Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 59
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 34
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 13
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 1,499
A mournful look at the last days of opera diva Maria Callas, director Franco Zeffirelli's biographical drama attempts to explore the irresistible allure of a comeback for a fallen star who hungers for the success of her past. Weathered from the excess of the previous decade and with her best performances long behind her, Callas (Fanny Ardant) withdraws to her Paris apartment to live her final days in seclusion. Despite being ravaged by a throat disease and being stuck in an extended period of
PG-13, 1 hr. 48 min.
Nov 5, 2004 Wide
Jun 21, 2005
$0.3M
Regent Releasing
All Critics (64) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (35) | DVD (4)
For Callas fans, this is a winner. For others, it should at least be interesting.
The film's portrait of the singer is indelible. The story as a whole, however, doesn't hold together, primarily because the imaginary characters and situations that surround her are so inadequately sketched.
A film that forgets to bring its central character to life.
For all the devotion Zeffirelli professes to Callas' legacy, the script reduces her to a cartoon.
Although the film will hold little appeal for non-opera buffs, its warmth trumps its clichés, odd casting and overacting.
Goes far deeper into one man's opera-diva fetish than most people will want to follow.
So appealing and ingratiating that it's hard not to be taken in by Zeffirelli's fantasy.
In his Ode to his colleague, Zeffirelli reminds us all how fragile egos can be and the lengths artists (and their producers) will go to remain in the limelight.
Zeffirelli's 'Carmen' looks more PBS than MGM, and this relative poverty helps explain why this sincere but bloodless film has taken three years to limp into theaters.
The film rises and falls on Ardant's performance and, boy, does she deliver, chewing up scenery and making it look like delicate surgery.
It's an odd little film with tremendous appeal. It's almost as if Zeffirelli ... has dug up a late-'70s time capsule to share with the world.
Justifies its dismissal of factual truth in favor of a deeper sort.
Nothing more than Zeffirelli's wish-fulfillment, pretending to stage a production of 'Carmen' with Fanny Ardant acting as proxy for his late, great star.
Zeffirelli is in his element celebrating Callas' glory and lushly staging Carmen. Alas, the rest of the movie... falls flat.
Though for opera buffs the result may well be fun, it's also camp with a high C....Douglas Sirk and Ross Hunter, eat your hearts out.
Little of it works, and frankly, the film alternates between being dull and being almost campy fun.
Bravura performances by all. Fanny Ardant shines as the woman in desperate need of a spotlight.
Fanny Ardant is great in the title role, Jeremy Irons and Joan Plowright offer exemplary support.
September 23, 2007
Super Reviewer
I love this movie! Although I am not an opera fan, Fanny Ardant makes me love Maria Callas' work, her spirit, her legacy! The film is so beautiful, it makes you feel as though you're there!
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