It is one of the most anticipated biopics of the year. Focusing on the career of Maria Callas, Maria by Pablo Larraín features Angelina Jolie in the shoes of the famous Greek singer. A metamorphosis that materializes in a teaser unveiled on August 29, a few hours before its screening at the Venice Film Festival.
Eight minutes of standing ovationand tears from Angelina Jolie to boot. On the evening of Thursday, August 29, the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival had eyes only for the biopic Maria by Pablo Larraín. In competition among the 83 films that make up the Official Selection, Maria is interested in last days of opera singer Maria Callas, in 1977, in Paris. If the first images had already reported last October this mimicry between the Divina and her interpreter Angelina Jolie, a first teaser put online on the sidelines of the screening, partly fulfills our expectations. On one of the visuals revealed, we see the American actress sporting a haughty bearing, underlined by an immense elegant flat hat and a long coat, a pledge of her mystery.
The video is just over a minute long broadcast by the site The Playlist exudes this same self-confidence, this same extra magnificence. Moving in a luxurious interior with a sumptuous chandelier and velvet curtains, boudoir atmosphere, the singer speaks with a butler whom she leads by the tip of the rod. Behind her, we see a rod containing her stage and/or ceremonial outfits and dozens of statues that seem to form an imaginary audience, which necessarily remains marble. She finally takes the tray brought by the waiter and slips away to observe herself in the mirror of her dressing table. A first scene which gives a foretaste of the main thread of the biopicwho interferes behind the scenes of the singer’s existence. To ultimately become an actor, rather than a spectator.
Pablo Larraín, or the obsession of biopics
Over the years and projects, Chilean Pablo Larraín has demonstrated his appetite for the biographical genre, which has become his trademark. Before tackling the figure of the artist Maria Callas, the filmmaker had fictionally taken over the lives of the Chilean poet and intellectual Pablo Neruda (Neruda2016), of the former First Lady of the United States and wife of JFK Jackie Kennedy (Jackie2017) or even Lady Diana (Spencer2021). And each time to bring them to life in front of the camera, actresses well known to the public, such as Kristen Stewart as Lady Diana and Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy. And now Angelina Jolie who will join this biographical cycle on February 12, the date of her revelation.
