Callas Forever
List Price:
Our Price: $9.26
You Save: $5.72 (38%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.47 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Fanny Ardant, Gabriel Garko, Jay Rodan, Jeremy Irons, Joan PlowrightBrand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Italian (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
Published: 2005-06-01
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-21
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Callas Forever
DVD Review: "Impossible, it's dishonest!"
Summary: 4 Stars
Marvelously acted with an absolutely gorgeous musical score, Callas Forever could probably be forgiven for being a little over long, and often looking like a second-rate, cobbled together, low budget art house movie.
Yes - the film is an often-glorious and beautifully acted exploration of the great, but misunderstood soprano Maria Callas, but apart from the staged scenes from Carmen, Callas Forever has a rather economical, and cost effective feel to it. The film was obviously made on the cheap, which probably explains why it languished in limbo for a few years, before finally getting a theatrical release last year.
In this tale, Maria Callas (played to the hilt by Fanny Ardant) is living as a virtual recluse in her Paris apartment, her career is over, and her voice is a shadow of its former glory. Her friends are worried about her, but she ignores them, preferring to remain solitary, listening to old recordings and relying sleeping pills to hide her demons.
The year is 1977, and film technology is about to take the leap to VCR"S. Larry Kelly (Jeremy Irons), a concert impresario, who courts punk rock bands as well as classical singers, convinces Maria that there's no future in her being a pill popping, reclusive shell. He tells her that she still has much to offer and that she'd be far happier if she were singing again.
Together, with her recording company, Larry hatches a plan, convincing Maria that she can lip-sink to her old recordings, because after all, she's still a great actress. Thus the movie of Carmen is born, a film that uses, as the soundtrack, an opera that she recorded in her heyday.
It may be a bit fraudulent, but hey, it's 1977 and singers are now almost never recorded live anyway. Surely it would make no difference that the recording is from fifteen years ago, because lets face it, it's still her. Maria is ambivalent at first - "it's dishonest" she screams; but once she sees her old voice matched up with her more recent concert footage, she becomes fanatically enthusiastic.
Kelly's desperately wants to help Maria. In one scene, he looks through a crack in the door as Maria listens and acts out her 1955 recording of "Un bel di," the famous second-act aria from Madame Butterfly. Maria plays it with all the passion disappointment that she can muster and Kelly, with tears in his eyes, cannot help but be moved. But Larry also wants to make money, and her recording company is also keen to invest in this project; they see the sales of her old recordings skyrocketing.
Visually the film is quite sumptuous and robust, particularly the scenes involving the staging of Carmen; and it's obvious where most of the money went in the production. The rest of the film, however, suffers from a kind of quasi, minimalist attempt to recreate the era of the late 70's, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
But Callas Forever hinges on Ardant's performance. She unabashedly chews up the scenery, giving it almost everything she's got. Her interpretation is, at once, sensitive and intelligent and she finds just the right amount of feistiness in portraying Callas' insecurity. As Carmen she's terrific, imbuing the lusty girl with an impetuous, imperious, man-scorning pride, physically dominating the production.
Jeremy Irons is Larry Kelly character is patient, flattering, persuasive, and insidious. But his relationship with Michael (Jay Rodan), a young bohemian artist, is sort of rendered in shorthand and almost gets lost in the shuffle. The same can be said of Joan Plowright, who occasionally pops up as a chain-smoking journalist and Maria's dear, concerned best friend.
Obviously Callas Forever was a labor of love for director Franco Zeffirelli, and he explores some interesting issues, especially about the lengths one will go to preserve and defend one's art. For him, Callas was an instrument of god, a beauty divine.
His Callas is a woman blessed, but also cursed by the loss of a unique gift that made her life meaningful and significant. How she comes to terms with this loss and moves on with her life is at the heart of this illuminating and enlightening film. Mike Leonard June 05
Description of Callas Forever
CALLAS FOREVER - DVD MovieBestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Maria Callas: The Eternal Maria CallasRelease date: 2007-11-20; DVD
Best price: $10.83
Price in other shops:
Callas - A Documentary Plus Bonus / John Ardoin, Franco ZeffirelliRelease date: 2004-12-07; DVD
Best price: $12.90
Price in other shops:
Maria Callas 100 Best ClassicsRelease date: 2007-01-16; Music CD
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
Maria Callas - Living and Dying for Art and LoveNaxos OF America INC; Release date: 2005-03-22; DVD
Best price: $11.37
Price in other shops:
Donizetti: Anna BolenaRelease date: 2011-11-01; Published: 2011-11-18; DVD
Best price: $22.46
Price in other shops:
MedeaE1E; Release date: 2011-12-06; DVD
Best price: $16.74
Price in other shops:
![Tosca [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Tosca-Blu-ray-B005G02RIC-X.jpg)
Tosca [Blu-ray]Release date: 2011-10-25; Blu-ray
Best price: $5.80
Price in other shops:
Verdi: La Traviata Special Edition Blu-Ray - Exclusive Bonus FeatureRelease date: 2010-03-30; Published: 2010-03-25; Blu-ray
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops:
Maria Callas - At Covent Garden 1962 and 1964Release date: 2002-08-13; DVD
Best price: $11.55
Price in other shops:
Tony Palmer's film about Callas (30th Anniversary Edition)Koch International; Release date: 2008-01-13; DVD
Best price: $12.09
Price in other shops: