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With Hollywood being so focused on sequels and generally familiar filmic properties right now, it’s a bit of a surprise that there hasn’t been more of a rise in unofficial trilogies. This accepted term refers to any sequence of three films that are deliberately related but do not feature the same ongoing story or characters. Some movie fans have extended this to include any movies that kind of go together but without any real intention on anyone’s part for them to do so, taking the word ‘unofficial’ as licence to decide on any random grouping themselves. This gives us the sometimes spoken of Nicolas Cage’s mid 90s action films trilogy of The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off, and Ben Affleck’s supposed Boston series of Good Will Hunting, Gone Baby Gone and The Town. There’s also Tarantino’s revisionist history trilogy comprising of Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. None of these really count though. With that last one, they are really shoehorned in together.

No, what we are talking about is work like Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End) where the cast and tone are similar and each one actually features a scene with said popular ice cream cone in it somewhere. Then there’s Baz Luhrmann’s Red Curtain Trilogy (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge), Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) and Oliver Stone’s Vietnam War trilogy (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven & Earth). See also Sergio Leone’s Dollar Trilogy and George A. Romero’s Dead Trilogy. Surprisingly the prevalence of these has not picked up around American cinema’s recent fear of original ideas. You’d have thought this might be a good middle ground.

Out now though, in the midst of the current cinematic climate, we do have this; the third of director Pablo Larrain’s movies telling the stories of great female icons of the 20th Century. It may or many not be the last of these, Mother Theresa or Audrey Hepburn could be next, but following 2016’s Jackie and 2021’s Spencer, which centred on Jackie Kennedy and Lady Di respectively, we have this film examining the life of opera superstar Maria Callas. This is the type of unofficial trilogy I’d love to see more of as they allow directors to extend elements of what they have explored before without retreading old material. This one and Jackie are further linked by shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis who both women had a long relationship with, but there is no cameo from Natalie Portman reprising her role from the 2016 film.

Maria Callas is not as well known as Kennedy or Spencer but Larrain brings the same microscopic approach to this portraying woman as he has done before, and as with Portman and Kristen Stewart (who played the people’s princess) he has created a complex role to showcase a great female actor. It is Angelina Jolie’s central performance that a lot of viewers are singing about with this movie, and she is magnetic and captivating, but once again there is some brilliant storytelling here as well. As with the scenes where Diana meets Anne Boleyn in Spencer, there are some more imaginative twists in the narrative, but it is all very effective. 

Crucially, along with the skill of the lead actor and the writer/director, Maria also highlights the majesty of Callas herself. This is a portrait of a complex human but it is also the celebration of an exceptional talent. This is something it has that Jackie and Spencer did not have because those women were marked out by the men they married and the challenges this presented but Maria Callas earned her place in history herself. This is not to say she wasn’t manipulated by others, including men, but she has agency throughout rather than this being something she is battling to gain. Likewise this is not a tale without tragedy but Maria has control that assassinations and royal expectations have not stolen from her. Maria also has at its heart some touching relationships. As with Spencer, her closest friends are those paid to be in her service but there is affection here you cannot buy. 

Thank goodness for Pablo Larrain and his desire to make this sequence of films then. I’d love for this to be the start of a new trend among the constant remakes and belated follow ups. Maybe Challengers could be the start of a series of Guadagnino and Zendaya movies drawing parallels with life and sport, or Emilia Pérez only one in a series of musicals built around dark and violent scenarios. Either way what Maria does in once again showing how the lives of certain remarkable women have left their mark on recent history, is lean into legacy more than sequels and right now that makes a nice change.