Angelina Jolie Is in the Hunt for Second Oscar With ‘Maria’

On the Academy Awards ceremony held earlier this 12 months, Emma Stone was awarded her second finest actress Oscar, a mere seven years after profitable her first. You may assume that profitable a number of appearing Oscars could be an excessive rarity, however you’d be unsuitable. Stone turned the forty fifth performer ever conferred multiple.

Why do I convey this up? As a result of if anybody thinks that Angelina Jolie can’t win the very best actress Oscar on the subsequent Academy Awards ceremony as a result of she already gained as soon as earlier than — in a distinct class, thoughts you, finest supporting actress, for Lady, Interrupted, which got here out precisely 25 years in the past — then I’ve acquired information for you: assume once more.

Jolie has definitely made a robust case for herself with a daring, tour de power efficiency because the legendary however troubled opera singer Maria Callas in Maria, the ultimate installment of Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín’s unofficial trilogy about exceptional ladies of the twentieth century who died too younger (the prior two have been 2016’s Jackie and 2021’s Spencer), which had its North American premiere on Saturday afternoon on the Telluride Movie Competition, only a day after its world premiere on the Venice Movie Competition.

First, let’s handle the plain query: Callas had one of many biggest voices of all time. Jolie is enjoying her. How may they presumably make Jolie, who, to my information, has by no means accomplished a lot singing earlier than — not like actresses who’ve performed Callas on stage in Grasp Class, together with Patti LuPone and Zoe Caldwell — sound like “La Divina”? The reply, apparently, is that Jolie studied for months and did carry out the music that we hear within the movie — which was then digitally blended with Callas’ personal voice.

No matter they did, it labored in addition to one may hope for, as a result of whereas one is aware of that Jolie can’t sing like Callas, there isn’t any proof of that on display — good luck discovering any examples of the motion of her mouth not matching the sound of the voice popping out of the audio system. If there had been, that will have been the tip of this film. As an alternative, it’s only the start.

Jolie performs Callas — who at one time was one of the crucial well-known ladies on the planet and was incessantly hounded by the press, one thing Jolie is aware of a bit about — as a lady in her early fifties who’s haunted by the sound of her personal voice when it was stronger, to the extent that she can’t even take heed to recordings of it. Nowadays, she solely actually leaves her beautiful residence in Paris when she wants a shot of adulation from followers. More often than not, towards the pleas of her loyal butler (Pierfrancesco Favino, who appears like Alfred Molina) and housemaid (Alba Rohrwacher, who appears like Andrea Riseborough), she pops a lot of capsules, which chip away at her bodily and psychological well being, and considered one of which, specifically, triggers the phantasm that she is being interviewed about her life by a journalist who isn’t actually there (Energy of the Canine Oscar nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee). Via this considerably shameless exposition machine, we be taught concerning the ups and downs of her rollercoaster life.

One can quibble about issues just like the movie’s pacing, and it’s, at instances, a bit meandering. However one can’t quibble Jolie’s efficiency or these of the lesser identified actors who encompass her, together with Valeria Golino, who performs her sister Yakinthi Callas, and Haluk Bilginer, who performs her lover Aristotle Onassis, each of whom make the very most of their transient display time.

As for Academy recognition, you’ll be able to take to the financial institution a finest actress nom for Jolie, which might observe within the sizable footsteps of Natalie Portman’s nom for Jackie and Kristen Stewart’s nom for Spencer. Jackie additionally was nominated for finest costume design and unique rating. Maria has no unique rating, nevertheless it does have gorgeous outfits and jewellery by Massimo Cantini Parrini, so one other costume nom might be in retailer. The legendary lenser Ed Lachman landed a finest cinematography nom earlier this 12 months for a movie that only a few individuals noticed, El Conde, so he can definitely land one other for this movie, which Netflix — having acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the movie earlier this week — will definitely promote the hell out of. And given what a large open season that is, one can’t rule out a directing nom for Larraín or a finest unique screenplay nom for Steven Knight.