What is true in Angelina Jolie’s Netflix movie?

On By Littum

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Spoiler alert! We reveal important plot details about the movie “Maria” (now streaming on Netflix).

How do you capture someone as mythical as Maria Callas in a two-hour film?

That was the challenge for screenwriter Steven Knight (“Spencer”), who is reprising director Pablo Larraín for the new drama “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie as the ill-fated opera star as she struggles to sing again.

“I wanted to compress it all into a very significant period of days,” says Knight. “In fact, her last days were very reflective: she was very worried about her voice coming back and the love of her life. And in those days she was very badly hurt by a critic.”

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As portrayed in the film, Callas was indeed attacked by a journalist who secretly recorded a harsh vocal rehearsal and threatened to leak it to the media. Knight also based much of his script on first-hand accounts from Callas’ butler, Ferruccio (Pierfranceso Favino) and housekeeper Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher), who were her dear companions at the end of her life.

Here’s what else is fact and fiction:

Was the real Maria Callas addicted to drugs?

“Maria” follows the singer as she wanders the halls of her opulent Paris apartment, popping pills and hallucinating a journalist named Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a personified version of the sedative. Callas abused prescription pills throughout his life, Knight says.

“Remember, this is the 50s and 60s, when there was less known about the consequences of it,” says Knight. “She always had a problem with her weight, so she was prepared to take chemicals to deal with it.” Later, as her star waned, “she started using drugs like Mandrax to control the pain. Imagine being at the top of your career and suddenly nobody’s listening?”

How did Maria Callas die?

Callas died at her apartment in Paris on September 16, 1977, aged 53. Her official cause of death was a heart attack, although for decades there has been widespread speculation that she either committed suicide or died as a result of a degenerative disease such as dermatomyositis.

“A degenerative disease is a pretty strong thing that people think and would have been diagnosed by now,” says Knight. “I am absolutely convinced that it was not a suicide. Female icons like Maria Callas or Princess Diana or Marilyn Monroe are pursued by prey. (The public) wants to grab a little and death is not enough to stop them. The conspiracy theories will always happen.”

Did Maria Callas have a relationship with Aristotle Onassis?

Onassis, a Greek shipping magnate, met Callas at a party in 1957. Both were married at the time, but they continued a decade-long affair before he left her for Jackie Kennedy in 1968. Many historians have called Onassis “the great love” of Callas’ life, even though the film paints him as a controlling and dismissive man who made disparaging comments about her body.

In real life, “it was a hideous, flawed, broken relationship,” Knight says. “And it all took place on the world stage because he suddenly announced that he was marrying Jackie.” Despite their stormy courtship, “I think she loved him, and when he was dying he declared that Maria was the one he loved.”

Did Maria Callas really have a miscarriage or abortion?

Historians widely agree that Callas wanted to have children but was unable to. The film alludes to Callas suffering two miscarriages, and she tells Mandrax, “My body declined the invitation to make another one of its own.” In addition, author Arianna Huffington claimed in her 1981 book, “Maria Callas: The Woman Behind the Legend,” that Onassis forced her to abort a third baby in 1966.

“I didn’t want to go there too deep,” says Knight. “It’s so painful and personal, but the rumor is that he forced her to have an abortion. There is no confirmation or proof, although I always thought she was stronger than being told what to do.”

Was Maria Callas friends with John F. Kennedy?

The film depicts Callas sitting in the audience at John F. Kennedy’s birthday party in 1962, where she actually performed two arias at the event. The film also depicts Callas and Kennedy sitting in a restaurant together, where she rejects his flirtations and suggests that Jackie and Aristotle are sleeping together. “You and I belong to a very small group of lucky angels who can go anywhere we want in this world,” Callas tells Kennedy. “But we can never ever get away.”

“There is no evidence that Maria and Kennedy ever sat down to breakfast,” says Knight. “But I thought it was interesting to see these two people together. I wanted them to look a bit like prisoners because they were both in the world they had created for themselves.”

Where was Maria Callas’ last performance?

In real life, Callas’ last public appearance was in Sapporo, Japan, in November 1974, approximately three years before her death. The film ends with her tearfully looking out the apartment window and singing “Vissi d’arte”, from the Giacomo Puccini opera “Tosca”. The passionate moment may seem like a manipulative Hollywood ending, but it’s actually based on some truth.

“There is anecdotal evidence that in his last days Callas played his own music and sang along in his apartment,” says Knight. “It was a breakthrough for her, because she never listened to her own music. So I’d like to think there were people standing outside listening to her last performance.”