The Metropolitan Opera House was awash in pearls and tuxedos on a recent gala evening. Socialites traded political gossip by the bar, and bankers discussed coming vacations in the Maldives. Then a golden elevator door slid open and a glamorous figure slipped out.

“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.

Jolie, whose combination of artistry and larger-than-life stardom makes her the only actress who could play this part right now, is luminous.