Callas Forever

I very much enjoyed seeing this film this afternoon. I would strongly
recommend it, sad as it is, for magnificent acting and beautiful music.

Whilst it was a clever angle from which to view Callas, and it worked simply
as that, I felt that the film covered some interesting themes. The question
of artistic integrity may not be commonly discussed, but it is an
interesting part of aesthetics. Is the original painting intrinsically
different in a meaningful way from an identical copy, a first rate print or,
indeed, from a perfect photograph of the painting - and if so, in what way
and why? The obvious answer is that habit, tradition, existing practice
gives it a higher market value proving that it has intrinsic value isn't
really an answer, but, rather, the reason that the question is asked in the
first place. The film examined this from the point of view of music, and
opera, but it was the same question and it provided an intriguing answer.

I felt that the film also provided powerful perspectives on fame and
meaning. It is pretty obvious how fame can give meaning to the lives of
people who feel that their lives would otherwise have none and how
destructive this ultimately has to be when it is lost - certainly when a
career has a physically imposed limit. It is, for obvious reasons, less
clear how those who choose (or feel forced) to live a solitary existence
after a famous career see the matter. I felt that, though it was fictional,
Callas' choice was portrayed as being redeemed by the course of the plot -
something that rang more truly to me than the idea of being along inevitably
implying being lonely.

As a Prima Donna, Callas certainly lived down to the stereotype, as one
would expect. I think that it was unkind, as was suggested at one point, to
imply that she only knew anything about Faust because he appeared in Opera -
I'm sure she must have spent some time on Onassises yacht reading, if only
to fend of boredom. There was genuine pathos in the wonderful portrayal of
Callas as if revealed, like the Wizard of Oz, to be a smaller person than
her persona, but it was a shared pathos and a profound one - particularly as
she triumphed over it by virtue of her integrity to herself, not to her
persona.

--
I know why I hate integrity. It is nice for those that have it, but utter
hell for those who have to live with them - Larry in 'Callas Forever'