The fashion of biopics musicals has become a commercial preference in the seventh art since the success of Bohemian Rhapsody. A trend that has even reached Spain, with the great The blue star and Second prize. However, these national adaptations have escaped the clichés of a subgenre that seems to serve only to position certain profiles for the Oscars. And among other things, these roles usually bring with them the trap that none of the protagonists can usually achieve the vocal quality of the figures to which they give life, so they end up being dubbed in the sung parts, leaving everything a bit quite denatured. Angelina Jolie has been one of the last to position herself in this sense, assuming the role of Maria Callas, but…Does the actress really sing in the film?
‘Maria Callas’ (Fremantle Media North America).
When it was announced that the interpreter of tomb Raider was going to give life to the legendary opera singerit was obviously expected that the star was not going to reach even a hundredth of the soprano’s technique. But since behind the cameras there was an author like Pablo Larrainthe truth is that some ventured to predict that the story would focus on the artist’s last days off the stage or that at most, Jolie would be dubbed by a real-life soprano. A decision that historically has not affected the praise of the Academy. Rami Malek He managed to win the statuette thanks to his Freddy Mercury and Austin Butler got a nomination for Elvis, Therefore, the second option was not a great alarm for the credibility of the story. However, the Chilean filmmaker has finally revealed whether Brad Pitt’s ex is the one who really sings in Maria Callas.
Does Angelina Jolie sing in ‘Maria Callas’?
Angelina Jolie and Maria Callas.
Obviously, Angelina Jolie I wasn’t very familiar with opera. before the movie. But on the other hand, never being able to achieve the excellence of Maria Callas did not mean, in the least, that the North American did not have to prepare much for filming. That is why Larraín, in her last interview, wanted to record that effort and how the Oscar winner immersed herself in a exhaustive trainingin addition to counting how much of Jolie’s voice we actually find on the tape in comparison to Callas’s voice.
‘Spencer’ (Neon).
In recent years, Larraín has approached great female figures in history to tell small key fragments of their lives. It is the case of Jackie either Spencerwhere a part of reality is always shown and on the other, a fable that shapes the narrative. Unlike the latter two, Maria Callas is an artist and as such getting a tiny part of her art has not been easy.
‘Maria Callas’ (Fremantle Media North America).
«He had to train for a long time. He trained for more than seven months. There is breathing, there is posture, there is accent. She sang in Italian and French, but especially in Italian. There is what in music is called tone, which is the ability to reach each note and follow the melody and that was a great challenge for her,” Larraín told IndieWire. Later, the author of No, explained the difference with other musical biopics:
Angelina Jolie and Pablo Larraín (EFE:EPA:FABIO FRUSTAC).
«Everyone who sings, (including) me, would have a lot of difficulty doing it. This is not pop music. It’s not like you get in a car and put on a David Bowie song and you can sing it (…) We also wanted to capture his voice through certain technical things you do; capture his voice, his breathing, each of his sounds.
Great production job
Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas.
Finally the director explained that with all that recorded, they took the final work to post-production and from there they worked on making a set of both voices. «We were able to mix it with Maria Callas’s voice. So sometimes you hear 1% of Angelina’s voice, sometimes 5%, sometimes 40% and on a couple of occasions, not very often but it happens, you hear sixty percent or seventy percent. “one hundred of Angelina’s voice.”
The distribution of Maria Callas is completed with Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer and Kodi Smit-McPheeamong others. Jolie’s work is in quite a few pools for the next edition of the red carpet, but in Spain we still do not have a set date for its premiere. In the United States the film will hit theaters next November 27.
