Callas Forever (2002)

Wonderful character development!

Fantastic!

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Zeffirelli, director of many great operas and personal friend of Callas, develops in an artistic and sensitive way the last months of her life when she suffers from her temperament, from the abandonment and subsequent marriage of Onassis, from her loss of voice and from her addiction to tranquilizers. Larry (Jeremy Irons) manages to convince her to film Bizet's opera, which never represented on stage, taking advantage of technological advances that combine her performance at age 53 with the audio recordings in their moments of glory at age 30. A great operatic performance with high quality, wonderful music and excellent acting of all participants. Fanny Ardant (Maria Callas), manages to represent the tough but sensible character of the great diva of the twentieth century. Worth watching and enjoy.

I was intrigued on seeing Callas Forever. While there have been times I have not warmed to Maria Callas' voice, I have a lot of respect for her for her interpretations and for her musicianship and dramatic intensity. And I am very fond of Franco Zeffirelli, not only is he a talented opera stage director but his costume and set designs are really inspired. Also I love his opera films, especially La Traviata.So naturally I was intrigued on seeing Callas Forever. After finally seeing it there were some impressive things about it, but overall it was rather disappointing.I will get the good things out of the way. The film looks beautiful, the costumes and settings are truly sumptuous and the photography is typical Zeffirelli, very fluid. The music is brilliant, all the arias are a delight to hear and are performed with passion and real panache. The only thing however is that of all the roles Callas was famous for such as Norma and Tosca, the film chose Carmen to focus on Callas. Zeffirelli's direction is solid, and Jeremy Irons is good enough as Larry, but other than the visuals and music Fanny Ardent's wonderful performance makes Callas Forever worth watching.Some assets did disappoint though. The story never gelled for me, the gay relationship wasn't developed as well as it could've been and despite Irons' good performance Larry(his appearance here is fictional) and the other characters are not as developed well as Callas. The pace is also rather pedestrian and I to be honest did lose interest in some points of the film particularly in the second half. The script is a let down too, it is rather old-fashioned and maudlin.All in all, disappointing but it does intrigue. 5/10 Bethany Cox

This is one of the loveliest European films I've seen in ages. It is an adoring tribute to Maria Callas by her longtime friend, Franco Zeffirelli, whose friendship with the spectacular opera diva of the 1950s had spanned 25 years.The conceit of the screenplay, conceived by Mr. Zeffirelli, is for Ms. Callas's fictional former concert manager to approach her with an idea to revitalize her flagged career and spirits. It is 1977, near the end of her life, and she is living as a recluse in her lavish Paris apartment, whiling away her days playing cards with the servants, drinking and popping pills, listening to her old recordings, and lamenting the loss of her voice and her precious Ari Onassis, who had died two years earlier (though of course she had lost him much earlier, when he married Jackie Kennedy in 1968, something she never got over).The manager's idea is for her to create a series of films in which she employs her still marvelous beauty and dramatic skills to enact her famous operatic performances, all the while lip-synching to recordings made years earlier when her voice was in its prime. She is reluctant, feels it is artistically fraudulent to use technology to simulate a performance, and, beneath this rationale, she is also frightened to return to the spotlight created by any sort of new venture.Finally she agrees to do "Carmen," the one major role that she had recorded but never performed on stage (apparently this is true). But in the end, after the film is shot, Callas reverts to her earlier view and demands that the manager promise never to distribute the "Carmen" film.The elegant French actress, Fanny Ardant, stars as Ms. Callas, reprising a role she had performed on stage in Paris in Roman Polanski's much praised adaptation of "Master Class" in 1997. It is said that Ms. Ardant looks strikingly similar to Ms. Callas. Jeremy Irons plays the role of her former manager, Larry Kelly, a personable gay man who is sincerely devoted to Ms. Callas. There are romantic subtexts – Kelly and a gay young artist (Jay Rodan), Callas and the gorgeous young tenor (Gabriel Garko) who plays opposite her in the Carmen film-within-a-film. Joan Plowright plays a good humored journalist, an old acquaintance of the principals.But the joy of this film is watching the performances of both Ms. Ardant and Mr. Irons, photographed often in close-ups that capture the exquisite "facial acting" – to use Stanley Kauffmann's term – of which both are so wonderfully capable. These players are sensational when separate and especially in scenes when they appear together. I have rarely seen Jeremy Irons show such a light, nimble sensibility, setting aside his more typical tendency toward melancholy. The photography and mise en scene are as lovely as Ms. Ardant. Especially wondrous are scenes showing Callas's apartment and, even more so, the scenes from "Carmen" (the exterior scenes were shot on location in Spain).Throughout, of course, we are treated to Ms. Callas's arresting coloratura soprano in recorded performances of various arias from among those for which she was famous. Ms. Ardant's performance more than rises to the passionate requirements for her various scenes as Carmen. These are truly thrilling. This film has had extremely poor distribution, in Europe and North America. That is unfortunate, for it is an aesthetic treat the likes of which are all too rare. (In French, Italian and – mainly – English). My rating: 8/10 (B+). (Seen on 03/13/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.

This one is to buy and keep on DVD. Exceeding all expectations, Callas Forever moved me to a place far beyond tears. I watched it alone because my husband has little interest in music, less in musicians or singers, an exceedingly practical, professional man who knows how to persuade and organize people while making lots of money and friends. Then I watched a second time at his insistence. He, too, was transfixed.Callas Forever is a labor of love. Many labors of love. The famed director, Franco Zeffirelli counted Maria Callas as a close friend for decades. In this film he recounts "fantasy and memories" of their great fellowship. It's fascinating to watch this platonic relation work cinematic magic.Fanny Ardant playing Maria Callas is sublime. Jeremy Irons is empathetically strong. And Joan Plowright is as funny and formidable as ever.See this film if you're not afraid to feel deeply.