‘Parthenope’ Review: Paolo Sorrentino is Once Again Obsessed with a Great Beauty | Cannes

Parthenope is the coming-of-age story of an impossibly beautiful woman, much as in Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malèna, who turns heads everywhere she goes. Fortunately, the titular heroine from Paolo Sorrentino’s Cannes Film Festival competition title doesn’t have to undergo anything humiliating or non consensual. Still, an unsettling tragedy early in life steers the direction of her journey.  

Born in 1950 in the Neapolitan sea — yes, in the sea — the bambina is gifted with a bed that features a carriage-like frame made in Versailles so she can supposedly travel while she sleeps. By her late teens, and now played by Celeste Dalla Porta, she has seemingly developed an unhealthily close bond with her older brother, Raimondo (Daniele Rienzo), whom others often characterize as fragile. The film remains vague about whether the deeply repressed feeling tormenting him is latent homosexuality or possibly incestuous longing.  

Parthenope seems aware of the power she wields over local men, and has one of them, Sandrino (Dario Aita), wrapped around her finger. She is sexually assertive. But her heart is set on the unattainable – sad-sack binge-drinking gay British novelist John Cheever (Gary Oldman), whose entire bibliography she’s read. You see, Parthenope is fiercely smart. She passes her exams with flying colors and develops a keen interest in anthropology. Naturally, she’s drawn to those who rival her intellectually and not those who are desperately lusting after her.   

She, Raimondo and Sandrino decide to vacation in Capri, where guests at a hotel protest when staff ask her to leave the pool because she isn’t staying there. A rich playboy’s helicopter is constantly hovering over her, with his intermediary on the ground trying to broker a date. She’s also scouted by an agent, who refers her to acting coach Flora Malva (Isabella Ferrari). 

Some of Parthenope’s experiences come off as dreamlike, while others register as grotesquely nightmarish in a Lynchian sort of way. Disfigured by a botched plastic surgery, Flora only appears under veil. Through this connection, Parthenope gets to meet Greta Cool (Luisa Ranieri), an extremely bitter has-been movie star. We then see a strange ceremony of the “great fusion,” offspring from two prominent local families copulating before spectators that include Parthenope. There are also bizarre encounters with the local bishop (Peppe Lanzetta), whom her professor Marotta (Silvio Orlando) describes as the devil, who prances around shirtless, dyes his hair, and promises to show Parthenope the secrets of San Gennero. It’s unclear for a while where Sorrentino is going with all this, but it resolves in the end, when the film becomes all-out surrealist in a Taxidermia sort of way.  

Her least convincing interaction however seems to be the one with Roberto (Marlon Joubert). When Greta Cool excoriates Naples and its denizens during a sculpture dedication speech, Roberto surprisingly concurs. He visits the slums and hands out pocket money to the kids. He also extends Parthenope an invitation to that “great fusion.” None of that seems commensurate with Parthenope taking a liking to him.  

Dalla Porta is a revelation, nothing like the aspiring actress she plays whom Greta Cool describes as having vacant eyes. If anything, she manages to carry an entire movie from start to finish. She most certainly sells us the idea that Parthenope can have this intoxicating effect on men. 

This being a Sorrentino film, Parthenope’s unfolding self-discovery is also very much a search for beauty. As expected, there are haunting shots of photogenic Naples and Capri lensed by Daria D’Antonio. Some of the mise en scène may be unrealistic, such as constant fireworks that imbue the movie with a carnival vibe. Parthenope’s journey also takes us to the decrepit underbelly of Naples, where the camera pans through a collage of carefully composed snapshots of pitiful ramshackle households. The film is visual, but not superficial. The numerous dance sequences, which evoke the director’s nearly memelike ad campaign for Bvlgari, always reveal something about the state of characters’ relationships. Lele Marchitelli’s jazzy piano score sets a contemplative mood throughout. 

The film ends in 2023, at the conclusion of Parthenope’s academic career. At this juncture, pretty much none of her encounters truly matter except for one, and it’s one that the film hasn’t dwelled on much in a sentimental way. Of all the men and women in her life, it turns out that Marotta has had the most profound effect on her. The student has indeed become the teacher in her own right. Come to think of it, she seems to have chosen the only viable path for herself. In a most un-movielike manner, pretty much all her other predictions for her future fail to materialize. While that’s certainly refreshing, it also kind of trivializes most everything we’ve witnessed. It would be nice if there were more of a self reflection in the end, summarizing the lessons she has learned along the way.

Grade: B-

This review is from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival where Parthenope premiered in Competition. A24 will release the film theatrically in the U.S.