PARTHENOPE
Starring: Celeste Dalla Porta, Stefania Sandrelli, Silvio Orlando, Gary Oldman, Luisa Ranieri, Peppe Lanzetta, and Isabella Ferrari
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
QUENTIN
The great irony of Parthenope is that, at its core, it’s an exploration of beauty and the superficiality that lies therein, yet it remains as shallow as a Calvin Klein ad. Yes, it’s beautifully shot, with beautiful people doing beautiful things in beautiful locations, but that’s about it. There is little in the way of emotional depth or resonant meaning, and it plays out just as one might expect. Gary Oldman does solid work in a small role as John Cheever, but sadly, he just made me long to watch the 1992 Seinfeld episode “The Cheever Letters.”
KATIE
Parthenope gestures towards themes surrounding the burden of beauty and feeling alienated from others, but I ultimately only enjoyed it because it's so gorgeous to look at. It resembles a perfume advert, with characters always posing like they’re being painted against the stunning backdrop of the sun-soaked Italian coast. The titular character, played by Celeste Dalla Porta, is a walking male fantasy: impossibly beautiful, mysterious, and willing to sleep with them. In this sense, the film offers no emotional engagement, and I felt distanced from all the characters, although this could be intentional considering its focus on Parthenope’s enchanting yet elusive beauty.
PAIGE
What director Paolo Sorrentino does so well with Parthenope is give the film a timeless feel even though it takes place over several decades. Plus, it’s a visually stunning piece of cinema that truly shows, not only the beauty of this woman, but the burdens that come with it. With that said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this movie is very much style over substance. The overall story we receive is overflowing with sweet nothings, which is unfortunate since I was otherwise mesmerized by the visual voyage the film takes its viewers on.
This film was reviewed by Quentin as part of Bitesize Breakdown's coverage of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.