Maria: all the differences between the film and the true story of Maria Callas

Larraìn has a weakness for iconic and mysterious women. He never made a secret of it and with Maryas he did for Jackie And Spencer, wanted to tell Maria Callas as best as possible. Although it is still a film, and therefore fiction, in his latest work the Chilean director he kept faith with reality, tracing a precise biography of the soprano. Then obviously, it took him a while, allowing himself some poetic license in the story. So what are the differences between Mary and the true story of Maria Callas? Here they are.

The relationship with his servants

Ferruccio and Brunain the film played respectively by Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher did they really exist? And above all Maria Callas had the same relationship with them as seen in Mary? The answer is yes. Their relationship is documented. Ferruccio Mezzadri began working for Callas in 1958 and spent twenty years in its service. Franco Zeffirelli, dear friend and collaborator of Callashe says in an interview of 2004 on TG5: «Callas wrote a will leaving half of his estate to his maid and his chauffeur, and the rest to a retirement home in Milan. But no such will has been found and I believe it was burned.” His heritage of around 12 million it was then split between her ex-husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini and his sister Yakinthi, who he says he gave his share of the inheritance to Mezzadri and Lupoli. But it is not known whether he actually did it.

In a flashback of the film, Maria Callas he remembers his family during the years of the Nazi occupation of Greece: there are some German soldiers who enter the house and there is Maria’s mother who invites her two daughters to be nice to them. The soldiers are interested in the sister Yakinthi, but Callas he realizes that he can earn some money by singing for them. The story is confirmed by Lyndsy Spence, singer’s biographer: her mother forced her to sing for enemy soldiers in exchange for food, giving her the choice between performing and prostituting herself: “Callas resented her mother, who worked as a prostitute during the war, for trying to make her prostitute herself to Nazi soldiers.”

The meeting with Marilyn Monroe

In Mary We see Maria Callas attend together with Onassis at the concert for the 45th birthday of President Kennedy at Madison Square Gardenwith Monroe who sings his famous version of Happy Birthday to You. After a party we see her talking to Callas about their lives in the spotlight. We know for sure that Callas participated in the concert and also sang two arias of the Carmen. In all likelihood it was also atafter party at Arthur Krim’s house and met Monroe, but their conversation is not documented. In the biography Maria Callas: An Intimate Biography, Anne Edwards says that Callas she had gone to the party reluctantly with the friend Costas Gratsosand he would have liked to leave earlier because Monroe was stealing the show. Seeing her alone, Kennedy had convinced a correspondent of the Time to go and talk.

The relationship with JFK

In a scene of Mary, Callas and John Fitzgerald Kennedy start talking while sitting at a restaurant table: the conversation alludes to the relationship between their respective partners, Onassis and Jackie Kennedy. An exchange of words that never happened: it only serves to tell the public about the marriage between Jackie and Onassis, which occurred after the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The relationship with Onassis

The representation of Onassis in Mary it is quite detailed and relevant to reality. In the film, however, it is not clear whether Maria Callas and him see each other even after his marriage to Jackie Kennedy in 1968, as hypothesized by many. There is no certainty about the continuation of the relationship, but several people close to both claim that their relationship continued after 1968. It was great love.

Mandrax does not exist

The character played by Kodi Smit-McPhee he never existed. In the movie, Mandrax he is a documentarian who follows Callas all the time. Its name is inspired by a drug, Mandrax precisely, also known as methaqualone or Quaalude in the United Statesthe. Mandrax is therefore just a hallucination with which Angelina Jolie’s character continues to interact.

The death of Maria Callas

Although the film does not make it clear what illness she suffers from, it is clear that the singer had it serious health problems and was taking large quantities of medications. In one scene a doctor says to Ferrucciowhich he is prescribing to Maria del prednisonea steroid, to fight an autoimmune disease that is causing her heart failure. In the act that certifies the death of the singer is indicated heart failure as a lethal cause, but always Lyndsy Spence, who had access to his letters, explains how Callas had suffered dermatomyositis, an autoimmune disease related to multiple sclerosis.

Among the great mysteries that hover over Maria Callasthere is the one related to loss of voice. We dedicated a separate article to this topic, and the film also reserved scenes for it. In the film of Larraín the cause of the accident is not explained.