Aug 30
Angelina Jolie's Maria Callas Pic Premieres at the Venice Film Festival, and Gay Twitter is All About It
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 3 MIN.
She once played a tomb raider named Lara Croft; now Angelina Jolie is starring as a hero of a different kind.
Jolie portrays Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larraín movie about the legendary opera star, which premiered last night at the Venice Film Festival – and Gay Twitter is atremble with anticipation for the movie.
One fan took to X with a retweet of a post that included a video of Jolie discussing the film and her hope that it would live up to the expectations of the diva's devotees.
"For me, the bar in this that I would know if I did good enough are the Maria Callas fans," Jolie said in the clip, which shows her on a panel to discuss the biopic. "And my fear would be to disappoint them."
The retweeted post included a video clip of its own: A news item covering Callas' "return to New York," when she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in March of 1965 for two performances of "Tosca" after a seven-year absence from the beloved opera house.
In the clip, an interviewer asks several men – some of them wrapped up in blankets against the cold and having stood in line for hours – about why they were so excited to see the opera star.
"Maria Callas," one blanket-shrouded young man, referred to as Dennis, said. "She's the greatest. Only for her would I do this – nobody else."
Another young man, Lex – also wrapped up in a blanket – declared, "Well, I've come specifically to see Callas. I think it's a shame that she hasn't been here, and now that she has agreed to come back I think that to miss her would be, really, a crime. The woman is undoubtedly the greatest singer of this century."
Lex went on to extol Callas' technical virtuosity as well as her acting prowess.
"How I'm about to be in the theater," the fan who posted the clip captioned the tweet.
In another post, the fan envisioned himself offering comment at the New York Film Festival, slated to run Sept. 27 - Oct. 14, where "Maria" will be featured as a "Spotlight" selection.
"Me at NYFF: 'Well, I've come specifically to see Callas,'" the post said.
The post garnered enthusiastic responses from like-minded X users who zeroed in on the clip's gay vibe.
The AP noted that "Maria" rounds out a trilogy in Larraín's body of work focused on what some have characterized as "distressed women." Larraín saw international success with 2016's "Jackie," starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy in the hours after JFK's assassination. He followed up with Kristen Stewart in the role of Princess Diana in the 2021 film "Spencer."
The Chilean filmmaker, the AP noted, "called on Jolie to take on the role as the legendary soprano in 'Maria,' which was recently acquired by Netflix for distribution."
"The film focuses on the final week of her life in 1977, in Paris," the AP went on to detail. "She is deeply isolated, with only her butler (Pierfrancesco Favino) and housemaid (Alba Rohrwacher) looking after her – concerned about her health, the drugs and the devastating ripple effects of her diminished voice."
"When I put her big glasses on and her Greek hair and I sat in my little robe as an older lady, I felt a (Maria) that felt like the private (Maria) that the world didn't know," Jolie said in comments to the AP. "And I connected to her first and, and kind of loved her."
Just as opera fans – many of them gay men – have for decades, and still do to this day.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
