The Venice Film Festival loves its movie stars, and Angelina Jolie was the toast of Italy on Thursday night. The actress wept during an eight-minute standing ovation at the Sala Grande Theatre at the world premiere of “Maria,” Pablo Larraín’s biographical drama about the Greek opera singer Maria Callas.
The outpouring of love and emotion brings to mind another standing ovation in Venice that launched the Oscar campaign for Brendan Fraser in “The Whale,” as he sobbed through the applause that cemented a career comeback in 2022.
Jolie was similarly taken by the rapturous response, wiping away tears and at time turning her face away from the cheering as she was overcome by emotion. She hugged Larraín and the cast of the film, which is sure to be an Oscar contender, putting Jolie in the best actress race for the first time in 15 years. (She was nominated in 2009, for her her work in Clint Eastwood’s “The Changeling,” and won an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2000 for “Girl, Interrupted.”)
Netflix will release “Maria” later this year.
In Venice, the fandom for Jolie started a full 24 hours before the screening of “Maria.” A group of Italians camped out overnight on Wednesday with tents and umbrellas, enduring 90 degree temperatures for a front-row interaction with their idol at the carpet.
When Jolie arrived at the theater, she dutifully signed autographs and took selfies. She even met a fan with brittle bone disease who had been transported to the carpet on a bed, kneeling beside him as she greeted him amidst the flashing lightbulbs from the paparazzi.
“Maria” reunites Larraín and writer Steven Knight, whose last project “Spencer” bowed in Venice in 2021, and tells the “tumultuous, beautiful, and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest opera singer, relived and re-imagined during her final days in 1970s Paris.”
“Maria” is the third in Larraín’s trilogy of films about iconic women, following “Spencer” and 2016’s “Jackie” about Jacqueline Kennedy in the aftermath of her husband JFK’s assassination. But “Maria” at time plays like a bookend to “Judy,” the 2019 biopic that won Renee Zellweger an Oscar for portraying a troubled Judy Garland, contending with the pitfalls of fame.
At a press conference earlier in the day, Jolie spoke about preparing to play the famous soprano Callas, which marked her first time singing in a role.
“Everybody here knows, I was terribly nervous,” she said of learning to sing opera. “I spent almost seven months training because when you work with Pablo you can’t do anything by half. He demands, in the most wonderful way, that you really do the work and you really learn and train.”
