Angelina Jolie gets standing ovation for Maria at Telluride Film Festival... while ex Brad Pitt's Wolfs movie is slammed
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- Published on Wednesday, 04 September 2024 18:33
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie continues to earn widespread acclaim for her highly anticipated new film, Maria.The Oscar winner's portrayal of opera legend Maria Callas received a standing ovation at the Telluride Film Festival on Monday, according to People.A visibly moved Jolie, 49, covered her mouth and placed a hand on her chest as she expressed her gratitude to the audience, per the outlet.The Telluride screening comes after Angelina wept during an eight-minute standing ovation the world premiere of Maria at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday. This comes on the heels of her ex Brad Pitt’s new film Wolfs, costarring George Clooney, which also premiered at Venice but was met with harsh reviews from critics.During a post-screening panel at Telluride, Jolie reflected on the nerves she felt on her first day singing as Callas on set. 'I had seven months of opera classes, great teachers and Italian classes, and a supportive team that were going to help me,' she said, according to People. 'I was so nervous that morning I was out of my mind.'The actress also spoke highly of her experience working with director Pablo Larraín, 48, expressing her admiration for their collaboration. 'I knew that as long as I gave my best, Pablo would be okay with it and somehow make it work. 'I knew I needed to do my best to try to help solve the puzzle, but I knew that he was a kind person and he was supportive and that helped.'Meanwhile, Wolfs marks the first time Pitt and Clooney and have shared the screen since 2008’s Burn After Reading.
In this new project, the iconic duo plays fixers who are tasked with covering up crimes, but find themselves reluctantly teaming up when assigned to the same job.At the premiere, Clooney reflected on his longstanding professional and personal relationship with Pitt.'There's nothing good about it,' he joked to People. 'It's all a disaster.'On a more serious note, George added, 'It's fun to work with people you know really well.'However, the new buddy-cop film has been eviscerated by critics, who have branded it a one-star 'messy' dud and an 'unbearable comedy.' Wolfs, the $200 million Apple TV+ film that is set to debut in theaters on September 20, follows the two Ocean's Eleven costars as they are forced to begrudgingly work together to 'fix' a problem that arises when a tough-on-crime DA wakes up with a dead 20-something with whom she was having a one-night stand.But critics say the movie — which had a record-breaking budget for any streaming film — falls flat, with IGN's Siddhant Adlakha slamming it as a 'slick student film from a rich teen who's subsisted on a media diet of early Guy Ritchie.'The Guardian's Xan Brooks also wrote that the 'joke might be on' director Jon Watts, who made a fortune off of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man trilogy, 'because what he's made is basically the film of the meme in which two Spideys point at each other.' And The Telegraph's Robbie Collin called the film 'messy,' writing: 'George Clooney recently complained that Quentin Tarantino doesn't consider him a movie star. If he makes more films like this, Clooney will soon prove Tarantino right.' He and the other critics say Watts seemed to have banked on Clooney's and Pitt's star-status to make it a box office hit, with a lackluster plot and a 'half-baked script with little humor or heart.'Barry Levitt, of the Daily Beast, argued that all the jokes surround the single idea that neither character wants to work with the other. 'Driving along with Clooney and Pitt in Wolfs captures all the thrilling fun of your kids shouting, "Are we there yet?" ad infinitum,' Levitt writes. 'It repeats the same joke over and over (and over again). And just when you think Wolfs might be interested in moving onto fresh material, it attempts the same punchline again, in its 400th variation.'
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source : Daily mail 
Angelina Jolie is tipped by fans to win her second Oscar as Maria receives an eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival - despite lacklustre reviews from critics
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- Published on Friday, 30 August 2024 16:10
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie has been tipped to win her second Academy Award, after her biopic Maria received an eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, despite lacklustre reviews from critics.The actress, 49, has taken on the role of revered opera singer Maria Callas in the film, and following its premiere, some fans were to quick to predict she'll be battling it out for Best Actress at next year's ceremony.Following its release, the drama, which concludes Pablo Larraín's trilogy of pictures about embattled women of wealth, was greeted with a rapturous reception and eight minutes of applause.It was a reception akin to that of Brendan Fraser's comeback performance in The Whale, which eventually won him the Oscar for Best Actor. Angelina was visibly emotional in the wake of the response, wiping away tears and turning her face away from the cheering.Following the premiere, several fans declared that it's kickstarted her campaign to win her second Academy Award in 2025, exactly 25 years after she was awarded the Supporting Actress prize for Girl, Interrupted.Posts on X included: 'Looks like its gonna be a cate blanchett vs angelina jolie best actress race in the oscars;'I'm so sorry for Amy Adams and Soairse Ronan, but Angelina Jolie will take the Oscar. Maybe this is still not the right time yet for both of them to win an Oscar;''The angelina jolie oscar campaign begins now.' Maria was hailed as the greatest voice in the history of opera, and the biopic depicts her during the final week of her life, before her death in 1977.She was not just known for her incredible voice, which helped make her one of the top opera singers of the 20th century, but also for her striking beauty which put a spotlight on her many romances. Maria battled ill health during her final years, and the film shines a light on her deteriorating mental state as she dreams of the prospect of performing once again, with her marriage to Ari Onassis at the forefront.Despite the film's positive reception, reviews have been more mixed, with many, including The Daily Mail's Brian Viner casting doubt over the film itself, while praising Angelina's performance.Branding her character a 'whining, self-pitying, endlessly needy victim,' he nonetheless noted: 'All that said, Jolie gives one of the performances of her career. 'This might be a flawed depiction of Callas but not by her; wearing enough mascara to sink one of Onassis's ships she is completely believable in the role and even does some of her own warbling alongside some top-class lip-synching to the real Callas, having reportedly trained for seven months until she was ready to perform in public for the first time. Admittedly I'm no expert but I couldn't tell the difference.'Kevin Maher from The Times agreed, awarding the film two stars, and writing: 'This is a film fed by, and consistently cutting to, the operas that defined its subject. Yet there is not a single moment that is emotionally operatic. It is wilfully, wearily flat.' Awarding the film three stars, BBC's Nicholas Barber said: 'The film is also too adoring and reverential to let us sympathise with its supposedly fragile heroine. 'Unusually for someone who is drug-addled and terminally ill, Jolie's Callas never looks anything less than magnificent, and she is always supremely dignified, poised and confident, out-quipping everyone who crosses her path.'The Telegraph's Robbie Collin gave the film four stars, writing: 'Jolie is given ample space to dazzle, but less to surprise.
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source : Daily mail
Angelina Jolie 'was frightened' and 'shaky' singing in public for the FIRST time in Maria Callas biopic and reveals how her sons helped get her through it
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- Published on Friday, 30 August 2024 06:53
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie had never sung onscreen - or in public - before she signed on to star as the legendary opera singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín's biopic Maria, which had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on Thursday.'Everybody here knows, I was terribly nervous,' the 49-year-old Oscar winner told reporters at a press conference.'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.' Angelina enlisted vocal coach Eric Vetro - whose clients include Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, John Legend, Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes, Rosalía, and Charlie Puth.'My first time singing I remember being so nervous. My sons were there and they helped lock the door so that nobody else was coming in, and I was shaky. I was frightened,' described Jolie - who's mother to Maddox, 23; Pax, 20; and Knox, 16. 'Pablo, in his decency, started me in a small room and ended me in [the Paris opera house] La Scala. So he gave me time to grow.' The former Hollywood wild child - who grew up listening to The Clash - said her biggest 'fear' would be to 'disappoint' the ardent fanbase of Maria: 'I really came to care for her, so I didn't want to do a disservice to this woman.' And while the film is mostly set in the seventies, Angelina appears to recreate Callas' (born Kalogeropoulos) 1958 performance at a Paris gala, which was broadcast through Eurovision. The New York-born Greek belter's powerful soprano pipes had three distinct registers and measured just short of three octaves, and she performed her final concert in 1965 following a vocal decline blamed on everything from dermatomyositis, to early onset menopause, to her extreme 80lb weight loss in 1954. Maria - who had an affair with Aristotle Onassis while he was married to former FLOTUS Jacqueline Kennedy - spent her last 11 years living in Paris after renouncing her American citizenship, and she died at age 53, from a heart attack in 1977. The movie depicts Callas rehearsing for an imagined performance that never comes to be as a camera crew led by Stranger Things star Kodi Smit-McPhee films her. In the first clip of Maria, released Thursday, the operatic diva worries her butler Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) over ignoring her blood doctor's order and medication recommendations as she was 'controlling' her use of the hypnotic sedative, methaqualone. 'And when I write my autobiography I will title it The Day Ferruccio Saved My Life,' Maria said.'And what day was that?' Ferruccio asked. 'Every day. Every single day. It's why I hate you. I fall into a river and you always fish me out,' Callas quipped.Two-time Oscar-nominated prosthetics designer Arjen Tuiten was hired to transform Jolie's face, but she still appears to have her own tiny nose rather than the characteristically large one Maria had in real life.On Wednesday, Netflix bought the US distribution rights, but a release date has yet to be announced for Maria, which is in competition for Venice's Golden Lion prize.Maria is the third and final film in the 48-year-old Chilean filmmaker's trilogy of iconic women, succeeding Jackie (2016) and Spencer (2021), which scored both Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart Oscar nods. The ensemble cast also includes Valeria Golino, Haluk Bilginer, Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Alessandro Bressanello.It marks the Tony-winning producer's first acting role since Chloé Zhao's dismally-reviewed 2021 MCU flick Eternals.Angelina will next be honored with the TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media on September 8 at the Toronto International Film Festival - the same day as the world premiere of her fifth feature directorial effort Without Blood starring Salma Hayek.
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source : Daily mail
Angelina Jolie kneels down to meet a fan with ALS during heartwarming moment at the Venice Film Festival in Italy
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- Published on Friday, 30 August 2024 06:47
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie shared a tender moment with a fan while promoting her upcoming biopic Maria at the 81st Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on Thursday. The Girl, Interrupted star, 49, knelt down in her stunning champagne gown while meeting a bed-ridden fan with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).Before entering Sala Grande for the world premiere of her film, the actress took a moment to speak with her supporter, sweetly placing her hand on his shoulder.ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, which control the muscles that allow us to move, speak, swallow, and breathe.Jolie looked stunning in an elegant floor-length evening gown with off-the-shoulder detailing as she greeted photographers on day two of this year's festival. The actress, currently in the throes of a protracted divorce from Brad Pitt, made a welcome red carpet appearance ahead of the film's first official screening, in competition, at the annual ceremony.The stunning stone chiffon gown, designed exclusively for the actress by designer and couture house Tamara Ralph, featured draped detailing and a short train, with the number finished off with an elegant, fluffy faux-fur stole and a gold floral pin.The star left her sleek golden locks to fall over her shoulders, while highlighted her features with a classic smoky eye and a statement red lip.The star's latest film, titled Maria, is a biographical drama about the legendary opera singer Maria Callas.It is directed by Pablo Larraín and produced by Fremantle.It stars Angelina in the title role, with Valeria Golino as her sister Yakinthi, and Haluk Bilginer as Aristotle Onassis.'I take very seriously the responsibility to Maria's life and legacy,' Angelina said previously in a statement. 'I will give all I can to meet the challenge.' The Tomb Raider star also mentioned the film's director, Pablo, whom she said she 'long admired.'The mother of six added: 'To be allowed the chance to tell more of Maria's story with him, and with a script by Steven Knight, is a dream.'Angelina had never sung onscreen - or in public - before she signed on to star as the legendary opera singer.'Everybody here knows, I was terribly nervous,' the Oscar winner told reporters at a press conference.'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.'
Angelina enlisted vocal coach Eric Vetro - whose clients include Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, John Legend, Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes, Rosalía, and Charlie Puth.'My first time singing I remember being so nervous. My sons were there and they helped lock the door so that nobody else was coming in, and I was shaky. I was frightened,' described Jolie - who's mother to Maddox, 23; Pax, 20; and Knox, 16.'Pablo, in his decency, started me in a small room and ended me in [the Paris opera house] La Scala. So he gave me time to grow.'The former Hollywood wild child - who grew up listening to The Clash - said her biggest 'fear' would be to 'disappoint' the ardent fanbase of Maria: 'I really came to care for her, so I didn't want to do a disservice to this woman.'And while the film is mostly set in the seventies, Angelina appears to recreate Callas' (born Kalogeropoulos) 1958 performance at a Paris gala, which was broadcast through Eurovision.The New York-born Greek belter's powerful soprano pipes had three distinct registers and measured just short of three octaves, and she performed her final concert in 1965 following a vocal decline blamed on everything from dermatomyositis, to early onset menopause, to her extreme 80lb weight loss in 1954.Maria - who had an affair with Aristotle Onassis while he was married to former FLOTUS Jacqueline Kennedy - spent her last 11 years living in Paris after renouncing her American citizenship, and she died at age 53, from a heart attack in 1977.Angelina is lucky enough to wear some of Callas' real clothes in the film, including vintage fur items from Massimo Cantini Parrini’s archive collection.The actress has played famous people before: In 1998 she starred as tragic supermodel Gia Carangi in Gia and in 2007 she starred as Mariana Pearl in the film A Mighty Heart.The director, who is best known for the bio pictures Jackie (about Jackie Kennedy, played by Natalie Portman) and Spencer (about Princess Diana, played by Kristen Stewart), said: 'Having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream.''To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity. A true gift.'Maria was written by Steven Knight prior to Hollywood’s WGA strike and granted a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.Callas was born in American of Greek heritage and then trained in Greece as well as Italy.She was not just known for her incredible voice, which helped make her one of the top opera singers of the 20th century, but also for her striking beauty which put a spotlight on her many romances.Callas was also known for her fierce rivalry with Italian opera singer Renata Tebaldi.The film will cover her life story and finish with her sad death in Paris after suffering from vision problems that left her almost blind.Starring in a movie about Callas was a passion project for Faye Dunaway who even wanted to use her own money for the film, but it never came off the ground.In 2014, Meryl Streep was reportedly set to play Callas in Master Class with Mike Nichols as her director but the project did not come to be.Angelina will next be honored with the TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media on September 8 at the Toronto International Film Festival - the same day as the world premiere of her fifth feature directorial effort Without Blood starring Salma Hayek.
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source : Daily mail
Angelina Jolie brings the glamour in a brown chiffon dress as she arrives for the Venice Film Festival ahead of her Maria premiere
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- Published on Friday, 30 August 2024 06:48
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie looked every inch the leading lady as she arrived at the Hotel Excelsior by boat for the Venice Film Festival on Thursday. The Hollywood actress, 49, is in the city to promote her latest film, Maria, which will premiere on Thursday evening.Angelina looked effortlessly demure in a brown chiffon gown from Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello which had intricate criss cross stitching in the shape of a diamond across the waist. She complemented the look with matching heels and donned a pair of sunglasses as she emerged from her boat, waving to fans. Angelia flew into Venice earlier this week ahead of the premiere for Maria, which is an upcoming biographical drama film about opera singer Maria Calla.It is directed by Pablo Larraín and produced by Fremantle.It stars Angelina in the title role, with Valeria Golino as her sister Yakinthi, and Haluk Bilginer as Aristotle Onassis. 'I take very seriously the responsibility to Maria's life and legacy,' Angelina said previously in a statement. 'I will give all I can to meet the challenge.' The Tomb Raider star also mentioned the film's director, Pablo, whom she said she 'long admired.'The mother of six added: 'To be allowed the chance to tell more of Maria's story with him, and with a script by Steven Knight, is a dream.'Angelina is lucky enough to wear some of Callas' real clothes in the film, including vintage fur items from Massimo Cantini Parrini’s archive collection. The actress has played famous people before: In 1998 she starred as tragic supermodel Gia Carangi in Gia and in 2007 she starred as Mariana Pearl in the film A Mighty Heart.The director, who is best known for the bio pictures Jackie (about Jackie Kennedy, played by Natalie Portman) and Spencer (about Princess Diana, played by Kristen Stewart), said: 'Having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream,' Larraín said. 'To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity. A true gift.'Maria was written by Steven Knight prior to Hollywood’s WGA strike and granted a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.Callas lived from 1923 until 1977. She was born in American of Greek heritage and then trained in Greece as well as Italy.She was not just known for her incredible voice, which helped make her one of the top opera singers of the 20th century, but also for her striking beauty which put a spotlight on her many romances.Callas was also known for her fierce rivalry with Italian opera singer Renata Tebaldi.The film will cover her life story and finish with her sad death in Paris after suffering from vision problems that left her almost blind.Starring in a movie about Callas was a passion project for Faye Dunaway who even wanted to use her own money for the film, but it never came off the ground.In 2014, Meryl Streep was reportedly set to play Callas in Master Class with Mike Nichols as her director but the project did not come to be.
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source : Daily mail
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