Parthenope
Film still from “Parthenope”: Celeste Dalla Porta as Parthenope
“The promise of a fulfilling life is in the exploration of the soul, the life force of living things.”
“Parthenope observes even while she is participating, she is not taken in by the virtuous allure of self-sacrifice nor repelled by the hopeless efforts of artifice and disguise to stem time.”
Parthenope
More hope, more love, more forgiveness.
★★★★★
WRITTEN BY DR NO, 06.05.2025
I did not manage to experience Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope until recently even though it was released last year. The breathtaking cinematography and a robust sense of theatricality, Sorrentino lives up to past Felliniesque comparisons but delivers so much more. More hope, more love, more forgiveness, this film is a cornucopia of beauty, visually rich and colourful, it weaves a pattern of light within opaque desperation and darkness in surface perfection, many secrets hiding in plain sight. Sorrentino manages to convey and combine understanding of Napolitan culture with universal truths. What is obviously desirable is as shallow as a reflection in water, what is apparently clever is just glib, what is often considered ugly, dirty and even shameful is often beautiful, rare and forgivable. Are these things teachable to the young or does everyone have to experience these things for themselves?
Parthenope, the female character played in the most part by Celeste Dalla Porta lives and learns, growing up on screen, from a performative teenager to reflective retiree (Stefania Sandrelli) navigating her way through a tangle of good, bad and ugly advice from elders, pontificating and sitting judgment on Naples and its people as though the last word on the meaning of life. We are witness to her following Fortuna, goddess of fortune, either going with the flow as though led blindfolded or trusting her instincts newly awakened by the need to rebel against cliché if nothing else. The promise of a fulfilling life is in the exploration of the soul, the life force of living things. Being true to oneself is a careful examination of motivation, confounding expectations of others and all the while studying Man.
Film still from “Parthenope”
The film itself uses clichéd responses but often double backs on itself. On the face of it, the film is as pristine and stylish as it gets, the beautiful and youthful leading lady in 1970s Naples wears phenomenal costumes literally straight off the (Saint Laurent 21st century) catwalk, even to university, whilst the aged ‘glitterati’ overcompensate and overdress to the point of parody. That our brave heroine dons her next fabulous outfit without missing a heartbeat after being blamed for merely existing post family tragedy is a triumph if not a miracle. Parthenope’s choice to keep living becomes the less clichéd response to loss and being lost. That Saint Laurent is a producer of the film is no coincidence, Parthé is at once a 1970s European fashion and film cliché and a pathos-resilient time traveler for our modern sensibilities.
Film still from “Parthenope”
Naples as a subject is treated as a staged drama, colourful in the extreme. Everyone playing their part - or made to, all equally complicit in exploiting one another. The theatricality and predictability of the rhythm of life in the city becomes ritualistic and claustrophobic. The film is not really about Naples, it is about life itself. Parthenope embodies others’ desires; her quest is to find her own. Avoiding romantic notions that lead to youthful tragedy or simply the tragedy of not dying, doomed by the anguish of being left alone among a sea of people is an assault course. Parthenope observes even while she is participating, she is not taken in by the virtuous allure of self-sacrifice nor repelled by the hopeless efforts of artifice and disguise to stem time. Parthenope, Sorrentino’s first female protagonist does not disappoint if you do not desire her but become her. Every film is a projection on a flat screen, it is so easy to be distracted by the pretty lights and surface layers. Search inside yourself whilst watching Parthenope, reflect on your own experiences and leave the cinema more wanderlust and curious for life.
Film still from “Parthenope”