Maria

Maria Callas was an infamous opera singer known as one of the most renowned sopranos of the 20th century. Directed by Pablo Larrain of Spencer on Princess Diana and Jackie on Jacqueline Kennedy, this too does not disappoint with its storytelling and cinematography. Maria, is the third film by Pablo about an influential female public figure and it does not attempt to life the character or break it down. Instead we get a look into what little we know of the finale days of her life and career. The film follows the seven days before her death in Paris in 1977, as she reflects on her life and career.

With Maria, filmmaker Pablo Larraín completes the unofficial trilogy after Jackie (2016) and Spencer (2021). It’s his sad women universe. The first two films were on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Diana, and while Maria Callas was never married to a world leader or a royal, she knew something about pain. And there’s a lot of it in Maria, headlined by Angelina Jolie. The Oscar winner takes us into the diva’s final days in Paris, and she comes to terms with the loss of her voice and fame. Originally released in 2024 in select theatres in the US, the biopic Maria will release on Lionsgate Play on May 9. The biopic is set in Maria’s Paris apartment, where the former opera singer resides with her butler, Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino), and housekeeper, Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher). Maria (Jolie), who is on several medications, blurs the past and the present. She imagines a young filmmaker (Kodi Smit-McPhee) interviewing her for a film, but mostly, the feature goes down memory lane as Maria tries to recapture her past glory and fails. It’s a tragic ending for the powerful singer who held the world at her feet with her performances. Maria also gives us parts of Maria’s affair with the billionaire Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer), who would go on to marry Jacqueline Kennedy. In a way, the film links back to Larraín’s 2016 film.