Maria

 

“I desire adulation.”

Poised, classy and tragic, Maria is a mesmerising character study of the divine dame played with powerful grace by a career-best Angelina Jolie who sings her soul out in an artful exploration of the dying days of a diva in demure decline yet still filled with stunning beauty. 

Discussion Points:

Here ends Pablo Lorraín’s tragic trilogy of iconic women of the 20th century, following Jackie and Spencer. And again Lorraín delivers another auteur vision of a woman who many may victimise but who finds her own inner strength and voice. Angelina Jolie spent 7 months vocal training for the role and it so clearly shows - what a powerhouse performance full of poise and grace and class but also viper tongued diva outbursts. Maria Callas was a classic operatic class act - whose beauty intoxicated men and whose voice entranced audiences. Her beauty and grace is captured so magnetically by Ed Lachmann’s gorgeous cinematography, and Lorraín’s use of dreams, visions and surrealist fantasies helps add a layer of hypnotic haze which absolutely absorbed my attention. As Callas’ health failed and mind faltered, she began to indulge increasingly delusional fantasies in a quest to find the validation, recognition and adulation she craved her whole career. And the ending may be one of the most remarkable of 2024 that left me heartbroken yet thankful. Jolie is 100% coming for that Best Actress statuette!