ANGELINA JOLIE STARS in the highly anticipated Pablo Larraín biopic Maria, which Netflix recently acquired, and while promoting the film at the Venice International Film Festival, she wore two of legendary opera singer Maria Callas’s brooches by Cartier. They not only appeared on Jolie at the film festival, but also in the film. Like many iconic jewels, the brooches, which once belonged to Callas, are now in the archives of the renowned house; they were lent for the film and the festival.
In my 2015 book If These Jewels Could Talk: The Legends Behind Celebrity Gems (ACC Artbooks), I wrote about some of the spectacular jewels gifted to Callas by her husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, and her longtime flame, Aristotle Onassis, prior to his marrying Jackie Kennedy. Callas owned jewels from many of the renowned houses, but Cartier pieces stood out among her collection.
The three-dimensional Cartier Panthère brooch, made in 1971, features one of the house’s signature gold panthers with emerald eyes set in gold with black lacquer spots sitting on top of a carved white chalcedony stone. This was the jewel that Jolie wore with a streamlined black column dress to the press photo call.
PHOTO: CARTIER
To the evening premier of Maria, Jolie also wore the Cartier Rose Ouvrante 1972 flower brooch crafted of emeralds, sapphires, rubies and diamonds and created with a special mechanism that allows the petals to open and close. It’s an awe-inspiring piece and one that Jolie wears in the film as well.
Although Jolie didn’t partake in the full-on themed dressing that we are seeing on actresses and actors at premieres of films they are in, she gave just the right amount of a nod to her role and the magnificent and talented woman who owned the jewels.
