Angelina Jolie Is A World Class Opera Singer In Teaser Trailer For Pablo Larraín’s Maria

They say that in life there are three guarantees: death, taxes, and that if there is a complicated woman in need of a stylishly done, painstakingly constructed biopic, then Pablo Larraín is the man to make it. Having sensitively explored the grief of Jackie Kennedy in the wake of JFK's death with 2017's Natalie Portman starrer Jackie, and then made a haunting portrait of Princess Diana's vulnerability with Kristen Stewart in 2021's Spencer, Larraín has enlisted the services of Angelina Jolie to help tell the story of fêted opera singer Maria Callas in the aptly titled Maria. Check out the first teaser for the film below:

"Maria, what do you want to sing?" asks a pianist as Jolie's Maria looks out on a grand, empty music hall. From there, we get shots of Callas – in black and white, on vintage film, in a plethora of gorgeous outfits and under various levels of scrutiny from the public and, so it seems, herself — over an ethereal, elegiac orchestral version of Puccini's 'Un bel dì, vedremo' from Madama Butterfly. It's a short, tone-setting teaser for a movie about a woman whose personal struggles and associated scandals have at times seemed to cast a shadow over her extraordinary voice, but a powerful one nevertheless.

Here's the official, albeit brief, synopsis: "Maria will tell the tumultuous, beautiful, and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest female opera singer, relived, and reimagined during her final days in 1970s Paris." To help tell that story is an impressive ensemble, among whose talents include Pierfrancesco Favino (The Hummingbird), Alba Rohrwacher (La Chimera), Haluk Bilginer (Winter Sleep), Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power Of The Dog) and Valeria Golino (Portrait Of A Lady on Fire).

With Larraín at the helm and Jolie front and centre, whether or not opera is your, *ahem*, aria of expertise or not, we'll be seated for Maria when it hits UK cinemas on 10 January, 2025.