Parthenope
A movie that presents a woman as an exquisite artefact, a universal object of male desire, seems to be asking for a hostile feminist reading. Yet Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope is more than her face and figure. For every scene in which the camera lingers breathlessly on this beautiful woman, there’s another in which she asserts her intelligence, letting us know she belongs only to herself.
Such a daunting role requires a special actor, and Sorrentino has found one in 27-year-old Celeste Dalla Porta, who manages to be effortlessly seductive but also strangely indifferent to the attention she receives. To date, Dalla Porta has appeared in only a handful of films, including an uncredited bit-part in the director’s previous feature, The Hand of God (2021), but you’ll be seeing a lot more of her. In real life, Dalla Porta may not be so eye-catching that every person she meets is stopped in their tracks, but that’s what happens in this movie. The impression of perfect beauty is created by a camera that never stops ogling the character; a sympathetic score by Lele Marchitelli; and the reactions she elicits from everyone she meets. We are drawn in by this aura, and few viewers will offer any active resistance.
Parthenope is aloof but not frigid. She may give herself sexually to a suitor, but her heart remains firmly in her own possession. For much of the film she seems bemused by her own power and feels the need to keep testing its limits. Sorrentino raises the idea that Parthenope might be a victim of her own beauty, but she is determined to avoid that trap. It’s not coincidental that she is a student of Anthropology, although she cannot provide any definition of the subject. Her greatest delight lies in a witty comeback, a useful skill when you spend each day being pursued by males of all descriptions.
The film follows Parthenope’s life from conception to old age. Born into a wealthy family who live in a spectacular villa on the Bay of Naples, her mother gives birth in the ocean while assorted servants and hangers-on cheer from the balconies. But what will they call her? “Parthenope!” shouts her grandfather, the Commandante (Alfonso Postiglione). It’s the name of the siren in Greek mythology who threw herself into the sea when her song failed to seduce Odysseus. Her body was washed ashore at Megaride, an island off the coast of Naples. When the city was first settled in the 9th century BCE it was given her name.
It would be too simplistic to say that Parthenope is the living embodiment of Naples, or that Sorrentino is using the character to work through his own complex feelings about a city that has more than its share of contradictions. That may be one aspect, but it doesn’t begin to explain everything that happens in this maddeningly episodic movie, in which we watch Parthenope form a special bond with her grumpy Anthropology lecturer, Professor Marotta, (Silvio Orlando); and with the alcoholic American writer, John Cheever – played by Gary Oldman, who is becoming a specialist in dilapidated old wrecks. These may be the only two males in the story who remain resistant to her charms. “Are you aware of the disruption your beauty causes?” Cheever asks. “Beauty is like war, it opens doors.”
Parthenope’s brother, Raimondo (Daniele Rienzo) is not immune, and conceives a fatal, incestuous passion, which his sister seems to encourage, even as she dallies with another worshipper, Sandrino (Dario Aita).
Although she is determined to pursue an academic career, Parthenope toys with the idea of being an actress. She is discouraged by the antics of an older actress who delivers an extraordinary public put-down to the Neapolitans who swarm to see her.
In another scene she rides around Naples on a motorbike with a charismatic young mafioso, who takes her to watch a humiliating public mating of a son and daughter of two powerful families. She flirts with a wealthy man who apparently spots her from his helicopter. She is intrigued by the lecherous old cardinal who officiates at the cathedral of San Gennaro, at a ceremony in which a vial of Jesus’s dried blood is expected to turn liquid.
Each of these chapters in Parthenope’s biography is a story within a story. They add up to a composite portrait of a woman who remains an enigma, as we trawl through moments of voyeuristic sensation in search of meaning. Perhaps the most sensational scene of all is one in which the cynical cardinal, Vescovo (Pepe Lanzetta), reveals his all-too-human lusts in the chambers of San Gennaro – a holy place for Neapolitan Catholics. This part of the film has provoked the anger of the Catholic Church, and predictably, worked miracles for the film’s local box office.
The scene in San Gennaro feels like the ultimate earthquake in a movie full of small seismic disturbances, but we have still to pay a visit to Professor Marotta and meet the invalid son he keeps tucked away in a back room. If Parthenope’s story seemed almost mystically incomprehensible beforehand, it advances by several degrees of strangeness from this brief encounter.
Parthenope is a typical Sorrentino movie in its visual brilliance – making full use of the resources of the cinema. It’s also typical in its willingness to depart from a straightforward narrative, treating the story as a series of events which add up to a patchwork portrait of a character. If it’s not exactly about the getting of wisdom, or self-knowledge, this is because Parthenope is so self-contained she gives no clues as to what she has learned. It’s almost impossible to say when she is being carried away by events, and when she remains in control. We are mesmerised by surfaces and puzzled by the depths revealed in tantalising fashion. One thinks of the ocean in which the lead character is born, and where she swims like a mermaid. Indeed, the entire experience of this movie is oceanic – like Freud’s “oceanic feeling” that precedes the birth of the ego. For most of her life, Parthenope is not one thing, she is constantly being formed. For the viewer, the only way to fully appreciate this process may be through total immersion.
Parthenope
Written & directed by Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Celeste Dalla Porta, Dario Aita, Silvio Orlando, Gary Oldman, Luisa Ranieri, Daniele Rienzo, Alfonso Postiglione, Marlon Joubert, Peppe Lanzetta, Isabella Ferrari, Stefania Sandrelli
Italy/France, MA 15+, 136 mins