And so concludes Pablo Larrain’s FLOW (Famous Lonely Opulent Women) trilogy. His latest double muse takes us to the Opera, as Angelina Jolie, a FLOW candidate later perhaps, tries to inhabit the legendary singer Maria Callas. If the FLOW stops here, he picked a very good end, getting better and better with each subsequent story.
I’m surprised we didn’t get to see Portman’s Jackie or a digitally de aged Kristen Stewart’s Princess Di show up in Maria, cause Callas (Jolie) was definitely living in those circles. The movie captures the last yearish of her life. At this point, she’s retired from the stage full time, living as a quasi recluse with her aging loyal butler Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) and housekeeper Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher). One day, a filmmaker named Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee) shows up, and wants to do a documentary on Callas’s life. Seeing an opportunity to get her story out, she agrees, giving her version of events about her crazy life, including her early years, her drastic life change with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer), and of course, how she brought people to tears with her vocal performances.
Either Pablo Larrain has been getting better, or he found a perfect tale for the stories he wants to tell? Bit of both probably. The editing, music, and locations were always going to be beautiful: that’s Larrain’s bread & butter, never better than this sumptuous piece of art. But Maria’s tale is different; from the jump the movie feels less like a horrific ornate prison, and more clearly channeling beautiful operatic tragedies into his leading lady. I think it’s because Maria is less trapped than her other two FLOW counterparts, Jackie O and Princess Di. As such, Callas’s story can have lower stakes and unfurl slowly but deliberately, without really driving up the tension to suffocating levels. So, for a bit at least, we can enjoy these beautiful places our La Callas goes. Maria’s walk and talks with Mandrax are amongst the highlights of the movie, making Paris look grand stately, and magical, if a bit overwhelming, at the same time. As we approach September 16, 1977 Larrain reigns in his impulses to shock, instead allowing Maria’s tale to find it’s dignified, if still melancholy, end that feels more earned than his other FLOW efforts.
His casting is still spot on too, finding a modern FLOW to channel Maria. Angelina Jolie’s post Brangelina projects are all over the place, most of the time catering to kids now. Most people forget though, before the tabloids, she was an Oscar winner. Maria shows she still can tap into those talents when the part suits her. She actually sings in this movie, sounding decent enough that the average person would think she’s been doing opera as a side gig (she doesn’t). And when she’s not singing, she’s helping her director manage the tone of the movie, ramping up in parts where she needs to, dialing it back afterwards. Black and white or in color, it’s Angelina’s presence that is Maria’s magnificent neutral, dominating scenes merely with a look or a stance that the scene needs to deliver what it needs to for Maria to work.
I don’t know if we’ll get more FLOW movies from Pablo Larrain. However, he gets credit for finding this interesting cross section of world culture and extracting interesting, human stories out of them. So, does he have the balls to have Jennifer Aniston play Angelina Jolie in a biopic about later Angelina? It’s crazy, but the Internet would explode of that happens. Think about it Pablo, FLOW #4!