Maria – movie review | Beauty and all.

Greetings! The movie Maria starring Angelina Jolie has appeared in our country’s cinemas. Showed it still at the festival in Venice, and, of course, he scattered in compliments, and Jolie received a standing ovation for his work like Brendan Fraser for the movie Keith. But at festivals to clap and praise love, so do not be deceived. In general, the tape got to the gaze of mere mortals, and how it turned out, let’s talk about it. Be sure to write your opinion about the movie, if you have already had time to watch, and let’s go.

So, the movie Maria from director Pablo Larraín tells about the life of opera singer Maria Callas at the end of her career. More specifically, the film tells about the last week of her life. At that time Maria lived in Paris and almost never left her apartment. The movie shows her struggling to regain her voice, battling depression and seeking praise from anyone she could get her hands on. Plus the tape tries to show her past life and reveal her character in the form of scraps of memories.

What can I say, the movie is ambiguous. It is ambiguous in the sense that here form prevails over content. The structure of the narrative is a bit chaotic. We are shown, on the one hand, the last week of Maria’s life, and on the other hand, fragments of her memories, which she shares with an imaginary interviewer. And these are really scraps, which do not add up to a single picture. Maria herself as a character is not revealed in them, much less as a real person. What are the reasons for the formation of her character, why she chooses such men for herself (although it is said here that she makes up for the absence of her father, but it is mentioned in passing, in one line), how she basically came to success. Yes, staffing an entire life in a feature-length movie is always difficult, and questions will remain anyway. But the big question here is, what was Pablo Larraín basically trying to tell us? That is, here you need to know who Maria Callas was and her life story, because after watching it what kind of person she was remains unclear. What she ultimately wanted and why she is the way she is. These questions are not left unanswered, but these answers are given so superficially and in passing that it seems as if they were added just to be there, not because the director wanted to reveal them.

In a way, it encourages you to study the question. After watching it, you want to know more about Maria, to read the biography, and it reveals so many interesting details that you have even more questions for the director. Of course, many details he added, for example, the betrayal of Aristotle Onassis. However, this is not revealed in the movie from the word at all, although it is one of the things that allegedly broke Maria. The quarrel is shown in passing, the child is mentioned in passing, Aristotle’s affair with President Kennedy’s wife is mentioned, and that’s about it. Knowing its history completely, the movie, really showing the key moments, will seem to be integral, because everything is arranged in the head thanks to the baggage of knowledge. But for the unprepared viewer the story will not be harmonious, and, for example, the very betrayal and that it somehow affects the heroine is not really felt.

And the character of Maria in the movie is complex. She attracts and annoys at the same time. Maria has the makings of a real diva, because she loves to be praised. She loves it and even chooses a restaurant where she is known so that she can listen to the praise. She has no one except the maid and the butler, with whom she seems to have a normal relationship, but she makes poor Ferruccio move that poor piano as if as a punishment, even though she knows about his bad back. She realizes that she’s going to die soon, she can’t tell the difference between visions and reality, she wants to get her voice back, but she claims that she’s not going to return to the stage, in general, you can dig into the character for a long time. Maria is a multifaceted character. As Shrek would say, she’s an onion with many layers. But not all the layers are revealed to the end.

As for Angelina Jolie, yes, she did a great job with the role. I thought when watching the movie, if she sang, she would win an Oscar right away, but no. Her singing – it is the result of the connection of the voice of Maria with Angelina, and in a couple of moments the voice under the lips did not get. In any case, in my opinion, her work is worthy of a nomination. For Jolie herself, the role is important, because it’s been a long time since she pleased fans of the audience with a good role. Just kidding, but her last job was in Eternals in 2021. She came back and showed that she is still one of the best actresses right now. Undeniably, Angelina is the jewelry of the movie and the person that everything hinges on.

In general, the movie has two advantages: Jolie and the cinematography. Cinematography – my respect. Personally, I remember the movie Blonde with Ana de Armas. There, too, with the filling were problems, but with the form … I could go on and on with compliments for a long time. The color picture is constantly replaced by black and white, excellent work with costumes and scenery, the cameraman gives out the most beautiful shots, and there is nothing to say about the musical accompaniment. If in such a movie it would not be worthy, then why gather for it? By the way, I understand that here is not the original music, as the composer of the movie has no composer. Or it’s being kept from me. All in all, the visuals and sound are definitely a plus to the movie and the very advantage worth seeing it for.

So what’s the bottom line. I don’t know about you, but lately I like such movies, where the cinematography (not graphics) is turned to the max, and I’m ready to forgive the lack of depth for that. With scripts, everyone’s in trouble lately. Maria is also not devoid of clichés and clichés of similar movies, so at least in such projects there is something to look at. The movie touched me. Not to the core, but it touched me. And I even wanted to sit through the credits a little bit at the end. But you know, it is difficult to recommend such a movie, because everything depends on your perception. Yes, movies are subjective in principle, but there are always movies that most people will like. Maria is not that case. However, if you want to watch it, then it is better to do it in the theater. At home, there will not be such an effect from the picture and sound. Well, unless you have a home theater, of course. Unfortunately, the only thing that can be said about Maria is that it is a beautiful wrapper, behind which nothing much is hidden. If you like the visual component in movies first of all, then you can watch it safely. In this respect, it will not let you down.

But that’s just my opinion, which may be radically different from yours. All the more interesting. Be sure to write your thoughts on all this and see you soon.

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