Duelling Divinas
“A-list stars Anne Hathaway and Penélope Cruz are rumoured to be in talks about taking the lead role in a joint British and Italian venture that will focus on the singer’s tempestuous relationship with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.” [The Guardian]
On the other hand, why do a biopic at all. I think most of them are dreadful. Coco Before Chanel is boring, and until the last scene, a fashion retrospective conflating her entire career into one show, it’s not even that pretty. And frankly, Audrey Tautou is chilly. Amelia came and went without making any splash. The Aviator was episodic. The problem for me with most biopics is that they’re usually about people whose lives are extremely well documented and therefore, they have trouble finding anything new to say. And Callas’ life has been analyzed and hashed to death. The parts of the story that would be really interesting to me, such as her childhood in NYC, and her stuggles to establish a career in the 40s and early 50s, are probably the least likely to be interesting to anyone but the most rabid opera fans (like us). What is there new to say about Callas’ relationship with Ari, her comebacks, or her reclusiveness ?
They’ll just make stuff up. All the principals are long deceased, so the libel laws don’t apply.
Open season!
There can be a subplot where Maria Callas breaks into movies by having sex with the director of ‘Medea’.
Yes, a lot has been said in the media about Callas, what is there new to add? Perhaps a biography would be interesting for the new generations, and biographies of Callas will continue to be made for centuries to come, as those about Caesar.
I must say, though, when I think of a new movie about Callas with Penelope Cruz, I wonder if they are putting into film Charles Ludlam’s ‘Galas’
. That was fun and as good as ‘Der Ring Gott Farblonjet’.
Listening to the Cologne Sonnambula is infinitely more spiritually rewarding than to suffer watching the awful ‘Callas Forever’.
I agree, Callas’ life has been hashed over a number of times now. What is there new to add indeed.
And how will they manage the fat young Callas? And as someone mentioned already, Callas wasn’t an intellectual, her work in opera was to a great extent instinctive with a fairly manufactured public persona . Ardoin referred to her as two people, Maria Callas and the much more ordinary Maria Click. All this isn’t exactly the barnburning type of stuff seen in current biopics.
Mostly likely they will focus on the Onassis/Jackie Kennedy triangle aspect. Jackie O has much more name recognition with the potential audience than Callas herself does.
But I skipped Callas Forever, so even if this one gets
made, most likely I’ll skip it too.
Jane Seymour played Callas in the tv film Onassis (w Raul Julia, Francesca Annis). (Callas never, as far as I know, played Jane Seymour)
Nope, she left that Simionata!
m. p. arazza: LOL thats funny
Personally I would rather see Hathaway do the role out of the first two.
but Angelica Houston? YES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
I love her she is one of the most talented actresses of her generation.
Dancin’ Danielle would make a “fun” Callas, perhaps opposite Erwin Schrott as Onassis and Annette Dasch as Tebaldi.