Maria Callas

Musings on Pablo Larrain's film and the diva herself

Thank you to THE NEW YORKER for recommending this newsletter as a good thing on the internet, that is very nice. I love institutional recognition (at times).

Now, I simply cannot open another gift guide as I am being inundated and I haven’t bought anything for anyone! Realistically, I want to know how many gifts people actually buy for their loved ones. Anyway, do not expect a gift guide from me since all I ever suggest is silk pillowcases and a Mason Pearson hairbrush. If anyone wants to buy me anything make it air travel gift cards.

I’m being slow to write as I’m learning how to type in a new way and interesting way after a chopping-onions-at-2am accident that has given me two stitches in my right pinky finger. (I was the most fun person in the ambulatory wing). I just had to be the most dramatic person on Thursday night.

Now, below is a little musing that I have been thinking since I was in Greece and went to the Maria Callas museum in Athens. It was only perfect timing that Mubi invited me to watch an early screening of Pablo Larrain’s newest feature Maria.

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Photos of Maria Callas from Diana Vreeland’s Allure

"As a primadonna, pleasure is inevitable," So says Angelina Jolie in Pablo Larrain’s new film Maria. Tragedy is also inevitable, it seems.

My first introduction to Maria Callas was not her voice, but her face. She has a face made to be seen on stage with her wide eyes, prominent nose, and expressive mouth. I could look at photos of her forever. It’s a face made for an audience. When I look at her I think of Diana Vreeland (who absolutely adored Callas) writing, “A nose without strength is a pretty poor performance. It’s the one thing you hold against someone today. If you’re born with too small a nose, the one thing you want to do is build it up.” I feel like I often get in trouble for mourning real noses. Sorry I love a Roman profile! So kill me! Out of all mythology of course it’s the Greek story of Helen of Troy that inspired Christopher Marlowe (my namesake) to write “is this the face that launched a thousand ships.” As someone who has a small nose, I just can’t believe a small nose could have that much power.

I am touched by the story of her life because there is something so mythical about the tragedy of it all. The double bind of a woman artist. There is an interview of her remarking, “I would have preferred to have a happy family and have children, I would have given up this career with pleasure, but destiny is destiny and there is no way out.”