This is the very first trailer released of Pablo Larrain’s “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie. I’m digging Ed Lachman’s photography.
“Maria,” which screened at the Venice Film Festival, seemingly sets up Jolie as a potential Oscar contender — she’s playing famous opera singer Maria Callas. Larraín has described “Maria” as the conclusion to his trilogy of biopics about iconic historical women, the previous two were “Spencer” and “Jackie” — both garnered Oscar nominations for its lead actresses (Kristen Stewart and Natalie Portman).
Larrain’s film tackles the tumultuous, beautiful, and tragic life of the “world’s greatest opera singer.” It’s all relived and re-imagined during her final days in 1970s Paris, with black and white flashbacks recounting her past. Steven Knight (“Spencer,” “Peaky Blinders,” “Eastern Promises”) wrote the screenplay.
“Maria” earned decent ink at the fall fests, it has a 63 on Metacritic (based on 23 critics), but most of the writeups agreed that Jolie is the highlight. The flashbacks scenes seem to be a point of contention for some critics. Lachman’s photography is also getting some good ink.
“Maria” was recently acquired by Netflix, who also teamed with Larraín in last year’s “El Conde.” The project actually marks the seventh partnership between Netflix and Larraín’s Fabula production company.
Jolie is joined by a supporting cast that includes Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. “Maria,” distributed by Netflix, is set to hit theaters on November 27.
I should warn you: based on everything I’ve heard, this teaser is a total misdirection. The movie is not at all what it’s being portrayed as here. In fact, most of the footage in the teaser comes from the first few minutes of the film.