Programme Notes: Maria
Immortalised in this ravishing biopic by the radiant Angelina Jolie, Maria finds Callas in retreat away from the spotlight, sensitively capturing the caregiving of her doting butler Ferruccio (acclaimed Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino) and confidant Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher, La Chimera) in Paris. Facing ailing health and having lost her generation-defining vocal abilities, she is determined to perform once more and reclaim her place as the pre-eminent opera singer of the era.
The third in Pablo Larraín’s exquisite thematic trilogy profiling incredible female public figures from the 1970s through to the 1990s, Maria is once again an uncompromising character study, and formidable showcase for the leading actor at its centre, following 2016’s Jackie, starring Natalie Portman, and 2021’s Spencer, starring Kirsten Stewart. Both films secured their respective actors Academy Award nominations, and Angelina Jolie looks set to follow in this esteemed company with her utterly transformative and emotionally vivid performance.
Employing a similar interview framing device to last year’s biopic of a similarly ground breaking woman from the 20th century – Kate Winslet’s Lee – Maria is constructed around illuminating interviews with a young filmmaker (The Power of the Dog’s Kodi Smit-McPhee) as he seeks to understand why the legendary La Callas exited from the stage door of public life.
This grants affecting insight into her emotionally volatile early years (captured in striking monochrome cinematography), perhaps most powerfully in flashback sequences to her fraught childhood with her exploitative mother Evangelia. In this pivotal sequence, the young Maria is played by talented starlet and musician Aggelina Papadopulou – whose name is, most fittingly, the Greek for ‘Angelina’.
The 2025 Awards Season, leading us on the road to the Oscars, has been defined by revelatory big screen comebacks, from Demi Moore’s gloriously committed turn in the outrageous body horror The Substance, to Adrien Brody’s powerhouse leading man turn in Brady Corbet’s new American masterpiece The Brutalist (screening from Fri 24th Jan), to Pamela Anderson’s extraordinary career transformation in Las Vegas drama The Last Showgirl (screening from Mon 10th Feb).
At Tyneside Cinema, we have paid tribute to this with a thematic season of notable comeback films from the pantheons of cinema history, entitled ‘Don’t Call It A Comeback’, bringing back classic titles such as The Godfather, The Thin Red Line and Sunset Boulevard to our screens throughout January and February.
Indeed, within a film following the journey of an A-list talent coming back into the spotlight after a prolonged hiatus, it feels, in some respects, that life is imitating art for Angelina Jolie, announcing her big screen return with perhaps her finest performance to date after a five-year break from the world of cinema (following a supporting stint in 2019 superhero epic Eternals, directed by Nomadland’s Chloe Zhao).
With Maria, she enters back into the awards conversation, having previously risen to the ranks of Hollywood royalty after starring in James Mangold’s acclaimed 1999 drama Girl, Interrupted.
Jolie’s incredible performance is punctuated by Callas’ own signature performances, breathtakingly showcasing her Bel Canto range and power. In order to fully immerse in the role and attune to Callas’ iconic vocal register, Jolie was tutored by vocal coach maestro Eric Vetro – a leading figure in the industry, who has also recently guided Timothée Chalamet in his uncanny transformation to the tones of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown (screening from Fri 17th Jan).
The results are simply flawless, and truly demand the immersive cinematic experience to transport us into the grand theatres of Maria Callas’ life.
A cinematic exultation, Maria stands as a haunting tragedy of a talent taken too soon;
“Music is born of misery. Of suffering. Happiness never produced a beautiful melody.”
Angelina Jolie grants La Callas the curtain call of a lifetime.