Angelina Jolie Weeps Through Rapturous 8-Minute Venice Standing Ovation for āMaria,ā Launching Oscar Buzz
āAngelina! Angelina! Angelina!ā
The Venice Film Festival loves its movie stars, and Angelina Jolie was the toast of Italy on Thursday night. The actress wept during an eight-minute standing ovation at the Sala Grande Theatre at the world premiere of āMaria,ā Pablo LarraĆnās biographical drama about the Greek opera singer Maria Callas.
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The outpouring of love and emotion brings to mind another standing ovation in Venice that launched the Oscar campaign for Brendan Fraser in āThe Whale,ā as he sobbed through the applause that cemented a career comeback in 2022.
Jolie was similarly taken by the rapturous response, wiping away tears and at time turning her face away from the cheering as she was overcome by emotion. She hugged LarraĆn and the cast of the film, which is sure to be an Oscar contender, putting Jolie in the best actress race for the first time in 15 years. (She was nominated in 2009, for her her work in Clint Eastwoodās āThe Changeling,ā and won an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2000 for āGirl, Interrupted.ā)
Netflix will release āMariaā later this year.
In Venice, the fandom for Jolie started a full 24 hours before the screening of āMaria.ā A group of Italians camped out overnight on Wednesday with tents and umbrellas, enduring 90 degree temperatures for a front-row interaction with their idol at the carpet.
When Jolie arrived at the theater, she dutifully signed autographs and took selfies. She even met a fan with brittle bone disease who had been transported to the carpet on a bed, kneeling beside him as she greeted him amidst the flashing lightbulbs from the paparazzi.
Maria reunites LarraĆn and writer Steven Knight, whose last project āSpencerā bowed in Venice in 2021, and tells the ātumultuous, beautiful, and tragic story of the life of the worldās greatest opera singer, relived and re-imagined during her final days in 1970s Paris.ā
āMariaā is the third in LarraĆnās trilogy of films about iconic women, following āSpencerā and 2016ās āJackieā about Jacqueline Kennedy in the aftermath of her husband JFKās assassination. But āMariaā at time plays like a bookend to āJudy,ā the 2019 biopic that won Renee Zellweger an Oscar for portraying a troubled Judy Garland, contending with the pitfalls of fame.
At a press conference earlier in the day, Jolie spoke about preparing to play the famous soprano Callas, which marked her first time singing in a role.
āEverybody here knows, I was terribly nervous,ā she said of learning to sing opera. āI spent almost seven months training because when you work with Pablo you canāt do anything by half. He demands, in the most wonderful way, that you really do the work and you really learn and train.ā
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