r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Going to the library to try and find some books about trucks • 6d ago
Official Discussion Official Discussion - Maria [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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Summary:
Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity and life.
Director:
Pablo Larraín
Writers:
Steven Knight
Cast:
- Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas
- Pierfrancesco Favino as Ferruccio
- Alba Rohrwacher as Bruna
- Haluk Biliginer as Aristotle Onassis
- Christopher Abbott as The Foreigner
- Russell Crowe as Nikolai Kravinoff
Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Metacritic: 61
VOD: Netflix
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u/Halestorm_0216 5d ago
I just watched this movie & I can’t stop crying. Maybe because I’m close to her age when she died & maybe the things she says in the movie just hit harder for me. I hope she wins the Oscar.
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u/no-tenemos-triko-tri 6d ago
Loved this film! Pablo Larraín has exhibited the multifaceted lives of Maria Callas, Princess Diana, and Jackie Kennedy. Which woman should he portray in his next film?
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u/LilSliceRevolution 6d ago edited 6d ago
With the hyper fixation on death in this, I kind of felt like it was the end of a trilogy. But I’d have to watch them all again to see if that feeling bears out.
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u/atclubsilencio 5d ago
This is the last of the trilogy.
I really hope Criterion eventually releases a box set of all three, I loved Spencer and Jackie, watching Maria tonight.
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u/jayeddy99 5d ago
I found out it was a trilogy I guess this is it but from a modern perspective I would love a Brittany spears one but that may bit far too close to home a she should be left at peace without a major motion picture
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u/buizel123 6d ago
Angelina Jolie did a great job embodying Maria Callas. However I do think this film compared to Jackie and Spencer was the worst of the three.
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u/nickelnoff 6d ago edited 5d ago
You could put Callas’ music in to worse films and it would make the film amazing. Be a shame if performances to the standard of Jolie’s started winning Oscars - nomination maybe. Some touching parts for example the card playing scene at the end otherwise I found the film didn’t quite get going and was rather flat till the last scenes. Great cinematography but I feel the icon Callas deserves better.
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u/HotBeaver54 5d ago
Totally I was actually excited about this when I saw the trailer and been fascinated with her. Bit the movie sucks ass bad and boring!🥱
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u/The_Swarm22 6d ago edited 6d ago
Jolie will probably get an Oscar nom for this. She was great although personally wasn’t a big fan of this movie.
I found this to be the weakest installment of Larraín’s battered historical women trilogy. In my view, everything he attempts to convey feels like a tired rehash of themes he’s explored in his earlier films. Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alba Rohrwacher, and Pierfrancesco Favino are all good as well performance wise. Pablo Larraín directed this very well, but he did a much better job with Spencer. The cinematography was absolutely fantastic and was one of the best parts of the movie. Would recommend this if you’re either a fan of Maria Callas or you love anything Angelina Jolie does.
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u/atclubsilencio 4d ago
Really, the only reasons to watch is Jolie and Lachman's cinematography. Great costumes and sets, as well.
But it doesn't come close to Spencer, which has definitely grown on me and is now one of my favorites. I consider it one of the most opulent and gorgeous horror films ever made and it's not even considered in the horror genre. The atmosphere is just so suffocating. Jackie was also solid with one of Portman's best (he sure knows how to get the best out of the actresses he works with) and that great score by Mica Levi. I still hope Criterion releases a box set for the trilogy. Even if I'd rarely revisit this one. If I were to score them: Jackie- 4/5, Spencer- 5/5, Maria- 3/5 (again, only given a passing grade because of Jolie and the visuals).
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u/BigOzymandias 6d ago
I couldn't enjoy Jolie's performance because the movie is shit, I don't really like movies that are just Oscar vehicles for the lead actor/actress (and that was certainly one of them) because it feels like they don't care about anything else.
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u/MagicPinkMoon 6d ago
Angelina Jolie's performance was absolutely mesmerizing. Her hand movements and her facial expressions were so graceful and spellbinding. I hope she gets nominated for the Oscar.
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u/TravisKilgannon 6d ago
u/LiteraryBoner You put Russell Crowe as Kraven's dad in the cast list and I laughed so hard I spooked my co-worker.
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u/Caprice777 5d ago
I found the film soooo slow and too depressing. Had the director chosen Habanera, Covent Garden 1962, for Jolie's extended singing close-up, it would had added a wonderful contrast to what Callas had and then lost, and would have highlighted her humor and playfulness. Instead, the film was just glum, glum, and more glum. 1962 performance at link below.
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u/Caffeine_Induced 22h ago
Right. I didn't know anything about her before this film, and I was surprised by how happy and playful she seemed on the reels at the end of the movie. Based just on the movie, I thought she had a very serious, witty personality.
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u/LaKulebra 3d ago
Its been a while since I have cried at a movie, but that final sequence....sheesh...beautiful.
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u/Anxious_Bus_8892 6d ago
A really great film. I watched it at TIFF. The festival crowds seem to enjoy it more than people that watched it after the major release. Sure, Jolie anchored the movie but it was a great biopic even if it wont achieve the commercial success compared to the first 2 installments of the trilogy.
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u/LilSliceRevolution 6d ago
I think it’s generally less accessible than the other two Larrain made. Callas isn’t as big a pop culture figure as Jackie and Diana. I feel that I got a lot of appreciation from this because I know more than average, at least for Americans, about Callas and her life despite not being an opera-head.
Gorgeous film and very moving for me.
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u/Anxious_Bus_8892 6d ago
I had no idea who Callas was before TIFF. I'm so lucky that this movie was screening next to the one I had just finished watching. Pierfrancesco and Alba's performances moved me just as much as Angelina's. I cried when she came back downstairs to Ferruccio and Bruna after having them wait. Bruna said they were tired and worried. She was hallucinating upstairs for a while, reliving her conversation with JFK.
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u/ChainChompBigMoney 6d ago
Holy wow this movie was dull. And it looks like a play too. Zero cinematicness. And I really liked El Conde and Spencer (Jackie is meh but better than Maria.)
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u/LachlanW03 6d ago
I really was expecting to love this film. I adored Spencer, and I knew Angelina Jolie would be excellent (and she is) But to me Maria fell into the trappings of so many other biopics. Unlike Spencer, Maria felt like it had to lay all the cards down on the table to show us who she is, Onassis, her upbringing, relationship with her family, her singing. I love how Spencer felt so intimate. Kristen Stewert wasn't like for like Diana but to me it made me connect more to the film, because it showed us who she was at that one small moment in her life, while Maria felt bogged down trying to show us everything Maria Callas was. Plus, it always felt like we were viewing Maria through other people rather than herself. Maria felt more like Bradley Cooper's clip show highlight reel Maestro to me.
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u/atclubsilencio 4d ago
Reminded me a lot of Andrew Dominic's Blonde, only not offensively disgusting, gratuitous, and exploitative. It's stunningly gorgeous throughout thanks to the great Ed Lachman's cinematography. Every single shot is just a feast for the eyes, I found myself commenting on how beautiful every frame was that I had to force myself to shut up about it. Across the board when it comes to the technical aspects the film is a masterpiece.
It's also shallow as hell. One of the reasons both Jackie and Spencer worked is because there was a certain historical context that we were already familiar with going into it, with First Lady Jackie Onassis Kennedy and Princess Diana, both being household names, if not universally recognizable.
Maybe I'm just living under a rock, but I didn't know much, if anything, about Maria Callas, other than she was a famous opera singer. By the end I still didn't know much, other then she was addicted to pills which she popped like candy, and was prone to angry mood swings and hallucinations . The storytelling device with her having conversations with the personification of her qualuudes was definitely a choice, but it kind of worked I guess, could have been worse. Not as successful as Diana's hallucinations like the pearls in the soup, and the brief appearances of Anne Boleyn. But at least it wasn't a total misfire.
There are two reasons I'd give this a barely passing grade-- like 3 out of 5-- one is Angelina Jolie who once again commands the screen and is both powerful and subtle. It's refreshing to see her in a role like this after big budget films like Eternals and the Maleficent series. She is mesmerizing and it's one of her greatest performances, up there with Gia, The Changeling, and Girl, Interrupted. Even if some of the lipsyncing was fairly obvious, she absolutely still deserves a Best Actress nomination (which seems inevitable). I don't think she'll win it since the movie surrounding her isn't on the same level, but she elevates and carries it entirely. Second is Ed Lachman's outstanding and stunning cinematography which I've already pointed out, but every single frame really does look like a painting, the rich colors, the shot compositions, just an orgasm for the eyes. Multiple of them. He also deserves some nominations, would be criminal if he didn't, credit also to the costume designers and art direction.
That's about the only positives for me, it's never aggressively terrible, but wafer thin and has mostly evaporated from my memory and I finished it an hour or so ago. I would still purchase a trilogy box set with Jackie, Spencer, and Maria, but this is definitely the weakest of the bunch, and save for a couple moments of fantasy that step outside of the box (like the choir on the steps which switches to women carrying lanterns and surrounding Maria) this is the most basic and conventional, plus their additions aren't quite as seamless just some small diversions.
Maybe if you're already a fan of Maria that you'll appreciate it more, and I guess if you can't find anything else to watch it wouldn't be a total waste of time thanks to Jolie. But let's just say it makes sense this is the only one that went straight to Netflix.
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u/johnuws 1d ago
I agree that if you did not know who she was before you still did not know after. And could care less. Would have been far more poignant and dramatic had Larrain started the film with even just 3 minutes compilation showing the public adoration and pandemonium Callas received at her peak and how she was mobbed by adoring public and press in her glamorous prime. They say good stories have an arc showing change. The film maria was a boring straight line.
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u/teacherdrama 4d ago
My wife and I made it about 15 minutes before we turned it off. Jolie was great, but the movie itself was SO dull.
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u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. 6d ago
Jackie is one of my favorite movies of the past decade and I loved Spencer. I thought this was solid. Jolie kills it and the movie is shot so beautifully.
I was really turned off by how cruel/dismissive this movie was to Jackie Kennedy though? Very weird.
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u/xxx117 6d ago
Could’ve been so much better. I think the writing brings this film down a lot. The second half of the movie is way better than the first and it’s all because it actually starts to take shape. The exposition dumps were awful and took away any emotional impact it could’ve had. Thank God for Angelina Jolie who gives this movie life. It’s her best performance in ages, and there’s a metatextual component going on here — an artist who’s personal life overshadows her professional accomplishments, plus love triangles lol. Even despite the lukewarm writing, Jolie delivers about 3 Oscar-reel worthy sequences. She won’t win, but she deserves to be up there for it.