For a few years now, we have been following Pablo Larraín‘s project to focus his lens on yet another iconic woman: Maria Callas. The wait is almost over: Maria is one of the highlights of the 2024 Venice Film Festival, with everyone already tying up the dots: in the last 5 years, all the winners in Italy have been nominated for an Oscar and many have even gone on to win. A second Oscar for Angelina Jolie? Nothing impossible to consider!

I was criticized when I mentioned that the actress has been “away” because she has been dedicating more time to theater, her children and films that have not yet been released. I wanted to say that it’s been a while since we’ve seen our diva in a dramatic movie with as much potential as Maria. Since I’m a Callas fan, a Larraín fan, and totally team Angelina, I want her among the finalists with a chance of winning her second Oscar. Let’s spread the positive vibes!

Maria closes the trilogy of three 20th century icons – Jackie Onassis, Princess Diana, and Maria Callas – that Pablo Larraín began in 2016 and that earned its stars, Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart, Oscar nominations for Best Actress.

In 2021, when he released Spencer, Pablo reached out to Angelina, who was delighted with the film, and invited her to be his muse in the biopic about Maria Callas. Angelina is a great actress, but physically very different from what we might think to play the Greek-American soprano, and so she hesitated. Eventually, she decided to take on what is obviously the biggest challenge of her career and a project at an extra delicate time in her personal life.

The Maria Callas in the film is a 53-year-old woman living her last days in 1977, tormented by ghosts from the past and a career that ended far from the level of perfection that made her a legend. Even so, it took Angelina more than six months of preparation to get into the role, including singing lessons.

Aware that millennial audiences are less familiar with facts from more than 50 years ago, the script will not assume that everyone knows who Callas is or her influence on music. And even more so, on 20th century pop culture. And okay, I think it’s hard for young people today to even remember that Maria is American, the daughter of Greek immigrants, even though she made her career in Europe, more specifically, in Italy. Her health was always fragile, physically and mentally, and as Pablo Larraín mentions, she was a diva, sweet, arrogant and insecure in equal measure.

With a script by Steven Knight, Maria should follow Spencer‘s intense and dramatic formula and with a soundtrack that will enchant opera lovers. We know from the images of Angelina as Callas that we will hear her sing Mio Babbino Caro and Casta Diva, but we will also undoubtedly have Vissi D’Arte.

The director, who was introduced to opera through his mother, said that he “immersed himself in Callas’ voice and created a ‘musical map’ for the film, with her work providing the entire soundscape,” as Vanity Fair puts it. “She became the sum of the tragedies she performed on stage,” Larraín told the magazine. “The film is about someone who, after dedicating her life to the audiences around the world who would listen to her, decides to find her own voice, her own identity and, finally, do something just for herself.”

Between flashbacks and scenes from the artist’s final days alternating black and white and color, Maria will remember her toxic and complex relationship with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer), who left her for Jackie Kennedy. And, to everyone’s surprise, Angelina SINGS and her voice is mixed with Callas’. For Larraín, it was essential that the dubbing be realistic. “When we listen to Maria Callas at her peak, most of the sound is Callas — 90%, 95% — and when we listen to Callas later in life and in the present, almost everything is Angelina,” he explains.

Another detail that Maria will certainly draw attention to is the period reconstruction and Maria Callas’ costumes. When she became one of the biggest music stars in the 1950s, she also became a fashion icon and her signature style is imitated to this day. The flashback scenes will certainly explore her unmistakable style.

We will be talking about Maria Callas even more by 2025, I have little doubt. I can’t wait to see the film!

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