Biopics often fail to capture the essence of the true story they’re based on, but Maria does a great job of getting many details of Maria Callas’ life right. However, that doesn’t mean everything in the film is true. It’s quite difficult for biographical movies to be perfect, in Maria‘s defense. Biopics can’t be 100 percent accurate because life typically isn’t perfectly sculpted into a thrilling, dramatic narrative that falls seamlessly into the traditional plot structure that so many films and TV shows follow. Nevertheless, many reviews claim Maria is a thoughtful biopic that stays true to Callas’ story as much as possible.
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Many predict (including
Variety
) that Angelina Jolie will be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Maria Callas in
Maria
. The 97th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on January 17, 2025, and the ceremony will be held on March 2, 2025.
Pablo Larraín’s 2024 Netflix biographical psychological drama movie Maria depicts the last few days of Callas’ life. Callas was a famous, influential opera singer who took the world by storm in the 20th century. She was a force to be reckoned with, and Callas’ life was certainly one of intrigue, hardship, and inspiration, making her the perfect subject for Larraín’s project. Maria follows the opera singer’s final days as she reflects on her life and career, and how much her music truly meant to her. Throughout the film, the director exaggerates and fabricates parts of Callas’ life for dramatic purposes.
8 Some Believed That Callas’ Weight Loss Caused Her To Lose Her Voice
The Movie Suggests The Loss Of Her Voice Was Tied To Her Illness
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One of the biggest storylines in Maria is Maria Callas’ struggle to sing as well as she did in her prime. Callas’ voice is the most important thing in her life. So, losing it is catastrophic. In real life, Callas started losing her voice in the mid-1950s after a dramatic weight loss — she shed around 80 pounds. Consequently, many attributed her vocal decline to her weight loss, which isn’t mentioned in the 2024 Netflix biopic. Others believe that either an underlying condition caused her vocal decline or the early days of her strenuous career put a big strain on her voice, damaging it.
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Maria ties the singer’s voice loss to her declining health, as many doctors advise her to stop singing to prohibit any more damage to her body. However, the film doesn’t dive too deep into the reason why Callas loses her voice. Instead, the director focuses more on how Callas’ inability to sing as well as she used to affects her mental health, and how she tries to rebuild her voice in the days leading up to her death (which is true). Per Decider, Maria writer Steven Knight explained why Callas attempted to rebuild her voice. He said:
“Pablo [Larraín] and I picked up on the true fact that shortly before she died, she was in the process of trying to rebuild her voice but without any real intention of performing for other people. Perhaps she wanted to die whole, in one piece, her self and her voice reunited.”
7 The Conversation Between Callas & JFK Is Speculative
Callas Attended The President’s Birthday Party In 1962
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In Netflix’s Maria, Maria Callas and her infamous partner, Aristotle Onassis, attend President John F. Kennedy’s birthday celebration in 1962. They watch as Marilyn Monroe sings “Happy Birthday” to JFK, and in real life, the couple was there. Callas even sang at the party. However, reports claim that Callas only briefly spoke with JFK during the affair, whereas the two sit down at a restaurant together in the 2024 biographical psychological drama.
Maria shows Callas and JFK discussing their similarities — as the opera singer tells the president, “I do know that you and I belong to a very, very small group of lucky angels who can go anywhere we want in this world. But we can never, ever get away.” Their conversation alludes to the relationship between their respective partners, Onassis and Jackie Kennedy. Following JFK’s assassination, Jackie Kennedy married Onassis, and this scene featuring Callas and JFK serves to inform the audience of this fact. In actuality, this conversation seemingly never happened.
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6 Reports Claim Callas & Aristotle Onassis Continued After He Married Jackie Kennedy
Onassis Left Callas For Jackie Kennedy
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The similarities between Maria‘s depiction of Aristotle Onassis and him in real life are commendable. But, the movie fails to address the rumor that Onassis and Maria Callas still saw one another, even after he married Jackie Kennedy in 1968. While this report has never been confirmed (and likely never will), several people close to both parties have said that Callas and Onassis’ affair continued after 1968. According to PEOPLE, Onassis’ personal secretary, Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos, revealed, “[Onassis] couldn’t live without Maria.”
They were each other’s great love, as depicted in the scene in
Maria
where Onassis is on his deathbed and Callas visits him.
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The relationship between Callas and Onassis was reportedly quite toxic and fraught with tension, which Maria alludes to. She wanted to get married and have children, but he did not. Callas got pregnant a handful of times, and Onassis never wanted her to keep the baby. Sadly, she always miscarried and never had a child. Nevertheless, Callas and Onassis seemingly couldn’t stay away from one another. They were each other’s great love, as depicted in the scene in Maria where Onassis is on his deathbed and Callas visits him.
5 There Is No Record Of Callas Taking Methaqualone
Callas’ Drug Use Is Disputed
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Another prominent theme in Maria is Maria Callas’ drug use — specifically Methaqualone, aka Mandrax. However, according to Decider, there is no official public record of the opera singer abusing Mandrax in the days leading up to her death. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Callas never took Mandrax, but her using the drug hasn’t been confirmed either.
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Records do show that Callas was taking cortisone and immunosuppressants to treat a degenerative disease in the mid-1970s. It’s also a widely known fact that Callas struggled with drugs in the later years of her life. For the sake of Netflix’s 2024 biopic Maria, though, director Pablo Larraín and writer Steven Wright decided to focus on Mandrax, which was commonly used by many Europeans in the 1970s.
4 Mandrax Is A Fictional Character Created For Netflix’s Maria
The Filmmaker Is A Figment Of The Singer’s Imagination
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One of the biggest aspects of Maria that strays from Maria Callas’ true story is the presence of Mandrax, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee. In the 2024 biographical psychological drama, Mandrax is a documentary filmmaker who follows Callas around to ask her about her life. Mandrax, who is named after the drug, is just one of Callas’ hallucinations, though. He isn’t really there, but Callas continues interacting with Smit-McPhee’s character throughout the Angelina Jolie movie.
|
Maria Cast |
Role |
|---|---|
|
Angelina Jole |
Maria Callas |
|
Pierfrancesco Favino |
Ferruccio |
|
Alba Rohrwacher |
Bruna |
|
Haluk Bilginer |
Aristotle Onassis |
|
Kodi Smit-McPhee |
Mandrax |
|
Valeria Golino |
Yakinthi Callas |
|
Alessandro Bressanello |
Giovanni Battista Meneghini |
|
Caspar Phillipson |
John F. Kennedy |
|
Aggelina Papadopoulou |
Young Maria Callas |
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Maria‘s director Pablo Larraín and writer Steven Wright created the character of Mandrax to serve a specific purpose in the film. Mandrax’s questions, as a documentary filmmaker, prompt Callas to reflect on her life. Consequently, Maria shows flashbacks to these important moments. Mandrax is there to help fill in the blanks of Callas’ story, including when she met Aristotle Onassis and when she sang for soldiers as a young girl. However, in real life, Callas probably never hallucinated a documentary filmmaker and showed him around Paris in the days leading up to her death.
3 The Movie Made Up Callas’ Hallucinations
Callas’ Hallucinations Are Purely Fictional
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Maria Callas’ hallucinations in Maria let the audience know how rapidly her health is declining. But, it’s unclear if the real Callas ever experienced these illusions. No official reports state that the famous opera singer ever suffered from hallucinations, even in the days leading up to September 16, 1977, the day Callas died. Callas’ drug abuse could have resulted in her seeing things that weren’t really there, though.
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The filmmakers had to fabricate some elements of Callas’ story to dramatize it and make it make sense.
As mentioned above, it’s important for the 2024 Netflix movie to incorporate Mandrax (the fictional character) into the story so that viewers can get a full picture of Callas’ life. The filmmakers had to fabricate some elements of Callas’ story to dramatize it and make it make sense. So, they decided that Callas would hallucinate an entire documentary film crew in Maria.
2 Callas’ Death Scene Is Dramatized In The Film
It’s Unknown Whether She Gave One Final Performance Before Dying
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Maria Callas dies at the end of Maria, but her death scene is purely speculative and dramatized. Angelina Jolie’s character walks through her apartment, singing one last song before she takes her final breath. During the song, Callas hallucinates an entire orchestra, Aristotle Onassis, and Mandrax once more. Meanwhile, people on the street outside, including Callas’ butler and maid (Ferruccio and Bruna), stop to listen to Callus’ swan song. Afterward, Callas collapses to the floor and dies.
Maria
is the final installment in Pablo Larraín’s trilogy chronicling influential women of the 20th century, following in the footsteps of
Jackie
(Jackie Kennedy, played by Natalie Portman) and
Spencer
(Princess Diana, played by Kristen Stewart).
In real life, it’s unknown if Callas gave one final performance right before her death. Callas was alone in her apartment when she was found dead, which is what happens in Maria after she finishes singing. So, it’s possible that Callas died singing, but people certainly couldn’t hear the music from the street, enticing them to stop to listen.
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1 Callas’ Death Is Disputed In Real Life
Callas Officially Died Of A Heart Attack
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Maria‘s final scene alludes to Maria Callas’ cause of death being heart failure, which is true in real life. Her official record states that she died of a heart attack on September 16, 1977, in her Parisian apartment. However, what led to said heart attack has been disputed over the years.
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Some have claimed that Callas’ drug use contributed to her death (which is what is said in the 2024 Netflix biographical psychological drama). Meanwhile, others believe stress or underlying health issues, like dermatomyositis, a degenerative medical condition, or a neuromuscular disorder are to blame. Whatever the case, Maria still gets the manner in which Callas died (heart attack) and she was found right.
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6/10 7/10 Maria RBiographyDramaMusic
Maria (2024) is a biographical drama about opera singer Maria Callas, directed by Pablo Larraín, starring Angelina Jolie. It concludes Larraín’s trilogy on iconic women.
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*Availability in US Release Date November 27, 2024 Runtime 123 Minutes Cast Angelina Jolie , Pierfrancesco Favino , Alba Rohrwacher , Haluk Bilginer , Kodi Smit-McPhee , Valeria Golino , Stephen Ashfield , Alessandro Bressanello , Vincent Macaigne , Lydia Korniordou , Rebecka Johnston , Botond Bartus , Marcell Lengyel , Philipp Droste , Jeremy Wheeler , Luca Gréta Felhalmi , Zora Gerda Fejes , Kay Madsen , Toma Hrisztov , Christiana Aloneftis , Aggelina Papadopoulou Director Pablo Larrain Writers Steven Knight Expand
Sources: Variety, Decider, PEOPLE
Source: https://truongnguyenbinhkhiem.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment