Callas Forever
Dir. by Franco Zeffirelli
Italy/France/Spain, 2002,
35mm, 108 minutes

Past Screening

SHOWTIMES:
FRIDAY
FEBRUARY 4, 2005
5:00PM
Main Art Theatre Royal Oak

(Stay for GIRL PLAY at 8pm)

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY!
Join the stars of Girl Play, Robin Greenspan and Lacie Harmon, at the Closing Night Afterparty immediately following the 8:00PM viewing.
Jim Fresard Automotive Dealerships
400 North Main St., Royal Oak, MichiganCatering and
support by: Absolut Vodka and the Triangle Foundation

Callas Forever

To witness firsthand the career of the world’s most legendary opera diva sounds like a gay man’s dream come true. But for Larry Kelly (a delectably quirky Jeremy Irons), managing Maria Callas’s late career has left him scorched by the star’s brilliant fire. 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).

At the story’s beginning, Kelly has become a manager of rock bands— much easier to handle, he asserts, than a temperamental opera star. Callas, following the deterioration of her voice, has become a recluse. Visiting her palatial Paris apartment, Kelly is shocked to find Maria so broken. 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 mutual friend, a busybody journalist, and by newcomer Jay Rodan as Larry’s handsome artist boyfriend. Zeffirelli’s florid, operatic treatment of this engrossing “what if” story creates a superbly indulgent fantasy and a worthy tribute to his legendary friend.

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY!
Join the stars of Girl Play, Robin Greenspan and Lacie Harmon, at the Closing Night Afterparty immediately following the 8:00PM viewing.

Jim Fresard Automotive Dealerships
400 North Main St., Royal Oak, Michigan
Catering and support by: Absolut Vodka and the Triangle Foundation