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Angelina Jolie gives Maria a compelling center, but Pablo Larraín’s portrait of Maria Callas left me admiring its intent more than connecting with its drama. This is not a cradle-to-career biography: it stays close to Callas’s final days in Paris, then lets memory and performance carry the story across decades.
What kind of Maria Callas film is this?
Maria is a 2024 biographical drama directed by Pablo Larraín, with Jolie playing the celebrated opera singer. Rather than trace Callas’s life chronologically, it frames her in her last days in 1970s Paris and revisits a life shaped by fame, performance and private reflection. The Venice Biennale described the film as Callas’s life “relived and reimagined”; Netflix likewise presents her as retreating to Paris after a glamorous, tumultuous public life. The Venice Biennale film page and Netflix’s film overview make that late-life frame clear.
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That choice gives the film a subjective, theatrical shape, but it also narrows what it can be. It is not a comprehensive account of Callas’s career or a guide to the history of opera. Netflix Tudum says the action unfolds over just a few days in one city while reflections span decades and continents. Budapest, Greece, Paris and La Scala in Milan were among the filming locations; that production detail does not mean every place or episode shown is a literal reconstruction of a documented event. Netflix Tudum’s production account describes the film’s approach.
Does Angelina Jolie make the film work?
For me, Jolie is the reason to watch. Her performance gives the film a steady focal point: she conveys a woman trying to retain authorship over her identity even as memory, public image and the demands of performance press in. The role suits Larraín’s heightened approach, which is more interested in Callas as a presence than in explaining every stage of her life.
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The Associated Press critic likewise praised Jolie’s intensity and resolve, calling the film “a dramatic, evocative elegy” and “more dream than history lesson.” That is one critic’s response, not a measure of consensus, but it captures the film’s intended register. I understood the appeal of that dreamlike construction; I simply found it easier to appreciate than to love. The Associated Press review discusses Jolie’s performance and the film’s tone.
Does Angelina Jolie sing in Maria?
Netflix says Jolie’s voice is blended with Callas’s recordings to heighten the film’s audiovisual immersion. That description supports a blend, not the claim that Jolie performs all the opera singing or that every vocal passage is archival. Netflix also says the related album uses restored Callas audio from extracts of nine operas featured in the film. If the film’s musical atmosphere intrigues you, listening separately to the Callas recordings associated with the film offers a different way into the music; the album’s nine opera extracts are a production detail, not a count of all the film’s arias or recordings.
Rank #2
Is Maria worth watching?
It is worth considering if you are open to a stylized, memory-led portrait and want to see Jolie inhabit a demanding role. It is a less natural fit if you want a history-first biography that moves methodically through Callas’s life and career. The film’s final-days perspective creates room for atmosphere and self-mythology, but it also leaves less space for the kind of broad biographical grounding some viewers may expect.
The film’s most revealing idea may be its uncertainty about what counts as real. The AP review notes a line from Steven Knight’s script, delivered by Jolie’s Callas: “As of this morning, what is real and what is not real is my business.” It is dialogue written for the film, not a verified historical quotation from Callas. That distinction matters in a work that deliberately blurs recollection and theatrical invention.
Rank #3
Where and when can you watch Maria?
The Associated Press reported a select US theatrical opening on November 27, 2024, followed by a planned Netflix streaming date in the US of December 11, 2024. Those are historical US release details, not a guarantee of current availability in every country or at this date; check the Netflix catalog in your region. The AP reported an R rating in the US for a sexual reference and some language. The AP review includes the US release and rating context.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.My verdict
Maria is thoughtful, visually and musically heightened, and anchored by a strong Jolie performance. Its deliberate distance from conventional biography is both its defining strength and the reason it did not fully win me over: I admired the portrait’s ambition, but wanted a more affecting connection to the person behind the legend.
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