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“I can show her
as a woman and as a person.
How much she suffered and
gave up.
I wanted it get behind that voice. I want to show
her search
for absolute perfection and integrity.
These are the things most
people don’t know.”
-Franco
Zeffirelli
SYNOPSIS
 At the beginning
of this engrossing story, Larry Kelly (the delectable Jeremy Irons) has
become a manager of rock bands – much easier to handle, he asserts,
than a temperamental opera star. Managing
Maria Callas’s late career has left him scorched by the star’s
brilliant fire. Visiting her palatial
Paris apartment, Kelly is shocked to find a broken and reclusive Callas, humiliated by the deterioration of her voice. Determined to re-ignite her passion and restore her legacy,
he convinces her to take on an important project: a film of the opera
Carmen, in which she will lip-sync her own, glorious recording of many
years previous.
 Thus begins a reawakening of their former relationship,
mixing creative
passion, genius, and drive in an incendiary cocktail. The stars are
ably supported by a feisty Joan Plowright as their mutually supportive
journalist friend, newcomer Jay Rodan as Larry’s handsome artist
boyfriend, and a wonderfully steamy performance from sexy Gabriel Garko
as the tenor who worships Callas and yearns for his own opportunity for
greatness.
The special relationship between Callas (a
luminous
Fanny Ardant, reprising her stage portrayal) and her former manager
forms the heart of this compelling fictional imagining of the diva’s
swan song, written and directed by the late Callas’s friend and
colleague, Franco Zeffirelli (ROMEO AND JULIET), in a worthy tribute to
his legendary friend.
“Fanny Ardant is
Maria Callas because she’s
become her
within herself.
Somehow, she’s found the diva’s stature, quality
and
lovely innocence.”
-Franco
Zeffirelli
CAST
 FANNY ARDANT
Maria Callas
François Truffaut’s protégée and lover, Fanny
Ardant first gained fame in two of his last pictures, The Woman Next
Door (1981) and Confidentially
Yours (1983). She impressed
audiences in Swann in Love (1984,
co-starring Jeremy Irons), and Alain
Resnais’ Mèlo (1986).
She had a notable appearance in Ettore
Scola’s The Family (1987).
Fanny later appeared in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth (1988). In What a Drag/Pedale douce (1996),
Ardant spoofed her sophisticated screen image as the confidante of a
gay businessman who agrees to pose as his wife to impress a banker and
then finds herself romantically pursued by the banker, a performance
that earned her a Best Actress Cesar. That same year, she was also the
wealthy and powerful lover of engineer in 18th Century France in
Patrice Leconte's Ridicule.
More recently
she starred in Francois Ozon’s highly acclaimed 8 Femmes/8 Women (2002) for
which she won a Silver Bear for outstanding artistic achievement at the
2002 Berlin International Film Festival.
 JEREMY IRONS
Larry Kelly
Jeremy Irons first worked
extensively in the English theatre before
making his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing opposite
Glenn Close, for which he won both the Drama League Award for Best
Actor.
On the big screen he has starred in such films as Harold Pinter’s
Betrayal and The Mission with Robert De Niro. Irons played
opposite Meryl Streep in The French
Lieutenant’s Woman, for which he
received the Variety Club Award for Best Actor and a BAFTA
nomination. His performance in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers
brought him a Best Actor Award from the New York Film Critics Circle
and a Canadian Genie. Irons starred again with Glenn Close in the
film based on the re-trial of Klaus von Bulow, Reversal of
Fortune. For this performance, Irons received the 1990
Academy
Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
In 1994 Irons
created the voice of Scar for Disney’s The Lion King. He followed
that with the action film Die Hard
with a Vengeance co-starring Bruce
Willis, and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing
Beauty. More recently
he played Humbert Humbert in Adrian Lyne’s controversial film Lolita
and in Claude Lelouch’s And
Now…Ladies and Gentlemen.
 JOAN PLOWRIGHT
Sarah Keller
Joan Plowright started her
illustrious career in the theatre. She
has played leading roles in a number of productions including Jean Rice
in John Osborne’s The Entertainer
with Laurence Olivier, both in London
and New York, a role she repeated in the film.
At the Old Vic for the National Theatre’s first season in 1963 she
played Sonya in Olivier’s production of Uncle Vanya and Saint Joan in
Shaw’s play directed by John Dexter for which she received the Evening
Standard’s Best Actress Award.
In 1974 she starred in Zeffirelli’s production of Saturday, Sunday,
Monday in the West End and in 1975 in Filumena, which won her the
Society of West End’s Theatre Award.
On Broadway she has played in The
Entertainer, The Chairs, A Taste
of Honey and Filumena
and has won three major American awards the
Tony, the New York Critics’ Circle Award and the Page One Award in
Theatre from the Newspaper Guild of New York for Best Actress.
Joan has starred in numerous film roles including 101 Dalmations,
Zeffirelli’s Tea With Mussolini
and George and the Dragon.
“Today’s young
people need to know who was
behind that voice
and what it cost her to give us such a beauty.”
-Franco
Zeffirelli
 DIRECTOR
FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI
Director
Creator of visually ornate dramas,
often based on classical sources and
great music, Zeffirelli began his show business career as a theatrical
designer and became an apprentice to film director Luchino Visconti in
the late 1940s, working with him on such films as La Terra Trema
(1948), Bellissima (1951),
and Senso (1954).
Zeffirelli later made his own name as a stage and opera director in
London and New York. He has worked on countless productions with
artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Herbert Von Karajan, Leonard
Bernstein and most importantly Maria Callas. It is the special
relationship that Zeffirelli built up with Maria Callas over the years
that meant that he would always be the perfect choice to helm any film
about her.
For television he is the author of Jesus
of Nazareth (1976/1977), a
mini series that has been seen by over a billion and a half people
throughout the world.
His film directing debut was the highly publicized and lavishly
produced The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
starring Elizabeth Taylor and
Richard Burton. The following year he made his best known and
best-loved film, Romeo and Juliet
(1968), which earned him an Oscar
nomination as Best Director and a niche in film history for being the
first director to cast two real teenagers to play Shakespeare’s young
lovers. He has made many other films including versions of the
operas La Traviata (1982) and
Otello (1986), and a
very well-received
visualization of Hamlet
(1990) with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close.
His previous film was the very popular
Tea with Mussolini in 1998.
A FRANCO
ZEFFIRELLI FILM FANNY ARDANT AND JEREMY IRONS IN 'CALLAS FOREVER'
WITH JOAN PLOWRIGHT JAY RODAN GABRIEL
GARKO JUSTINO DIAZ MANUEL DE BLAS
COSTUME DESIGNERS ANNA ANNI ALBERTO SPIAZZI
ALESSANDRO LAI PRODUCTION DESIGNER BRUNO CESARI
ART DIRECTOR CARLO CENTOLAVIGNA ORIGINAL MUSIC ALESSIO VLAD
EDITOR SEAN BARTON DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY ENNIO
GUARNIERI ASSOCIATE PRODUCER PIPPO PISCIOTTO
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS MARCO CHIMENZ GIOVANNI STABILINI
CO-PRODUCERS CLIVE PARSONS OLIVIER GRANIER FABIO
CONVERSI FRANCISCO RAMOS
ANDREI BONCEA SCREENPLAY BY MARTIN SHERMAN AND FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI
PRODUCED BY RICCARDO TOZZI AND GIOVANNELLA ZANNONI DIRECTED
BY FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI
EURIMAGES
Technicolor A EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION
MEDUSA FILM – CATTLEYA (ROME) – FILM AND GENERAL PRODUCTIONS (LONDON) –
GALFIN (PARIS) – ALQUIMIA CINEMA (MADRID) – MEDIAPROPICTURES
(BUCHAREST) DOLBY
DIGITAL Kodak
WORLDWIDE SALES BY CAPITOL FILMS
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