psychological equivalent of catching spiders and putting them under glass. Not that Maria isn’t visually lush thanks to excellent cinematographer Edward Lachman and the haunting visions of Paris in isolation. Nor is Larrain shy about surreal effects such as having a full elegant orchestra showing up in Maria’s aria fantasies or the sense that the world of would-be helpers is actually observing her final moments under microscopic inspection.

If you need more Maria Callas arias in your life — and what opera buff doesn’t? — this film is for you, especially if you can survive the feeling that we are watching death throes from an elegant perch. This is a film more to appreciate for its languorous evocation of her final days than feeling moved by the tragedy of Callas’ struggles and too early death.

Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blog here and here.