“Maria”–Shootin the “Medea” Opera Scene
Edward Lachman, 76, has primarily worked in independent film, and has served as cinematographer on films by Todd Haynes, including Far from Heaven in 2002 and Carol in 2015, both of which earned him Oscar nominations.
My Oscar Book:
He has also shot films by Ulrich Seidl, Wim Wenders, Soderbergh and Paul Schrader.
His other work includes Herzog’s La Soufrière (1977), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999), and Altman’s final film A Prairie Home Companion (2006).
This year he is nominated for the biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie.
“I picked the scene of the opera ‘Medea’ because of the way Pablo used the operas as counterpoints to her life by telling her own story. The film became an opera about Maria Callas, without just being a film biography of one of the greatest coloratura singers of opera of all time,” Lachman said.
“Pablo has always expressed that opera and cinema, in many ways, have similarities. So, for me, I was interested in how an audience in a theater experiences an opera. We used the camera as a moving proscenium or stage, with wider lenses moving with Maria or her point of view as it would be experienced by someone seated in a theater engaged in a performance. The other aspect would be a sense of a heightened reality, using color and contrast, as operas are not seen as representational or a form of naturalism, but the importance of an emotional journey.
“The use of color is another way of expressing her emotional state, and painters have always known this. Her apartment is a refuge; a warm sanctuary, and by using an element of verdant green from the exterior window, it cuts with a friction to her emotional state.
“Maria is entrapped and betrayed by what she desired most in her life. The affirmation in love from her audience that she never was able to obtain in her personal life. The scene from ‘Medea’ that we see her listening to and performing on the stage is a scene of revenge for the betrayal of her that mirrors Maria Callas’ life.”
