Maria (2024)

This is nominated in one category for the 2025 Academy Awards--cinematography. It is one of my favorite categories because while the story is important, the atmosphere is what a movie creates and those that create it best are ever more enjoyable to me, even when the story is less engaging. That summarizes my feeling about this film. Angelina Jolie plays Maria Callas, the exceptional American-Greek soprano, with an ethereal presence, grasping the intense grief of the once-in-a-generation singer who’s been losing her voice. In the beginning, sings “Ave Maria” from Verdi’s Otello, perhaps both as a little prayer to her past, and as a reckoning with her present. The voice we hear belongs to Callas throughout, but the actress is giving it her all otherwise. The end is inevitable--the film starts there-—Callas died in 1977 at the young age of 53. There is an icy yet mournful quality to the story being told, as Callas walks through Paris streets and reflects on her life and her carrer. This is essentially a compassionate ghost story on the beloved things we lose, as they deteriorate and slip away.