The official trailer for Maria, the biopic movie about Greek opera diva Maria Callas, was released by its international distributor, Netflix, on Friday.
With few images released thus far of Hollywood star Angelina Jolie as Callas, fans have now finally been offered a more comprehensive view into the actress’s transformation and performance alongside co-stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Valeria Golino.
The film will be out in selected theatres in the US on November 27th and debut on Netflix on December 11th.
In Greece, Maria will premiere on December 5th from Faliro House and Cinobo, the rights owners for Greece.
In speaking at a recent interview in London, Angelina Jolie expressed her great love for Greece, where part of the film Maria was shot. “It is very special, and I think there was something very meaningful to start this film in Greece, for obvious reasons,” the star noted.
Meanwhile, at the same event, Maria’s Chilean director, Pablo Larrain, praised the Greek light and the difference it made to his filmmaking, the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center (HFCA) – Creative Greece reports.
“The water, the colors, the islands in the background…But the light, I think, as a filmmaker, lighting has a lot of meaning and I think the light in Greece, to me it’s a Greek light. This atmosphere, you cannot cheat. There’s a lot of things you can cheat in films but not the light,” Larrain stressed.
Filming for Maria got underway in Budapest in October 2023, with additional shooting in Paris, Milan, and Greece. The Greek filming locations are situated on the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece in the historical region of Ilia.
Angelina Jolie was seen in the Greek city of Pyrgos, being transferred to the seaside Katakolo town. There, the luxury yacht Christina O, which once belonged to Greek magnate Aristotle Onassis with whom Maria Callas had a tempestuous relationship, was waiting for her.
The film’s production made use of the forty percent cash rebate investment scheme available to foreign audiovisual productions by the Greek state. Since the scheme’s launch in 2019, HFAC – Creative Greece, as the main body exercising the country’s film and audiovisual policy, has continued its efforts to attract international productions to Greece, which now has its own special place on the world film scene.
Four Greek actresses in Pablo Larrain’s Maria
Next to a mesmerizing Angelina Jolie and a star-studded international cast, four Greek actresses hold important roles in Pablo Larrain’s Maria, which follows the opera legend as she retires to Paris after a glamorous and turbulent life.
Teenage talent Aggelina Papadopoulou appears in the role of young Maria Callas circa 1940, while Christiana Aloneftis is another young version of the diva, circa 1947.
The acclaimed Lydia Koniordou, renowned for her Greek tragedy performances, plays the role of the diva’s mother, Litsa, and Erophilie Panagiotarea is the young version of Yakinthi, Callas’s sister, a role played by Valeria Golino as an adult.
The anticipated Maria is the third, and reportedly the final film in Larraín’s trilogy of 20th century iconic women, succeeding 2016’s Jackie about Callas’s love rival Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, and 2021’s Spencer about Princess Diana.