Callas: A Documentary

Even today, more than 40 years following her tragic death at the age of 53 - Maria Callas (1923-1977) still firmly remains one of classical music's best-selling female vocalists of all time.

Originally aired for TV broadcast back in 1987 - This "Callas" celebrity bio-documentary is a Tony Palmer production.

Through stills, archival footage, and interviews (including those with friends and co-workers) - This 90-minute presentation offers the viewer a fairly intimate portrait of Callas that also delves into the struggles, as well as the scandals, that had sadly plagued her during the latter-half of her rather short life.

UNIMAGINABLY DISRESPECTFUL. Shockingly rude, terribly bad. The things the men and snobbish women say in this documentary were so ugly, so unflattering and hideous about her, if not about her "ugly" singing voice than about her BODY ("like a pachyderm" "a body which CERTAINLY NO ONE WOULD WANT" "born ugly" "obese, disgusting" and then, when she loses 80lbs in a year (while still a TEENAGER/young woman)"loose flesh now hanging about her like a bag" (while showing her looking beautiful and amazing throughout), "she tried everything to reabsorb the flabby skin - but never succeeded entirely" "her ankles were never to be saved"... on and on. FOOTAGE FROM THIS FILM DISPROVES EVERYTHING THESE HORRID PEOPLE ARE EVEN SAYING! oh, I was so furious I couldn't finish this. It was repulsive! Rude, disrespectful, the absolute nerve! And UNTRUE - all of it!! Having previously watched a different documentary right before this one, one without bias and generous and kind but truthful (READ: respectful but honest) - she never has bad ankles, she's thin her entire life apart from a few photographs of her in her late teens slightly chubby - but having gone through more trauma and sadness in her life with abandonment of father, mother's love, husband's love all hanging on her success - and all of that is before Aristotle Onassis! A female costumer even goes so far as to say that her middle-aged loser of a first husband was the genius behind trying to make the best of a bad situation with her body and face - and that callas should be grateful. Absolutely ridiculous and to hear from snobby women and clearly unattractive men for 2hours about how hideous this BEAUTIFUL CREATURE WAS - I could not be left more befuddled or repulsed. I screenshotted nearly every frame bc no one wd believe the actual dialogue in this man-splained and RUDE bio. (And I have never noticed "man-splaining" before - until some man in this explains why callas' first marriage was very good and that he did all of these things for her own good - as if her own opinions on the subject are worthless!!! ABSURD. TEN THUMBS DOWN!!! WATCH ANY OTHER DOCU ON CALLAD AND WATCH VIDEO OF HER (in color elsewhere, B&W in this) - singing beautifully (her voice called ugly over 20x in this movie) and being radiant with the most expressive eyes ever seen and an absurdly slim body her entire life, right up through wearing bathing suits in her 40s and looking 20-years younger and being thin as a ballerina until her death at 53. This film is slander and couldn't be meaner-spirited if it was made by a disgruntled ex- that she mistakenly overestimated.