How the ‘Maria’ costume designer’s ‘goal was to recreate and reach perfection’
“My goal was to recreate and reach perfection in what the clothing was,” declares two-time Oscar-nominated costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini (“Pinnocchio” and “Cyrano”) about “Maria.” For our recent webchat he adds, “Let’s not forget that Maria Callas is still an icon, and music lovers adore her, they love her, so my goal was also not to disappoint the audience,” he says, adding that it was “a huge responsibility, because I was going to take to the screen the clothing that Maria Callas wore during her performances in her operas, and I have to say that I am maniacal about details. I have to make sure that every single detail is taken care of. So I studied the proportions, the cuts the fabrics very, very closely.” Watch our video interview above.
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“Maria” is directed by acclaimed Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín and written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steven Knight (“Dirty Pretty Things”), starring Oscar winner Angelina Jolie in the title role, with Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher as Callas’ loyal staff, Valeria Golino as her sister, Kodi Smit-McPhee as a reporter with a secret, and Haluk Bilginer as Aristotle Onassis. It is the third and final film in Larraín’s unofficial trilogy of iconic 20th century women, following “Jackie” in 2016 (about Jacqueline Kennedy) and “Spencer” in 2021 (about Princess Diana). Like those two previous films, “Maria” is not a traditional biopic; it’s an impressionist snapshot of pivotal moments in Callas’ life, spotlighting the American-Greek soprano’s final days in 1977 Paris as she reckons with her past glamorous and tumultuous life in the public eye.
Like Larraín’s two previous films, “Maria” is not a traditional a biopic, but is more of an impressionist snapshot of pivotal moments in Callas’ life, focusing on the famous soprano’s final days in 1977 Paris as she reckons with her glamorous yet tumultuous life in the public eye. Parrini loved recreating many of the American-Greek soprano’s iconic opera stage costumes, and also wanted to amplify Callas’ state of mind in her final days away from the public glare, intentionally dressing Jolie in black and dark colors to hide from the world when roaming Paris streets, while wearing warm and neutral colors when retreating to the safety of her cloistered apartment. “This was paramount in my mind,” Parrini says. “I consulted with Angelina and with Pablo. Inside her home, she was inside her own world, and she felt much freer. She felt much more at ease than she did in the outside world, and that’s why we chose those lighter colors. It was her paradise. It was her comfort zone. On the other hand, when she was out, she was actually a woman that was not well at all, and she was actually hiding from the past. And so the black is used to transpose this,” he explains. “Somehow, it was like as if she were preparing her own funeral with the dark colors.”
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