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(More customer reviews)Franco Zefferelli, the director of so many lavish films- among them 1968's Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor, as well as the designer for sets in big budget operas, and best friend of Maria Callas, has made a movie that "saved" Callas. This is his tribute to her. This is a movie that was released in 2002, in Paris and Rome, but that did not make its way to American audiences until recently. It's soon to be released on DVD. For some Americans, this movie is a foreign film, another Zefferelli egocentric vehicle. To others, the opera fans, this is a gorgeous re-telling of the final days of Maria Callas and a portrait of her as an artist. And finally, there is a large [...] audience that would appreciate this film. Zefferelli himself is a gay man and in the past, when such lifestyle was taboo and controversial, he could not incorporate such themes in his movies. But this, his latest film, uses a gay character (played by Jeremy Irons) who manages a rock band and who launches a project for Maria Callas to make a "comeback" when she had been away from the limelight for years in Paris, 1977, when this film takes place.
Fanny Ardant plays Maria Callas, not an easy role for any actress to undertake. There are moments when Ardant becomes Callas- she imitates the diva's facial expressions (intense ones, angry ones) and her movements accurately. Her artistic integrity is the theme. Eventhough this director offers her to reappear as an actress with vocal dubbing from an old recording of hers of her voice, Callas refuses because she has too much integrity. A lot of the moving scenes are when we get a range of emotions from Ardant- especially the scene in which she hears a recording of Madame Butterfly and she breaks down in tears. That's difficult to watch. But in this movie, Callas is rescued. It was Zefferelli's own personal fantasy that he would save her. He made her come alive again. At the end of the movie, after getting her strength back, and even killing off the memory of Onaissis her ex husband who married Jackie Kennedy- she kills him in her mind when she plays Tosca one last time and stabs Scarpia, Scarpia substituting for Aristotle Onaissis. These subtle things express Zefferelli's wish to have been Callas' savior. This movie will be a treat for Maria Callas fans. I really enjoyed it. It was powerful and moving and very well-written, even humorus and poignant. Callas is back. But then again she never left. Her legacy lives on in recording albums and the few films that captured her dramatic power.
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In this loving tribute to Maria Callas, Zeffirelli imagines what could have happened atthe end of her life at the age of 53.
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