When the heroine of Paolo Sorrentino’s new film is born, circa 1950, in the shallow waters of Mediterranean outside the family villa, her parents are at a loss for a name. A shipping magnate who happens to be present gazes past the villa at the city of Naples rising up from the sea, and decrees the baby will be called Parthenope, like the mythic siren who founded the city.
Parthenope grows instantly into an eye-catching beauty played by newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta. So closely is she linked to Naples that one can say the film that bears their common name is a double portrait, interweaving the writer-director’s intense attraction for his character and his city in an impossible, mythic conjunction. Though it sounds like a complicated way to structure a movie, Sorrentino somehow makes it work in a film that is truly a sensual pleasure to watch. Its daring sexuality, which encompasses threesomes, sex in front of an audience and a quite sacrilegious scene in a church, should help the film define itself and find broad adult audiences.
Perhaps Dalla Porta’s Pathenope is the film’s biggest asset. In her first film role, the striking actress (who was actually born in Milan) embodies a modern woman proud of her intelligence and uninterested in using her looks to forge ahead on the job or husband market. She is a free spirit identified with the sparkling sea just beyond the villa’s terrace, and the southern Italian locations are eye candy in themselves.
Parthenope uses her body as she pleases, and since most of the action takes place between 1968 and 1975 there are few limitations. A goddess in a bikini, she graciously flirts with two young men in the household. One is Sandri, the son of a housemaid, and he worships her from afar without daring to make his move. The other is her sullen-eyed brother Raimondo, whose incessant jealousy and desire for her is driving him mad.
The three of them decide to spend a perfect summer day on Capri, where they go without money for a hotel. In a long sequence of events, Parthenope meets a depressed alcoholic writer who turns out to be John Cheever (Gary Oldman, spot on), but when she flirts with him, he gently turns her away, saying, “I don’t want you to waste on second of your youth on me.” At a glamorous party that night, the first of many in the film which recall the champagne bashes of The Great Beauty, a suave playboy with a helicopter fails to seduce her. The three young people spend the night on a rocky beach, where it is strongly implied that Sandri and Parthenope make love, though Raimondo may be included. The trip ends in tragedy, however, neatly dividing the story into a before and after, just like The Hand of God.
From this point on, an aura of sadness veils the protagonist’s no-longer-sparkling eyes. She is also torn over what career direction to follow. She briefly considers becoming an actor and has a surreal encounter with acting coach Flora Malva (Isabella Ferrari), who hides a botched plastic surgery job behind a heavy black veil. But Parthenope is discouraged from acting by a Sophia Loren clone called Greta Cool (well-played by a very vulgar and direct Luisa Ranieri), who delivers a scathingly funny diatribe against Naples and Neapolitans at an awards ceremony gone wrong.
The other path that appeals to her is academia. The heroine is a brilliant student (could this be a first in an Italian film?) and tops in her college Anthropology class, where her brains and wit impress her gruff prof, played by Silvio Orlando (The Young Pope). He hides an incredible secret that, when it is finally revealed, shocks the audience far more than Parthenope. Stefania Sandrelli rounds out the film with a small but touching role at the end.
There is no shortage of imagination here, as incredible episodes continue to flow smoothly into each other thanks to Cristiano Travaglioli’s superbly controlled editing. There is Parthenope’s encounter and brief fling with Roberto, the king of the Naples slums, offering a window on the abject poverty that people live in, with entire families crowded together in one room on the back streets of the city. He also takes her to watch an outrageous scene, in which two frightened young newlyweds, who represent two big slum families joining forces, are forced to consummate their wedding in front of their relatives.
It is a matter of debate whether this scene is topped by Parthenope’s meeting with a bishop (Pepe Lanzetta, hilarious) responsible for the annual miracle of San Gennaro, a religious ceremony in which the saint’s coagulated blood miraculously liquifies. Afterwards, she asks him to show her the “treasure of San Gennaro”, which they make good use of in the deserted church.
Working again with cinematographer Daria D’Antonio and production designer Carmine Guarino, Sorrentino creates his Baroque Naples as a symbolic contrast of brilliant lights and darkest shadows. His stylistic allegiance to Fellini’s grotesque fantasies is renewed in the first shots of a man in white gliding over the sea on a raft carrying a royal blue carriage from Versailles. And the magnificent villas with their terraces and gardens plunging into the sea offer a fairy-tale background for the semi-mythic characters who often seem one step away from the kitsch of a perfume commercial, but always pull back in time. Lele Marchitelli’s score and the choice of songs is romance at its lushest.
Director, screenplay: Paolo Sorrentino
Cast: Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Peppe Lanzetta, Isabella Ferrari, Stefania Sandrelli, Gary OldmanProducers: Lorenzo Mieli, Ardavan Safaee, Paolo Sorrentino, Anthony Vaccarello
Cinematography: Daria D’Antonio
Editing: Cristiano Travaglioli
Production design: Carmine Guarino
Music: Lele Marchitelli
Sound: Emanuele Cecere, Mirko Perri, Silvia Moraes
Production companies: The Apartment, Saint Laurent, Numero 10, PathéWorld Sales: Fremantle
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Competition)
In Italian, Neapolitan dialect
136 minutes
