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Callas Forever (2002)
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Movie review
From Time Out London
Maria Callas died a recluse in Paris at 53, heart and will apparently broken by Aristotle Onassis’ desertion. Occasional concerts after her retirement showed the voice, never especially beautiful, had become a wreck. Here, Zeffirelli, the diva’s friend and collaborator, weaves a fantasy about those last years in which Callas is persuaded to mime a film of ‘Carmen’ to her old recording. She ultimately decides it’s untruthful and forbids its release. The result is a multinational mish-mash for the woman’s mag market. We’re deep in Zeffirelli-land here – youths are comely, lads are likely, decor is kitsch, and dialogue is drowned by the thud of cliché hitting earth. Fanny Ardant fleetingly resembles the Greek-American soprano when coiffed and hatted, while Jeremy Irons’s opera-loving millionaire rock-promoter is as likely as Joan Plowright waddling pensionably through the role of a hotshot columnist. Young men smoulder, Callas smoulders, her cigarillo smoulders, the bull smoulders – oh sorry, this Zeffirelli production uncharacteristically omits the livestock. But there’s still a lot of bullshit around.Author: MH
Time Out London Issue 1787: November 17-24, 2004
Cast & crew
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Producer: Riccardo Tozzi, Giovannella Zannoni
Cast: Fanny Ardant, Jeremy Irons, Joan Plowright, Jay Rodan, Gabriel Garko, Manuel de Blas, Justino Diaz, Jean Dalric, Stephen Billington, Anna Lelio, Alessandro Bertolucci, Olivier Galfione, Roberto Sanchez, Achille Brugnini, Eugene Kohn full cast
Genre(s): Drama
Duration: 115 mins
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