Callas Forever

source: Callas Forever

So what was the meaning of writing all of those fictionalized events to ascribe them to the legendary singer's last stage? Did they want to say how the artist's life is just a truth in illusionary frame? Or that any artiest has only one timed opportunity to be creative, and after its end there will be no more ingenuity?!, or that love can destroy an artiest utterly (her love story with Onassis)?, or that any attempt to ruminate the lost youth is impossible (the relationship between her and the young actor)? Is it about how sincere (Callas) was when she refused to complete the hoax, and demanded to terminate the movie within the movie? So being that sincere to reality, why rather they didn't terminate (Callas Forever) itself?? Well, the real question which buzzes in my head all the time, and maybe I'll sleep better if I find its answer, is WHY did they make this whole absurd movie in the first place?!!, what kind of possible concept could be expressed through this story which never happened?! I have no idea! All what I'm having is just tons of confusion, and even more tons of disgust, not only because of me being that ignorant, but also because of me being that patient to stand all of this antipathetic movie till it ended! I didn't hate it because it's not understandable, I hated it because it didn't want to be understandable, and I believe that when you finish watching a movie, then give it a lot of thinking, to discover totally nothing about its own meaning or its special message, so this is the definition of a "Bad" movie. long story short, I'm sorry to who reads right now because you'll find nothing more than questions, and I'm sorry that you watched that movie too. It's not Callas Forever; it's Confused Forever!

After seeing Fanny Ardent as Maria Callas and hearing the magnificent voice of the famous opera star - I thank Zefferelli for bringing us some breath-taking visuals of the opera Carmen. Fanny was very good and she was Callas at all times. Jeremy was Jeremy and Joan Plowright was as always a pleasure. The scenes of Carmen were spectacular and for a person who never goes to the opera it was an eye and ear opener. Bizet would have been proud of this adaptation and Callas could have been ardent about Fanny who obviously was Callas. What a pity we cannot see the real Maria on film and can but listen to that grandiose voice on her records. It is the first time I have seen Fanny Ardent and it is a shame we never see all the French Films she has been in. I am pleased to rate this a high 8

Maria Callas was an artist of such magnitude that it seems impossible for any filmed biography to do her justice. Besides, who could really play Maria Callas? Well, the actress featured here does as well as anyone else could, which is, I guess, adequate. Of much greater importance is the banality of the story. I can't imagine Maria Callas in the 1970's even considering doing what the film suggests. By 1965, it was painfully obvious that Callas, despite her glamorous image and appearance, could never, even at age 41, have reconstructed her once fabulous voice, a voice which in its prime could accomplish miracles. In any case, it is folly to suggest that Callas would have elected to do a film version of "Carmen" ( a role she never cared for) with a dubbed recording she had made years earlier. I could see "Norma", "Tosca" or "Traviata", but never "Carmen". Larry Kelly actually died several years before Callas, so his presence here is pure fiction ------- which is what the film actually is. As a way to pass 108 minutes, the film is adequate, but if you're looking for a documentation of Maria Callas in her final years, you will have to keep looking. I doubt whether you will ever find what you are looking for because it seems highly unlikely that the real Callas, ever the elusive firefly, will ever be captured and preserved.

This film arrives two years after it was released in Europe. Frankly one doesn't know who to blame for a movie that leaves the viewer confused about who the real Maria Callas was. Franco Zeffirelli should have known better. He was around when Callas was at the peak of her career. To team up with Martin Sherman in this shameful travesty it's a betrayal to her memory. The thing that comes clearly in the film is Maria Callas' sense of professionalism and perfectionism she asked of herself and the ones involved in any project she undertook. Alas, what we watch is the sad final days of a woman who threw everything away for the love of Ari Onassis, who didn't deserve. Fanny Ardant, at times looks like Maria, but there is a problem with her distinct French accent because we all know Maria Callas was born in New York and her command of English, was impeccable. Jeremy Irons also appears as the manager. To catch the art of Maria Callas at her best, one must check "Medea" directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Callas comes across as the great actress that she was.

I think that this one of the best movies that I've seen in the last months. For me Fanny Ardant is the Oscar winner in 2003. The movie is much deeper than it first looks. I think it's a satire to the decay of the art from our days. For fame and glory Maria Callas signs a pact with the devil accepting to make playback in Carmen... That's the tricky part of the movie, that it isn't about Maria's life, it isn't about the wonderful music, but about the beauty of the original art. I recomand this movie to everybody, I think that you'll have a very nice surprise viewing it.

I watched this film aboard an Air France flight to New York and was extremely moved--at the end I broke down into sobs. The story was unusual, the acting first-rate, and there's a sub-plot (I won't break the surprise) that was handled in a matter-of-fact, mature, and sophisticated way. I don't believe it was released theatrically in the U.S., but would very much like to obtain a DVD of the firm.

CALLAS FOREVER is a beautifully written, tenderly directed and acted tribute to the immortal Maria Callas by a man who knew her as well as anyone - Franco Zeffirelli. The fantasy of placing Callas on film for posterity in the last year of her life, the year she died of heart failure, when her voice was gone but her artistry remained is the means by which Zeffirelli memorializes the Diva and in every way he succeeds. The year is 1977 and Maria Callas (Fanny Ardant) is in seclusion in her Paris apartment, grieving over 1) her beloved Aristotle Onassis who left her for Jacqueline Kennedy and then died and 2) her disastrous farewell concert in Japan which ended her magnificent career with a flop. No longer able to sing she lives in the past, listing to her old recordings and taking pills. Only her constant maid Bruna (Anna Lelio) is allowed to comfort her with occasional visits from her warm-hearted publicist Sarah Keller (Joan Plowright). In Paris for the promotion of a punk group Bad Dreams is Larry Kelley (Jeremy Irons) who has just met and bedded a young artist Michael (Jay Rodan): Kelley had been Callas' agent in her heyday and Michael has been creating paintings inspired by her recordings. Seeing Michael's obsession over Callas whom he has never seen perform forces Kelley to visit Callas, their devotion to each other is 'rekindled' and Kelley proposes a film version of Callas not only to bring her out of her depression but to capitalize on the fact that present and future generations should have a filmed account of the penultimate opera singer of the 20th century. Callas is recalcitrant at first, not wanting to produce a fraudulent film made using her old recordings dubbed onto the sound track of a current staging, but she finally resolves her hesitancy by granting the filming of 'Carmen', a role she recorded but never played on the stage. Thus the project is launched and Callas is revitalized and happy again, being satisfied with the miracle of technology that allows her to invest her energies in the acting of Carmen while consenting to lip-synch to her old recordings. She even has a say in the casting of the other roles, especially Don Jose - Marco (a very hunky Gabriel Garko, a former model and Mr. Italy!). She retains her temper tantrums and demands for perfection that hallmarked her real career, doing her own dancing, having a say about costumes, etc. The film is eventually finished and the result is magnificent. There is even some intrigue when Marco shows more than a little interest in her (a hint of the Strauss Marshallin/Octavian encounter). But alas at the end of the film Callas is forced to admit that her youth cannot be regained and decides the film is a 'fraudulent work' is not compatible with her life's devotion to truth in music. She asks Kelley to destroy it. How these two come to grips with their individual lives (Kelley's Michael has left him and he is once again as alone as Callas) is finessed by one of the most tender endings on film. Fanny Ardant is a miracle as Callas: she inhabits her physically, understands Callas' facial features as she lip-synchs her operas, and seems to be a reincarnation of the Diva. Jeremy Irons gives one of the finest performances of his rich career as the aging gay agent and Joan Plowright adds just the right amount of lightness and grace as Sarah Keller - wise, acerbic, yet supportive of both Callas and Kelley. The scenes of Paris are correctly nostalgic: the sets for 'Carmen' by Carlo Centolavigna create a gold standard for all future true productions of 'Carmen'. The supporting cast is uniformly excellent. Zeffirelli has succeeded in giving us a memorial to Maria Callas and for that the opera world will be forever grateful. The passages of the many arias used in this film are among the finest versions Callas recorded. Everything about this work is brilliant and it deserves the widest audience possible. Grady Harp

What a strange film. I recommend it not because it is a successful project, it isn't. But once having seen it, and putting it aside for reflection, you will appreciate the experience. Here is the real world: Maria Callas was an extraordinary voice and unusually committed to the acting component of opera. In life, she was famous for being imperious and vain. She was unattractive, relatively illiterate, achingly dumb and mercurial. She had a long affair with a similarly oafish but wealthy shipper with whom she shared class and cultural values. When he criticized her sexual grace, she lost weight which brought about the end of her career. She lived the end of her life sullen and rejected. While in her prime, she was directed by Franco Zeffirelli who gathered much acclaim for those and other operatic productions. At the end of her singing career, she appeared in a non-singing role in a film of another Italian filmmaker, someone who shared Zeffirelli's cinematic notions. He courted her for his own projects and consumed some of her (not his) money. Now some 25 years later he makes this film about a fictional situation in which he makes a film, itself a fiction because it matches her young voice to her older body. The movie itself is pretty tame, a highly stylized portrait of a lovely woman with grace and integrity. Completely unreal in tone. It looks very like a stage production. Within this film is the inner film of an opera that is well done. Opera is a strange art whose existence is justified by multiple arts overcoming the constraints of one another in the combination. No film or recording can be opera, so we have that problem, one where touch is required. The opera we see isn't opera, but cinema. So you'll find the movie itself tepid. But the idea of the thing is dizzying. It is a film about a film. It is a constructed fictional life about a woman who lived a constructed life that incidentally evolved from her profession, which was constructing characters on stage. It explores (in no deep way) matters of truth in art, while itself being an exercise in bending a truth which was fabricated anyway. It focuses on imposing the old onto the new in terms of Callas' voice. At the end, the Callas character nobly decides that such a thing should never be done and the fictional film be killed, but then this film is precisely what she argues about and by that time you have already watched it. Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This is a clever and effective way to honor Callas. Zeffirelli has given us the Callas he knew and the voice few of us have heard properly until now. Fanny Ardant and Jeremy Irons were perfect in their roles. It was fun to see Justino Diaz as well. You could tell who the opera lovers in the audience were by those who laughed at the Renata Tibaldi line. There were actually very few at the showing we attended. Four of us were in our group and all gave it 8's or 9's.