Maria by Callas * * * 1/2
Maria by Callas is appropriately titled. It follows the latest trend with documentaries, which is to let the subject tell the story, rather than a narrator.
But Maria Callas has been dead for over forty years, so most of this footage is quite old. Also anything we have learnt since her departure, any changes in the interpretation of opera, any questions on how she would fare in today's world are excluded, which is good and bad. It's good that we don't have the nitter natter, jibber jabber from the latest Instagram created celebrity. On the other side it would be good to hear some educated voices reflecting on Maria Callas and helping to put her in context.
Anyway, using historical news footage and interviews with Maria Callas is primarily the way director Tom Volf has put together his cinematic shrine to Maria. And boy does he love her!
But so did millions of others. I didn't know how crazy they were for her. She had popularity like The Beatles. Almost any city she would visit would grind to a halt. People would line the streets to watch her limousine cruise from the airport to her hotel.
Other than the gushing accolades from her adoring fans, there are very few speakers other than Maria herself; so we don't learn exactly what it was that made her great; which is something I would like to have had explained to me. Because I have to admit, unless they're absolute beginners, all opera singers sound pretty much the same to me. And when you get to the world famous level, I find it impossible to determine what makes one better than the other. Especially when they are singing the great aria's - which are pretty well the only pieces featured in this film.
We have her 'disaster' period shown to us, and as far as I can tell she was right about being treated unfairly. She was such a big star the press were braying for a chance to bring her down. A performance where she had a bad cold and a sore throat was enough.
The rumor of her being an impossible prima dona remains just that. We see next to nothing that demonstrates her conduct as unreasonable.
She talks about her long relationship with Aristotle Onassis. They were lovers for years, then suddenly he up and marries Jackie Kennedy. Obviously it was a marriage of convenience, but it did not go down well with Maria. Yet she won in the end. She and Ari were so mutually attracted he ended up seeing her even as he was married to Jackie. (I can't imagine Jackie would have given a toss as long as she had Ari's dough.)
As the footage is primarily Maria being interviewed directly, we cannot help but be aware of her relationship with the press and interviewers, which again makes me wonder how much truth are we getting? She really knew how to play them, even if she did it with regal class.
However, if the aim of the documentary was to make me walk away admiring her, it worked. In fact, it made me quite like her as a person, regardless of her celebrity status.
But Maria Callas has been dead for over forty years, so most of this footage is quite old. Also anything we have learnt since her departure, any changes in the interpretation of opera, any questions on how she would fare in today's world are excluded, which is good and bad. It's good that we don't have the nitter natter, jibber jabber from the latest Instagram created celebrity. On the other side it would be good to hear some educated voices reflecting on Maria Callas and helping to put her in context.
Anyway, using historical news footage and interviews with Maria Callas is primarily the way director Tom Volf has put together his cinematic shrine to Maria. And boy does he love her!
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| You call that a review?! |
Other than the gushing accolades from her adoring fans, there are very few speakers other than Maria herself; so we don't learn exactly what it was that made her great; which is something I would like to have had explained to me. Because I have to admit, unless they're absolute beginners, all opera singers sound pretty much the same to me. And when you get to the world famous level, I find it impossible to determine what makes one better than the other. Especially when they are singing the great aria's - which are pretty well the only pieces featured in this film.
We have her 'disaster' period shown to us, and as far as I can tell she was right about being treated unfairly. She was such a big star the press were braying for a chance to bring her down. A performance where she had a bad cold and a sore throat was enough.
The rumor of her being an impossible prima dona remains just that. We see next to nothing that demonstrates her conduct as unreasonable.
She talks about her long relationship with Aristotle Onassis. They were lovers for years, then suddenly he up and marries Jackie Kennedy. Obviously it was a marriage of convenience, but it did not go down well with Maria. Yet she won in the end. She and Ari were so mutually attracted he ended up seeing her even as he was married to Jackie. (I can't imagine Jackie would have given a toss as long as she had Ari's dough.)
As the footage is primarily Maria being interviewed directly, we cannot help but be aware of her relationship with the press and interviewers, which again makes me wonder how much truth are we getting? She really knew how to play them, even if she did it with regal class.
However, if the aim of the documentary was to make me walk away admiring her, it worked. In fact, it made me quite like her as a person, regardless of her celebrity status.
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