Angelina Jolie never expected to hit all the notes. But finding the breath of Maria Callas was enough to bring things out of Jolie that she didn’t even know were in her.

To the generations of opera singers that came after her, she’s still an era-defining consummate artist. “She’s an icon. There’s no other way to put it,” said bass Morris Robinson, who recently sang the role of Ramfis in “Aida” with Boston Lyric Opera.

Angelina Jolie glides through the final days of Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria." Currently playing in select theaters and streaming on Netflix Dec. 11, “Maria," rated R, plays like an opera, grandly theatrical and evocative of a larger-than-life star.

Maria, the Maria Callas biopic-of-sorts starring Angelina Jolie, is directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Steven Knight.

The important thing to know going into “Maria” is that it’s the third in a trilogy of films directed by the Chilean whirlwind Pablo Larraín that seek to recover the women behind the plaster saints of 20th-century iconography.

The Callas of “Maria” has far more agency regarding her personal affairs. In a flashback scene (one of many in the film, mostly in B&W), she blows off a brazen proposition by U.S. President John F. Kennedy with a raised eyebrow and the chilly query, “Where’s Jackie?”

And for the first time in years, Jolie is back in the spotlight, in full movie-star mode. Her commanding performance in “Maria” seems assured

“Maria,” Pablo Larraín’s cinematic portrait of opera legend Maria Callas, arrives as the third of the director’s films centered on iconic women of the 20th century.

Mystery of the Callas millions resurfaces as jewels are are put up for auction,” was the headline when Sotheby’s announced the sale of 11 pieces of jewelry from the collection of Maria Callas in October 2004.