Boy. It’s a subdued tale, part of director Pablo Larrians trilogy of independent films about very famous women. Maria brought in $23.3 million across 54 overseas markets, making it his highest-grossing film internationally—even beating out his previous biopics Jackie ($23M) and Spencer ($17.8M)
I watched through to the end and yet I struggled with the dubbing over Angelina Jolie, whilst a brilliant actress with 7 months of opera training under her belt I didn’t find the edits where she sang convincing enough to keep me in the story. They used a lip syncing technique where the actresses real voice was synced with the legend’s recordings many from the 1950’s and it just didn’t quite work for me.
Filmed mainly on location in Hungary with only a few scenes shot in Paris, walking by the Seine to keep costs down, the sets and costumes are beautiful and convincing this is not a typical biopic covering the height of Callas’s career and global acclaim.
Instead it looks at the last week of her life, spent in a hallucinogenic state popping Mandrax, the name of her imaginary admirer and young television interviewer adoring her in her imagination.
The film is slow paced which some might find tedious and a little depressing. You have to look deeper through the directors lens to explore the pain Callas explains where all music begins.
The film does build to a crescendo which I am not sure I understood entirely. It’s sometimes difficult to define what is real and what is imagined as Maria explores the possibility of finding her voice one final time.
In the final scene she sings, I think the most powerful expression from Jolie, she was nominated for a leading actress golden globe for her performance whilst the butler and the housekeeper outside, loyal and loving until the end stand and listen and then she has a heart attack. Is this in her imagination? Yes, she is wondering the apartment alone in a drug induced state. It is a rending end to a magnificent life, the greatest soprano voice we’ve ever heard. All imagined like the film crew and young interviewer who falls in love with her.
In the film we watch the house keeper and butler return from shopping after hearing her singing from outside, find her collapsed on the floor the dogs are yelping, another expression of the world pain she is gone and long time butler, chauffeur and friend Ferruccio Mezzadri calls the doctor Fountenbleu to say Madame Callas has died.
The closing scenes of the film were the happiest and most poignant for me. A card game, a family, a friendship, laughter, love captured in a single frame. Then her friends and lifelong companions trying to wake up at noon after moving the piano once again, we believe she may have died here but no she is alive. They promise a delicious meal, say they are going out and will prepare her favourite things, oysters, salt beef. A meal that is never eaten.
Director Pablo Larraín used those imaginary sequences to give Maria the grand, theatrical send-off she didn't get in real life—but by showing the staff finding her body, he ensures the audience feels the crushing weight of how isolated her final moments truly were.
If I had to pick one side to break the tie, whether I loved it or not, I think Angelina Jolie’s emotional performance was strong enough to save the movie, although the slow pacing and distracting audio did definitely dilute the experience.
My honest answer I probably wouldn’t watch it again or give it a gushing recommendation. It’s a niche independent film I am glad I watched. It was extremely thought provoking for sure.
According to Box Office Mojo the film grossed $25,420,928 globally.
In the United States and Canada, the film brought in virtually nothing at theaters. This is because Netflix US distribution rights for an undisclosed amount and gave it a very short, limited theatrical run (only to qualify it for awards) before moving it straight to streaming.
In regions where Netflix didn't hold the rights, it had a traditional theatrical release making the majority of the published $25 million in ticket sales.