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# Mariaaaaaa! I just watched a film called Mariaaaaaa! #
This new movie goes into the final week of the life of Opera sensation Maria Callas, before she passed away on September 16th 1977, at the age of just 53.
Portrayed by Angelina Jolie (Those Who Wish Me Dead), sometimes, she goes to a bar, other time’s she attended to by her butler and housemaid – respectively, Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino – Rush) and Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher – The Lost Daughter), her doctor is taking blood tests, and she spends time having a bimble around Paris, while on occasion, she’s being interviewed about her life by Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee – Elvis), with him asking while they’re out and about, “Do you want a coffee?”
And she begins to pontificate, “No, I want courage…”
The visuals are superb, but then if that’s all you came for, there are walking tours galore on Youtube, although here, the city is colour-graded to look like the late ’70s, to the point where I thought it was CGI, but it appears she did actually go there. I expect there were some alterations to fit the period, though.
I’d previously seen the director’s Jackie – about Jackie Onassis, and Spencer, the Princess Diana biopic, and both felt fairly ‘meh’. Here, I feel the same. What’s on view is just there, but not doing much other than existing. It’s just not drawing me in, nor engaging me, like it should be doing.
As Maria gets older and loses her singing voice, her sister, Yakinthi (Valeria Golino, remember her from Hot Shots?), tells her to “forget the music and live“, since Ms Callas is obsessed with performing. However, our lead is a dick for making Ferruccio and Bruna keep moving her heavy piano about.
Angelina sang some of her music towards the end, but for the most part is lip-syncing, which does feel odd to witness. I know it’s almost impossible to capture her vocal likeness – especially for O mio babbino caro (which you can hear above, as part of Manchester Day 2023), but then was it something that should’ve been attempted? If she was just on stage with the camera sweeping around her, as we occasionally see, that would be one thing, but the film opens with Ms Jolie with her face full-on, filling the screen.
Apparently, the leading lady actually sings for the film’s final act, but there’s not a single song in the credits which lists her name as a performer, so I call BS on that.
The film ends with clips of the real Madame Callas while out and about, but ultimately, come for the music, but wish you’d put Grand Theft Auto III on instead of Maria, and tuned into Double Cleff FM.
Maria is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
However, you can buy the soundtrack CD, and Vinyl.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 123 minutes
Release date: January 10th 2025
Studio: Komplizen Film, FilmNation Entertainment
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1; 1.33:1 (some scenes) (Super 16, Super 35, Super 8)
Rating: 3/10
Director: Pablo Larraín
Producers: Maren Ade, Jonas Dornbach, Simone Gattoni, Janine Jackowski,
Screenplay: Steven Knight
Cast:
Maria Callas: Angelina Jolie
Ferruccio: Pierfrancesco Favino
Bruna: Alba Rohrwacher
Aristotle Onassis: Haluk Bilginer
Mandrax: Kodi Smit-McPhee
Jeffrey Tate: Stephen Ashfield
Yakinthi Callas: Valeria Golino
JFK: Caspar Phillipson
Litsa Callas: Lydia Koniordou
Doctor Fontainebleau: Vincent Macaigne
Young Callas (1940): Aggelina Papadopoulou
Young Yakinthi: Erofili Panagiotarea
Ronald: Paul Spera
Cameraman: Kay Madsen
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.