Directed and written by: Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Celeste Dalla Porta, Dario Aita, Silvio Orlando, and Gary Oldman
Runtime: 137 minutes
‘Parthenope’ is a gorgeously filmed picture, but the narrative’s beauty is in the eye of the beholder
“Are you aware of the disruption your beauty causes?” – John Cheever (Gary Oldman)
“I’m starting to suspect something.” – Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta)
Parthenope is a siren in Greek mythology and a city settled by the Greeks. That municipal is now Naples, Italy, and it’s no coincidence that director/writer Paolo Sorrentino (“The Great Beauty” (2013), “Youth” (2015), “The Hand of God” (2021)) decided to make a film named after the seductress and locale.
Naples is his hometown.
“Parthenope” follows the journey of a breathtaking mortal (Porta) as the title character, who appears to have goddess-like powers of attraction. She is – literally - born in the sea, the Gulf of Naples, in 1950, and Parthenope is connected to the city, water, and Greek siren throughout the eccentric, uneven, maddening-at-times, but beautifully filmed picture.
Sorrentino merrily hops around Naples and places Parthenope in numerous welcoming circumstances and stuffy predicaments that don’t feel connected in the moment. These individual scenes aren’t self-contained vignettes, but the situations and settings are wildly different for the audience and our lead, not entirely unlike Sorrentino’s exhibitions in his Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty”.
We witness an imposing surf crash onto a singular figure dressed to the nines, a city bus with a bizarre steampunk apparatus that stops traffic, a regal carriage that sits on a barge and travels by horseback on a seaside road, a fetching light display that illuminates a neighborhood nook, and more.
This cinematic celebration of indulgence overlays Parthenope’s encounters with men entranced by her beauty, slender 5’6” frame, flowing brunette locks, alluring eyes, and robust confidence.
Sandrino (Dario Aita), the son of a housekeeper who works for her wealthy family, loved her his “entire life.” John Cheever, an author who doubles as an alcoholic, is captured by Parthenope’s presence but doesn’t pursue romance. Our heroine meets an affluent businessman, an attractive motorcyclist, a priest, and a knowledgeable professor. The gentlemen employ varying degrees of interest as Parthenope attempts to write her own story as an independent, educated woman.
Porta nicely balances Parthenope’s emotional tug of war between causing “disruptions” and pursuing a career. She navigates this relatively uncharted territory during the feminist advancements of the 1970s. Parthenope can easily fall back on her physicality to discover the finer things in life - outside of her prosperous family, of course – but she challenges the system and the men who appear in her purview to forge a hopeful path, which feels elusive and unclear at times for her.
Sorrentino employs a relaxed pace over 137 minutes, allowing us to soak up Naples’ wonders, including the urban splendor and breathtaking coastlines. The latter sparks lovely memories of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt” (1963).
However, the individual sequences carry sharp staccatos between one another, frequently pulling this critic out of an immersive experience and into an observational one. Parthenope seems to cope with this same fate, even in her own narrative.
Certainly, Sorrentino and cinematographer Daria D’Antonio offer irresistible visuals that showcase our lead, her metropolitan co-star, and its inhabitants, but also a few bizarre, off-putting ones. In the end, many pieces fit – sometimes clumsily - into Parthenope’s odyssey, and perhaps all of them do. However, possibly confirming that assumption requires a long night/evening of conversation at a 24-hour diner because a second viewing of this arthouse picture might be a tall order. It depends on the person. This narrative’s beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Jeff’s ranking
2/4 stars
