‘Maria’ cinematographer Ed Lachman breaks down the party scene using a Steadicam and shooting in black and white

On December 14, 2024By Littum

Greek-American opera superstar Maria Callas is the subject Pablo Larrain latest feature. “Mary,” cast member Angelina Jolietakes up with Callas at the end of her life as she mourns the end of her career.

The film, now streaming on Netflix, is punctuated with flashbacks that show snapshots of her stardom; performing at La Scala and other opera houses around the world, adored by millions, and her private life courted by shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

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Cinematographer Edward Lachman used different film stocks to differentiate her story. 35mm was used for the main narrative, 16mm was used for her imagination and 35mm black and white for her memories.

talking with Black before Inside the frameLachman explains why shooting on film was his preferred choice. “Film is like oil paint and digital is like watercolor,” he says, “because we’re referring to different periods from the thirties to the seventies, it’s important that we shot on film to represent the world she was a part of.”

The scene where Callas meets Onassis for the first time, taking place after one of her performances, is a memory. “I call (this stage) a moving proscenium. We put the audience in their place at an opera, watching and letting them reflect on what they’re watching,” he says.

Since the film is very much about Callas and tells the story from her point of view, Lachman says he followed her into the environment, in this case the party. “Hopefully you feel what she could feel,” he says.

Lachman’s camera movement was rooted in the idea that opera in film is “augmented reality.” He says: “It creates the emotions, as she herself says in the film: ‘Opera doesn’t have to be realistic. It’s about the emotions’. And that’s what I tried to do in the color and in the movement was to create a heightened reality in the storytelling. So you felt like you were in her world.”

Lachman shot with the Arri 435 ES 3-perf camera and used the same lenses he had developed for Larrain’s black-and-white vampire film, “El Conde.” He explains, “The coatings would give a period feel to it.” Additionally, shooting on film gave “a depth to the image that you don’t get when it’s digital and pixel-fixed on one plane. You feel it’s subtle, but you feel there’s a difference in the depth of the image.”

The scene itself was shot in a library in Budapest, where the majority of the filming took place. But for this particular scene, Lachman says he was limited in where he could place lights. “So much of the lighting is always from practicality. There were candelabra bulbs. And I increased them from 15 watts to 40 watts, and that was enough exposure to shoot in black and white.” Lachman continues, “We shot with black and white negative film, which again was fortunate that the lab in Budapest still processed black /white film.”

In some places, he covered them with white Chinese lanterns made of paper so he could screw in bigger bulbs just to “increase the wattage of the area.”

Shooting against the white walls proved complicated, but Lachman found that covering the balls with black plastic provided a solution.

The film was ultimately about Maria and her mind. Lachman credits Jolie’s performance with creating a mystique to the film that he tried to capture in every frame. “It’s Angelina and how she played that part where she doesn’t give everything away about her feelings of what she thinks about a situation.” He notes, “You see what she’s thinking, how she’s expressing herself, but you don’t necessarily see it articulated. I think that’s the strength of the performance and the way Pablo edited (it) to construct the inner world. “

Watch the video above.

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