What's true in Angelina Jolie's Netflix film?

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

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

That was the challenge faced by screenwriter Steven Knight (“Spencer”), who is reteaming with director Pablo Larraín for the new drama “Maria,” in which Angelina Jolie plays the hapless opera star struggling to sing again.

“I wanted to condense the whole thing into a very large period of days,” says Knight. “In fact, her last days were very thoughtful: she was very worried about the return of her voice and about the love of her life. And at that time she was very badly hurt by a critic.”

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As depicted in the film, Callas was actually approached by a journalist who secretly recorded a rough singing sample and threatened to leak it to the media. Knight also based much of his script on firsthand accounts from Callas’ butler Ferruccio (Pierfranceso Favino) and housekeeper Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher), who were her favorite companions at the end of her life.

Here’s what else is fact and fiction:

Was the real Maria Callas a drug addict?

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

“Remember, this is the ’50s and ’60s, when less was known about the consequences,” Knight says. “She always had a problem with her weight and was willing to take chemicals to control it.” Later, as her star faded, “she started taking medications like Mandrax to control the pain . Imagine being at the peak (of your career) and suddenly no one is listening?”

How did Maria Callas die?

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

“A degenerative disease is a pretty serious thing that people believe in and would now be diagnosed with,” Knight says. “I am absolutely convinced it was not suicide. Female icons like Maria Callas or Princess Diana or Marilyn Monroe are pursued by the prey. (The public) wants to grab a little and death isn’t enough to stop them. The conspiracy theories will always be true.”

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 had an affair that lasted decades before he left her for Jackie Kennedy in 1968. Many historians called Onassis “the great love.” ” of Callas’ life, although the film portrays him as a controlling and dismissive man who made derogatory comments about her body.

In real life, “it was a despicable, flawed, broken relationship,” Knight says. “And it all happened on the world stage because he suddenly announced that he was marrying Jackie.” Despite their intense courtship, “I believe that she loved him, and when he died he declared that Maria was the one he loved .”

Did Maria Callas really have an abortion or miscarriages?

Historians largely 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 rejected the invitation to create another me.” Additionally, 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 into it too deeply,” Knight says. “It’s so painful and personal, but the rumor is that he forced her to have an abortion. There is no confirmation or evidence, although I always thought she was stronger than being told what to do.”

Was Maria Callas friends with John F. Kennedy?

The film shows Callas sitting in the audience at John F. Kennedy’s birthday party in 1962 and actually performing two arias at the event. The film also imagines Callas and Kennedy sitting together in a restaurant, where she rebuffs his flirtations and suggests that Jackie and Aristotle are sleeping together. “You and I are part of a very small group of lucky angels who can go anywhere in the world we want,” Callas tells Kennedy. “But we can never escape.”

“There is no evidence that Maria and Kennedy ever sat down to breakfast together,” says Knight. “But I found it 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 appearance?

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

“There is anecdotal evidence that Callas played her own music and sang along in her apartment during her final days,” 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.”

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What’s true in Angelina Jolie’s Netflix film?

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