Product Description

In this loving tribute to Maria Callas, Zeffirelli imagines what could have happened at the end of her life at the age of 53.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21817 in DVD
• Brand: ZEFFIRELLI,FRANCO
• Released on: 2005-06-21
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.com
Franco Zeffirelli was and is clearly in love with Maria Callas, but unlike the average Callas fan, as a movie director, he was able to do something about it. This superbly made film, about the last few months of the great soprano's life in 1977, moves easily between fact and fantasy to express that love and to give her a more upbeat ending than the one that fate actually dealt her. It is made with the attention to small details that is a hallmark of Zeffirelli's work.

In reality, Callas became a recluse in her luxurious Paris apartment, mourning the loss of her voice, the breakup of her relationship to Aristotle Onassis and the disintegration of her career. Her final days were a nightmare. But Zeffirelli uses his imagination to rewrite that unhappy ending. He invents a rock producer, Tom Kelly (Jeremy Irons) who clearly is a Zeffirelli figure (the names rhyme). Kelly used to be her manager and has a scheme to revive her career in movies: he will film her greatest roles, using her recordings as soundtracks; she will go through the motions and lip-synch the words. It might have worked; experiments with Carmen, which she recorded but never sang onstage, were certainly promising. But Callas turned down the plan, on grounds of artistic integrity.

But in fact, Zeffirelli does make it work in this movie. Fanny Ardant does a marvelous job as Callas, not only shaping the words of her various arias (digitized and sounding better than ever) but also using facial expressions that speak as eloquently as words. Here is Callas reborn, with all her temperament, anguish and pride. Raw emotions are unleashed, particularly in a production of Tosca, when she stabs the villainous Scarpia (Justino Diaz) shouting savagely "muori dannato, muori, muori, muori" ("die , damn you, die, die die") She is avenging all the insults and disappointments of her life; Ardant becomes Callas in such moments. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Forever Callas: Zefferelli Saves Callas
Franco Zefferelli, the director of so many lavish films- among them 1968's Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor, as well as the designer for sets in big budget operas, and best friend of Maria Callas, has made a movie that "saved" Callas. This is his tribute to her. This is a movie that was released in 2002, in Paris and Rome, but that did not make its way to American audiences until recently. It's soon to be released on DVD. For some Americans, this movie is a foreign film, another Zefferelli egocentric vehicle. To others, the opera fans, this is a gorgeous re-telling of the final days of Maria Callas and a portrait of her as an artist. And finally, there is a large [...] audience that would appreciate this film. Zefferelli himself is a gay man and in the past, when such lifestyle was taboo and controversial, he could not incorporate such themes in his movies. But this, his latest film, uses a gay character (played by Jeremy Irons) who manages a rock band and who launches a project for Maria Callas to make a "comeback" when she had been away from the limelight for years in Paris, 1977, when this film takes place.

Fanny Ardant plays Maria Callas, not an easy role for any actress to undertake. There are moments when Ardant becomes Callas- she imitates the diva's facial expressions (intense ones, angry ones) and her movements accurately. Her artistic integrity is the theme. Eventhough this director offers her to reappear as an actress with vocal dubbing from an old recording of hers of her voice, Callas refuses because she has too much integrity. A lot of the moving scenes are when we get a range of emotions from Ardant- especially the scene in which she hears a recording of Madame Butterfly and she breaks down in tears. That's difficult to watch. But in this movie, Callas is rescued. It was Zefferelli's own personal fantasy that he would save her. He made her come alive again. At the end of the movie, after getting her strength back, and even killing off the memory of Onaissis her ex husband who married Jackie Kennedy- she kills him in her mind when she plays Tosca one last time and stabs Scarpia, Scarpia substituting for Aristotle Onaissis. These subtle things express Zefferelli's wish to have been Callas' savior. This movie will be a treat for Maria Callas fans. I really enjoyed it. It was powerful and moving and very well-written, even humorus and poignant. Callas is back. But then again she never left. Her legacy lives on in recording albums and the few films that captured her dramatic power.

Stunning Tribute to the Immortal Callas
As one critic put it, the soprano Maria Callas was in a special class, probably one of the greatest opera singers who ever lived with a fiery dramatic quality and equally dramatic looks; she was a goddess in her prime and now a legend; a Greek, her life also had all the makings of Greek tragedy. If anyone warrants a film to be made about her, it is she. And "Callas Forever" delivers. It is a stunning film and beautiful valentine that goes beyond a love for Callas into an exploration of artistic integrity with gorgeous performances, rich music, scenery, emotion and drama. It was created by Franco Zeffirelli who knew and loved the woman, and this respect shows.

The story takes place in 1977, several months before Callas died of a heart attack at age 53, when she was living as a recluse in her Paris apartment, her voice a shadow of its former glory and her career ended. Friends are unable to reach her, but her old manager, Larry Kelly (the superb Jeremy Irons), a gay promoter of rock bands, succeeds in gaining a moment with her where he springs his idea of launching a comeback for her. He wants to make a film, using her original recordings for the soundtrack, which she can lip synch to. It wouldn't matter, he reasons, if the recordings are from years before; it is still her voice. Kelly desperately wants to rescue Callas from the tragic depression into which she has fallen; he knows the great artist is there, longing for the expression that was her life.

Fanny Ardent is an extraordinary Maria Callas, capturing the look, the excitement, the class, the temperament and power -- and the vulnerability. Thrillingly, Jeremy Irons is Ardent's match. There are times when the two of them express so much without words that it gave me chills; it is a privilege to see actors and performances of this caliber captured on film. Callas refuses Kelly's offer, having too much integrity, but he finally succeeds in getting her to play "Tosca" live one last time -- as another reviewer mentioned, Zeffirelli brings Callas to life again! It is grand, moving and heartbreaking, and rich on a scale few movies are, unfortunately, nowadays. To hear that exquisite voice again is alone sublime.

A great tribute to a legend; a wonderful piece of culture; a moving fantasy for fans, appropriately larger than life and sympathetic. Highly recommended.

Ardant gives a "Master Class"
Fanny Ardant said that she wanted to do this role because the script gave her the opportunity to have every emotion, and then on top of that, she would be playinig Maria Callas (apparently she had played Callas onstage in "Master Class" before doing this film). She was right. The words "tour de force performance" are tossed around a lot, but this is what the phrase is about. Fanny Ardant proves herself to be one of the best film actresses around in this film. Ardant is simply magnificent.
Fellini's direction is at it's finest and tightest here. His love of the theatrical gets its rightful venting in the scenes of rehearsal, and of the film within the film; but there are no extraneous flights of fancy. To me, Jeremy Irons and Joan Plowright are usually very much the same in every film, but they are greats, and they provide a perfect platform for Ardant to dive off of.
I recently saw the disappointing "Being Julia" in which Jeremy Irons also appears. Everything that film lacks, is here in this perfect, truly loving (warts and all) tribute to an immortal great. You do not have to like Opera to appreciate this film, and if you don't it is handled here in a way that will keep you engaged. If you do have an appreciation for Opera, and for great acting...you will have moments- as I did- of chills, and tears. Much more than being a tribute to Opera, this is an excellent tribute to the arts and to artists. Brava