Pablo Larrain’s biographical drama ‘Maria’ starring Angelina Jolie took the Venice Film Festival by storm with its world premiere, garnering a remarkable 8-minute standing ovation. Several videos from the event went viral on social media. Angelina turned heads with her appearance at the event on Thursday night.
She wore a custom-made beige gown with a fur stole wrapped around.
At the event, Larrain and Jolie were in attendance alongside cast members Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher.
After the screening, the crowd inside the Sala Grande was emotional and was even chanting Jolie’s name. Jolie was taken by the response of the crowd and was seen wiping away tears and at times turning her face away from the cheering as she was overcome by emotion.
Angelina Jolie weeps through an 8-minute #Venezia81 standing ovation for ‘Maria,’ which will be a major Oscars contender. pic.twitter.com/PMiu4RWJ09
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) August 29, 2024
After Angelina got emotional, she was comforted by her Maria co-star Pierfrancesco Favino. Film’s director Pablo Larrain walked down from the gallery to wave at the audience.
The film is based on true events and tells the story of Maria Callas, one of the world’s greatest opera singers. The film explores her tumultuous and tragic life, reimagined during her final days in Paris in the 1970s.
This is the third portrait of a famous woman as seen through Larrain’s lens, following 2016’s Jackie and 2021’s Spencer, both of which also premiered in Venice.
At a press conference earlier in the day on Thursday, Jolie spoke about preparing to play the famous soprano Callas, which marked her first time singing in a role, as reported by Variety.
On learning to sing opera, she said, “Everybody here knows, I was terribly nervous. 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.”
