Maria by Callas (2017) Reviews

• Excellent

  jonflynn12018-05-13

  I have watched a few documentaries about Callas over the years and this one still had many surprises in store for me. I thought the interviews and footage used were excellent. I had never seen her speak so much and, at times, lucidly about her life. You have the success and the solitude, the art and the love. There are also some exquisite arias. It is very moving, if you look carefully behind the facade.

• splendid

  Kirpianuscus2018-07-21

  One of most impressive portraits of Maria Callas. lovely because it is answer to many expectations. explanation for the presence of her name with same intensity today, like yesterday. her vulnerability - from the egocentric perspective about life and the people around her to the chance gived by Pasolini. a film who escape to the temptation to be a pure eulogy/hommage. a film defined by the emotions you feel. more than by other pieces. so, a splendid work.

• Superb Documentary

  Tony Rome2018-10-07

  I don't think some of the viewers understand, this is Maria by Callas. This film contains no modern commentary, it is strictly focused on Maria Callas own memoir, performances, and TV interviews. Very well inserted footage of David Frost show, Callas performances, and news-clippings from the period of about 1947-1977. The film goes deep into understanding the demons that haunted Madame Callas, pressures from spouse, pressures from the Met, and other places of performance to continue to perform and please the masses.

• listen to the music, not the words

  ferguson-62018-11-20

  Greetings again from the darkness. These days, it's inconceivable for anyone under 40 years old to think there was a time when the general public knew very little of the private life of celebrities - even those of whom they were dedicated fans. Today, it's not uncommon for celebrities to pre-package their life, delivering behind-the-scenes details that far too many people care about. Madonna, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lopez are just a few that have simultaneously tried to appease and manipulate fans into a feeling that they really know the person behind the superstar facade - and perhaps fulfill a fantasy of some common ground. Even more prevalent are the biopics, either in the form of a documentary (WHITNEY: CAN I BE ME) or dramatization (RAY). Filmmaker Tom Volf realizes that the great Opera singer Maria Callas was known for two things: being a world class soprano/actress and for being difficult to work with ... the ultimate diva, one might say. Working with narrator and noted mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, the film expertly reinforces those two traits, and even adds a new label: narcissist. It does so by using (as the title suggests) Maria Callas' own words taken from interviews, letters to friends, and personal diary entries. The Greek-American Opera singer/actress was born in Brooklyn to Greek immigrants, and, as a teenager, moved to Athens with her mother and sister after her parents' marriage fell apart. Director Volf uses a BBC TV interview with David Frost to provide a framing structure to the film, but there are also clips of other interviews shown, and of course, Ms. DiDonato's readings of the personal Callas writings. We learn Maria was originally controlled by her mother, and then by agents and her husband. Maria attempts to explain how the "difficult" label undeservedly stuck to her for decades due almost entirely to her vocal issues/illness at one sold out performance at the New York Metropolitan. Her own words later contradict, or at least cast much doubt on the accuracy of this simplification. Archival footage of her life ... her mostly glamorous life ... is shown throughout, including bits with Aristotle Onassis, filmmaker Vittorio De Sica, actor Omar Sharif, filmmaker Pier Pablo Pasolini, Grace Kelly, and renowned soprano Elvira de Hidalgo, who became Maria's voice coach. Maria's fairy tale life is on display: chauffeurs, standing ovations, worshipping fans, and her incredible wardrobe that made her a fashion icon of the times. Her words convey the unhappiness and loneliness she felt, even during the "good times". It's the stage performances that made her famous and took her to the top, so Mr. Volk includes several full-length numbers from Verdi, Bellini, Bizet and others ... her glorious talent on full display and surely to inspire awe from any first timers. So while her singing provides a welcome respite from her words, it's those words ... her own words ... that seem to solidify her reputation as a diva. Though she claims to have been controlled by others, she managed to take extended breaks throughout her career, and every opera fan and director understands that vocal issues arise periodically, so it's quite doubtful anyone would hold an extended grudge over such an occurrence. A substantial portion of the film deals with Maria's long-term affair with Aristotle Onassis, and how shocked she was, and betrayed she felt, when he married Jackie Kennedy without so much as a word of warning. And when his marriage to Jackie crumbled, he came scurrying back to Maria, who openly welcomed him ... a sure sign of just how lonely she had been for most of her life, despite the glamour and adulation. We can debate whether the legacy of Callas might have been better off had her personal thoughts remained buried, but there is little doubt that we are sometimes better off simply enjoying the work or art of a rare talent, rather than getting to know them as a person.

• Takes you back in time convincingly, makes it easy to appreciate the art

  Horst_In_Translation2018-05-18

  "Maria by Callas" is the title of Tom Volf's first directorial effort and it's a pretty impressive work for a rookie these 110 minutes we got here. The subject is of course the late famous opera singer Maria Callas and we find out about career and private life in here. It is of course inevitable that the film is packed with her singing and that is maybe the best thing about it all. These visitors from her concert in the United States could not be any more right in saying she is a definite contender for greatest voice of the 20th century. And speaking about interviews, there are also many interviews with Madame Callas herself that add a great deal of charm and made it easy to see for me why she is so appreciated and desired until today. Not just in her performances, also in her interviews there always feels to be a sense of perfection that also has a bit of a sad note to me as I doubt there is one point we really see the Maria that she really is, but there is always a bit of an act to her. But it adds to the fascination. Maybe I would have liked to find out a bit about her really young years, but it's fine nonetheless as we see a brief summary to her rise to fame and global stardom, but a lot more focus is on her falling from grace, more with the press than with individual concert visitors who always managed to appreciate her. Another thing I found a bit sad was how she kept talking about the family she longed to have, but every time in the next sentence she tried to talk herself out of this wish by saying it wasn't meant to be and that she had to sacrifice it for her career, while stating repeatedly that being truly loved by a man and children maybe would have made her infinitely more happy than what she achieved by making millions of people so happy with her voice. Men also seem like a complicated subject looking at her first (and only) marriage with Meneghini and how it all went wrong before her lifelong affection for Aristotle Onassis who picked another femme extravangante when it counted the most and broke her heart, but still this did not keep her from caring for him when he returned to her in search for affection, not love. The short scene with Pasolini and her work on his movie was a nice inclusion too. It is a very insightful documentary we have here and I find it pretty sad this has not yet scored a lot of awards attention. It is a 2017 release yes, but I hope it changes in the coming months. I knew almost nothing about Callas before and I must say I turned a bit into a fan while watching. A truly gifted artist, but also a very tragic character admittedly. Well done, one of the best documentaries I have recently seen and this one for me is way closer to 4 out of 5 stars than to 2 out of 5. Go watch it if you have the chance. Maria will win you over for sure as she did with me and that's quite a compliment as I am not a great opera fan at all.