The Maria Callas biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie, on Thursday morning had its world premiere in Venice.
The anticipated movie by Pablo Larrain was scheduled to screen on the second day of the world-famous film festival.
Hours before the world premiere in Italy, Netflix announced it has already acquired the U.S. rights to the movie.
Written by Steven Knight, Maria is a U.S./Italy/Germany co-production by Fremantle, Komplizen Film, Fabula, and The Apartment Pictures.
Silver screen diva incarnating opera legend
Maria is the latest film starring silver screen diva Angelina Jolie, in the role of Greek opera legend Maria Callas, whose life spanned from the 1920s to the ’70s.
The Academy Award-winning actress was directed by Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain, who says that Maria is his most personal work yet. It marks Larraín’s third biopic movie exploring iconic women at inflection points in their lives, following 2016’s Jackie and 2021’s Spencer.
Co-starring with Jolie are Academy Award nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Valeria Golino.
“Maria Callas, the greatest opera singer of all time, undoubtedly had a most unique, beautiful, and tormented life. This is the story of her last days, a celebration depicted through memories, friends, and, most importantly, her singing,” the director says about the movie.
In Larrain’s words, “Maria is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas.”
Callas was famous for her incredible voice, but the film looks at a period in her life when she had lost her voice, and tries to regain it.
After dedicating her life to audiences around the world, she “decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity, and sing for herself,” Larrain notes in Netflix’s U.S. rights acquisition announcement
Angelina Jolie on the red carpet for the world premiere of the Maria Callas biopic
On Thursday morning, Angelina Jolie was captured on camera as she walked on the red carpet of the Venice Lido for the world premiere of the Maria Callas biopic, which was scheduled for 11.15 local time.
The movie Maria will next screen at the New York Film Festival on September 29 and 30. The first screening is scheduled to be attended by both Jolie and Larrain.
The 81st edition of the Venice International Film Festival runs August 28 to September 7, 2024, screening some of the best new movies to be released at theatres around the world.
A separate section is devoted to enhancing the restoration works on classic films as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.