Maria by Callas
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: November 2, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 6, 2018
Maria By Callas finds lots of press footage that most of us have never seen, filmed interviews either for television or newsreels, and it’s all fascinating. Read full review
90
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergNov 1, 2018
The movie is to Callas what last year’s “Jane” was to Jane Goodall: A documentary that revitalizes history through primary sources, to illuminating, at times enthralling effect. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 23, 2018
She made her glittering life seem tragic, even as she denied her own right to feel sorry for herself thanks to everything her gift and her “destiny” gave her. Read full review
85
TheWrapDave WhiteNov 7, 2018
As a document of a special creation, Maria by Callas is very nearly enough, thanks in no small part to that generous helping of footage where she fulfills that very destiny. It’s a powerful reminder that private walls can stay put when she’s singing Bellini’s “Casta diva,” that the music is more than enough, that we can let the mystery be. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 1, 2018
While Maria By Callas is short on facts and biographical detail, it expertly presents an emotional essence of this performer, leaving you both shaken and stirred by the extent of her gifts and the way they connected to both audiences and her tumultuous life. Read full review
80
Film Journal InternationalDavid NohOct 30, 2018
Comprised entirely of the diva’s own words, whether filmed or transcribed from her various writings, letters and reminiscences, the film offers the definitive portrait of a woman who rose from obscurity in her native Queens, NY, born Greek, to become a true citizen of the world and queen of an art form. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyNov 23, 2018
Tom Volf’s distinctive and affecting documentary makes plain how much the persona also owed to appearance and intelligence and life history. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 6, 2018
In this immersive, often deliciously sensuous documentary portrait of the late opera star Maria Callas, viewers are treated to another rise-and-fall story of a great but tortured artist, this one punctuated by the occasional real-life bed of roses and pleasure cruise. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiam LaceyNov 1, 2018
Assembled by first-time French director and Callas devotee Thomas Volf, this adoring clip reel has both pros and cons. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 1, 2018
No narrator, no talking heads feeding you insights, just the lady letting it rip on stage and off. What Volf, a French photographer now working on his third book about the acclaimed soprano, misses in perspective he gains in intimacy. His film fawns shamelessly and fumbles a few salient points, but it’s indisputably up close and personal. Read full review
70
VarietyScott TobiasNov 1, 2018
First-time director Tom Volf plainly adores Callas — sometimes to a fault — but his film stands as a necessary corrective to decades of bad press. It’s an unalloyed tribute to her as a musical genius who gave all of herself to the public. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyNov 1, 2018
What is gratifying about the film is Volf's obvious love for and devotion to Callas, as well as his completist's urge to track down and include every scrap of footage at all relevant to telling her story and documenting her greatness. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaOct 31, 2018
Perhaps the greatest gift of Maria by Callas that gives it an advantage over so many recent biographical music documentaries is how willing it is to let its subject just perform, uninterrupted. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichOct 9, 2018
Entirely composed of archival newsreel footage, performance recordings, and rare interview excerpts from when the great “diva” sat down with journalist David Frost in 1970, the film unfolds like a second-hand sketch of a phantom who continues to haunt its director. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloNov 2, 2018
Maria by Callas offers a new side to her legend, one that was also vulnerable, smart but also lonely, a fate that sometimes befalls headstrong women. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineDerek SmithOct 28, 2018
The film is less hagiographic than most documentaries of its kind, which isn't to say that Tom Volf's adoration of his subject is ever in doubt. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 28, 2018
Maria by Callas is not the place to look if you’re in search of a biography of the star. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklySimon AbramsNov 1, 2018
Volf’s refusal to address key choices that Callas made to shape her own career and fight her insecurities suggests that he’d prefer to imagine Callas as a victim of fate — and bronchitis, fame, Onassis, etc. — instead of a strong-willed but human prima donna. Read full review
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