Parthenope is beautiful to look at for some time, but it has nothing substantial to offer. Paulo Sorrentino’s newest film for A24 has flown under the radar since its lukewarm debut at the Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2024, and now finally receives its US release. Led by Celeste Dalla Porta in the titular role, the film delivers an abysmal portrayal of the archetypal “siren” beauty.
Daria D’Antonio’s cinematography for this film is undeniably fascinating, framing the film’s opening scenes with a captivating allure that mirrors its enigmatic protagonist. Parthenope emerges as a Venus-like character, born in the ocean that surrounds Naples, Italy in 1950. Yet beyond this beauty, it’s tough to find anything psychologically tangible to grasp onto. What characterization Sorrentino attempts to bestow on her still renders her presence meaningless. Parthenope is beautiful, but she’s also intelligent! That’s the only message the filmmaker deems worthy to represent.
Gary Oldman briefly appears early in the film as John Cheever, an American novelist that routinely visits Rome. Cheever is an author in real life who suffered from bouts of alcoholism and self-loathing. His presence here is fleeting, as is any other man in Parthenope’s life. And I particularly question his larger purpose to the narrative. There is a moment where Parthenope does connect with an aging actress, Greta Cool (Luisa Ranieri), that leaves an opening for Sorrentino to explore a female relationship, but this sort of connection is as shallow as its predecessors. Parthenope is a coming-of-age film surrounded by and for the men who do the looking.
Sorrentino makes no sincere effort to complicate or deepen the mystery surrounding his protagonist’s beauty. There’s a sequence in the beginning of the film where model-esque figures parade themselves on the streets of Rome (Saint Laurent had a hand in producing this film). The point is, any one of them could have been Parthenope. Her motivations remain frustratingly unclear in the film: Is it the loss of her childhood lover? Her position of privilege that upsets her? Why, for instance, does she consort with a bishop? These ambiguities aren’t merely unclear, but veer outright disrespectful to her character. When Sorrentino attempts to move beyond the archetype of beauty within the male gaze, his choices become increasingly baffling.
Parthenope studies for an Anthropology PhD as well but it’s difficult to pinpoint what she’s studying or what part of the human condition inspires her work. Her professor, Devoto Marotta (Silvio Orlando), is one of few connections she maintains through time, but even this connection feels superficial, as he primarily admires her intellect over her beauty.
In the Parthenope myth, the siren fails to seduce Odysseus, so she throws herself into the sea and her body washes on the shore of Naples. In Sorrentino’s version, Parthenope emerges from these same waters at birth and remains an object of desire throughout each stage of her life. The closure we receive gives its audience no original insight into the myth or the woman whose life we supposedly explored, and the runtime is entirely wasted.
2/5 Stars