Maria

[Britpopbaby]

I don’t know much about Maria Callas however I thought it was great. The acting, the cinematography, the costumes and the narrative structure.

I watched about fifteen minutes of it, but couldn’t get past the issue that’s a problem in all music biopics where the actor is miming — just thinking ‘Oh, there’s Angelina Jolie opening and closing her mouth to a Callas track’. I’ve got past it in other films, like Marion Cotillard in Piaf, but for some reason I couldn’t suspend my disbelief here. Disappointing, as I liked Larrain’s Spencer. Maybe I should give it another go.

I've been looking forward to seeing it, not least because of the costumes, although I'm not a massive fan of AJ. The miming thing sounds irritating, shall brace myself for it.

She isn’t miming? It’s been widely publicised that she sings herself.

I am going later this week with dd2. I understood Jolie actually sings some of it not all miming.

I've not watched it yet but Angelina was trained to sing opera for the part and sang all the songs

Saw it yesterday. I’m a huge admirer of Callas. To be fair to AJ, Callas was always going to be a huge difficult role to fill. It was sad in that it was about the end looking back, but I think they all did a good job. Loved the pictures at the end. Poor MC ..only 53 😢

And was her housekeeper Elena Greco from My Brilliant Friend ? I wasn’t sure ..

No. She certainly sang while filming, but most of what is on the soundtrack is recordings, sometimes with some of AJ’s voice mixed in for verisimilitude. Callas had a very distinctive voice. An actor who’d only done a few months of training wouldn’t be in any way capable of singing opera in such a way as to be mistaken for a major star, even after Callas had begun to lose her earlier vocal ability.

I loved it.

The review in the Times said it was mainly lip synching, possibly Angelina Jolie is singing some of the stuff shown in Callas' later years.

Focus on her eyes rather than the lips...

I've always found Maria Callas fascinating and I loved the film. I found it haunting and so, so sad. It's visually beautiful and I loved the mix of black and white and colour. I didn't think I could hate Onassis any more than I already did, but turns out I can!

The end credits are heartwrenching.

I believe so. She is in the Adam Driver film Hungry Hearts.

I thought it was great - script, costumes, camerawork, sets, acting, premise. Really gripping

husband didn’t ‘get’ it though

I thought it was beautiful
AJ was amazing and I believe that she did sing some parts if the arias. The Humming Chorus and Vissi D’arte at the end reduced me to tears. Beautiful location, costumes, different times in the life of MC fantastically intertwined. I loved it and hope AJ gets her Oscar!!

Going to see it tomorrow 😊

Stunning film AJ was excellent and really should have got a nomination imho! Visually beautiful and fascinating insight into the woman behind arguably one of best operatic sopranos of the last century. Went home and listened to more Callas!

I'm off to see it tomorrow. Really looking forward to it

Well, sort of, she's singing and their voices are blended. Callas is probably spinning in her grave. I expect 99% is Callas and 1% Jolie.

I saw it yesterday and thought it was dire, could've been really good.

Actually dire is harsh,bits of it were beautiful.

I agree with you @TeaRoseTallulah . It certainly looked beautiful but I think dire is pretty accurate!

Whether it was Jolie singing or lip-synching, I found it painful to watch and I agree Callas must have been spinning in her grave. Jolie is undoubtedly beautiful but at no point did I ever see her as Callas.

I watched the BBC documentary about Callas after this and watching footage of the real person, vibrant, witty and fascinating, made the film seem like such a missed opportunity.

Is that on iPlayer? I'll watch it,thanks for the heads up. I was expecting such a colourful ,vibrant biopic, it does her a disservice to concentrate on the negative bits where she lost her voice and is a drug addict,there should've been so much more.

It’s on iplayer, yes. There are some annoying ‘talking heads’ but the footage of Callas is great. A quality biopic of Maria Callas would be wonderful to watch, sadly ‘Maria’ isn’t it!

I've just watched the documentary, loved it, so thank you for that.