The Maria Callas biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie, had its world premiere in Venice on Thursday morning.
The anticipated movie by Pablo Larrain was scheduled to screen on the second day of the world-famous film festival.
A first clip from Maria was published online, offering a glimpse into Angelina Jolie’s performance as the late Greek diva of international opera.
“I relearned the word diva through Maria. What a diva is comes often from others’ perception of her, rather than what she thought and felt,” Angelina Jolie said at the premiere’s press conference.
“Maria Callas was actually one of the hardest working people, and I got to learn this directly from her. I followed the recordings of her teachings: she said that at first you need to understand the music and the composer and diligently practice, and only after that you let your emotions in. I was fortunate to be guided by Pablo Larrain who protected me in the process,” Jolie added.
“The bar in this that I would know if I did good enough [in the role] are the Maria Callas fans and those who love opera, and my fear would be to disappoint them,” the Hollywood star commented on her performance.
Silver screen diva incarnating opera legend
Hours before the world premiere in Italy, Netflix announced it has already acquired the US rights to the movie.
Written by Steven Knight, Maria is a US/Italy/Germany co-production by Fremantle, Komplizen Film, Fabula, and The Apartment Pictures.
It is the latest film starring silver screen diva Angelina Jolie in the role of Greek opera legend Maria Callas, whose life spanned from the 1920s to the ’70s.
The Academy Award-winning actress was directed by Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain, who says that Maria is his most personal work yet. It marks his third biopic movie exploring iconic women at inflection points in their lives, following 2016’s Jackie and 2021’s Spencer.
Co-starring with Jolie are Academy Award nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Valeria Golino.
“Maria Callas, the greatest opera singer of all time, undoubtedly had a most unique, beautiful, and tormented life. This is the story of her last days, a celebration depicted through memories, friends, and, most importantly, her singing,” the director says about the movie.
In Larrain’s words, “Maria is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas.”
As he told the Venice press conference, he was always intrigued by the fact that there were no movies about opera and opera singers, with very few exceptions, so he thought about making a movie about the best opera singer of all time and to celebrate her life, work, and music.
“We discussed how we could make a movie about a character that becomes the sum of the tragedies that she sings. In the end, the angle was always to celebrate her, and that wouldn’t exist without Angelina Jolie,” Larrain added.
While Callas was famous for her incredible voice, the film looks at a period in her life when she had lost her voice and tries to regain it.
After dedicating her life to audiences around the world, she “decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity, and sing for herself,” the director notes in Netflix’s US rights acquisition announcement.
Angelina Jolie on the red carpet for the world premiere of the Maria Callas biopic
On Thursday morning, Angelina Jolie was captured on camera as she walked on the red carpet of the Venice Lido for the world premiere of the Maria Callas biopic.
The movie will next screen at the New York Film Festival on September 29th and 30th. The first screening is scheduled to be attended by both Jolie and Larrain.
The 81st edition of the Venice International Film Festival runs August 28, 2024 to September 7, 2024, screening some of the best new movies to be released at theatres around the world.
A separate section is devoted to enhancing the restoration works on classic films as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.
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