Callas Forever Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)October 29th, 2004
CALLAS FOREVER
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Here! Entertainment/Regent Releasing
Grade: B+
Directed by: Franco Zefirelli
Written by: Martin Sherman, Franco Zeffirelli
Cast: Fanny Ardant, Jeremy Irons, Joan Plowright, Jay Rodan, Gabriel Garko, Manuel de Blas
Screened at: Review, NYC, 10/27/04
The dictionary says that a prima donna is simply a first, or leading lady, but denotations aside, what the public thinks when it hears the term is "snob," "nose-in-the-air," "serve my every need when I need it." One would think that prima donna would apply to celebrity rock singers, but they're usually surrounded by groupies and for the most part are probably unpretentious both in public and on the stage. Opera is another story. The lead singers of some operas are so famous that they've become the stuff of myth, with Maria Callas probably the most celebrated of prima donnas, or divas. Callas, whose private life was followed by the tabloids just as lovers of her music attended her performances, was considered highly-strung even by the usual standards of the genre. Yet, the woman who became a myth on the stage was a wreck in her private life. Virtually engaged to billionaire Aristotle Onassis for eight years, she beomes heartbroken, secluding herself in her rich Paris digs when the cad marries Jackie Kennedy. Feeling oodles of self-pity, she drowns her sorrows in pills and drink.
Callas, who died at the age of 53 in 1977, has sprung to life in Franco Zefirelli's gorgeously mounted film, "Callas Forever." Having worked with the diva, he mixes fantasy with a touch of reality in evoking the story of how a manager of a rock band, one Larry Kelly (played by Jeremy Irons as a stand-in for Zefirelli himself), eased her out of her reclusive life into the public eye once again. The concept that won the neurotic woman–now that her voice had deteriorated with age as demonstrated by a disastrous concert in Japan–was to arrange for the great Spanish director, Esteban Gomez (Manuel de Blas), to mount a production of the world's most accessible and popular opera, with Callas lip-synching to a recording of her own voice on the soundtrack. In fact even the male lead, a strikingly handsome Marco (Gabriel Garko), would lip synch in the same manner. Cinematographer Ennio Guarnieri, working in Paris, Cordoba, and Bucharest, alternates his lenses between the Kelly-Callas relationship and scenes from "Carmen."
Acting the role of the prima donna is Fanny Ardent, seemingly fluent in French, Italian and English, so what we have is Ms. Ardent lip-synching Maria Callas in 1976 who is lip-synching Maria Callas at an earlier time during Callas's actual performance. Ardent, who looks strikingly like the diva, turns in a splendid performance, one that for reasons of her own Callas would not have been crazy about, considering that when the entire new production of Carmen was done, she made Kelly promise never to release it. A woman of integrity, she believes that her performance was a fake, given that she was not actually belting out the arias but simply moving her lips. Since Franco Zefirelli actually worked with her on a 1957 stage production of "La traviata" and wishes to pay homage to her with this film, his releasing this very film might sound to some like an act of betrayal. In fact online critic Arthur Lazere states that his role at the helm of "Callas Forever" is "a breathtaking act of betrayal and hypocrisy, of self-aggrandizement and simple bad taste, to the detriment of a friend no longer able to defend herself." Strong language, but a statement that I would not support, particularly since the sometime manic-depressive Callas herself was given to changing her mind almost daily.
There is a superfluous subplot involving the relationship between Kelly and his artist boyfriend (played by Jay Rodan) with Joan Plowright providing her usual sparkling wit as a journalist both covering and supporting Callas. Lovers of music will enjoy hearing bits from "Carmen, " "La traviata," "Norma," "Tosca" and other operas actually performed by Callas.
Not Rated. 108 minutes. © 2004 by Harvey Karten
@harveycritic.com
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