It’s a story that many may be somewhat aware of but the life of the world’s greatest female opera singer, Maria Callas, will be explored in the moving and beautiful film, Maria. The tumultuous, beautiful and tragic story of Callas’s life is relived and reimagined during her final days in 1970s Paris, where we see Maria in the later part of her life and career.

Directed by Pablo Larraín (known for Jackie and Spencer), the film reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days as she reckons with her identity, career and life.

Maria sees Angelina Jolie completely transform into Maria Callas, with the actor even training for several months to sing the songs in the film; her voice blended with recordings of Callas herself. The fashion, the interiors, the location – it all adds to the grandeur, extravagance and glamour needed to portray the life of Callas. It’s cinematically gorgeous but it’s Jolie’s performance that really takes your breath away in this film. She’s utterly brilliant to watch and see her take on Maria unfold on screen.

“Make me an appointment with a hairdresser who doesn’t speak,” Maria orders her staff in one scene. “Book me a table at a restaurant where the waiters know who I am.” It would be relatively easy for Jolie to play a clear-cut diva who orders people to do what she wants and clings onto her former fame but the actor brings a brilliant nuance to the character and allows the viewer to get to know Maria in many forms – not simply just a diva.

The audience is allowed a peek behind the curtain to see what Maria may have been like in her final days living in Paris, especially while losing her singing voice. Callas suffered from a neuromuscular disorder whose symptoms began in the 1950s but she was dismissed by doctors as being crazy and delusional. In the film, we see Maria going through her various health issues, attempting to get her voice back, as well as her refusal to believe or act upon her health conditions.

It’s a heartbreaking and tragic tale of one woman trying to hold on to the one thing she knows and loves but her body isn’t allowing her to go on.

It can be difficult, and sometimes impossible, for filmmakers to capture the essence of a person in a biopic, and many have failed before. But Larraín and Jolie manage to embody and portray the personality, behaviours and small quirks of Maria Callas. She is complicated, bold and glamorous but also has an intimate vulnerability that Jolie gets across to the viewer with so much emotion and beauty. Maria, the icon you are.

Image: StudioCanal