IN Paolo SorrentinoS “Parthenop“The title character is constantly asked by the men in her life what she thinks. Only a few are actually interested in her thoughts, as Parthenop (Celeste Dalla Porta) rarely reveals anyway. As the actress explained to IndieWire, it’s just one of the ways she never shows her hand.
“Sometimes, as a woman, you find yourself before people who make yourself feel insecure, and Parthenope is like a snake waving out of all this in very beautiful ways without ever having a feeling that she needs to explain herself,” she said filmwhich premiered in the competition at the Film Festival 2024.
The Naples set that comes in age follows Parthenope during decades-first, as a young woman summarized in Capri with her beloved brother Raimondo (Daniele Rienzo) and his best friend Sandrino (Dario Aita) in a weak, not-so-family-family- Oriented love triangle. The film then follows her over the years when she meets lovers and friends while figuring out what she wants to do with her life before she sits on studying anthropology. It is an epic story about a woman who lives her life through her own principles at a time and place where women rarely did.
Oscar winner Sorrentino (“The Great Beauty”) takes an unusual step in her filmography by placing a woman in the middle of her latest exploration of young people and the passing of time.
“It is linked to a certain literary genre, which is epic. Epic stories were historically male -dominated, and they had almost exclusively male protagonists. Therefore, I thought it would be repetitive because so much has already been done and said. There has been so much effort and commitment (on) women. When we focus on an epic dimension, the epic dimension belongs to women in this day and age much more than it belongs to men, “he said through interpreter Lilia Pino Blouin.
“Parthenope” rests on Dalla port’s powerful performance. In one of her first major roles, the Italian actress wanted to do right with Naples and intensely study the city by living there for a while and reading the city’s 60s and 70s history. What first draws people to Parthenope is her beauty: early on she has shown from the sea while Sandrino, who is in love with her, watches. Her beauty is what gets her through doors in Naples – in her academic studies, while she briefly plays with becoming an actress and then walking different walks from the Naples Society. The costumes, designed by Yves Saint Laurents Anthony Vaccarello together with Carlo Poggioli, also tells Parthenopes story.
“When she is young, (the costumes are) soft, and they are sweet, and they convey this idea of freedom, this idea of seduction. As she ages, they become more strict, more adults (as Parthenope is located) … Anthony vaccarello is Parthenope, ”she joked.
While the beauty of Parthenopes opens up many doors to her, what drives her through her SLU width and intelligence is. When an older man asks her if she marries him, she replies, “If I was 40 years older, would you marry me?” And her studies in anthropology nicely show how she navigates the world.
“She is an anthropologist, and her research allows her to have a very personal strategy that makes her fully grip on human behavior … she reaches this goal through a complete use of her body, of her real experience to conduct her studies … to some extent, I see it as very similar to the work that an actor does because she uses her body, her soul and her mind as a tool for anthropological research, ”said Dalla Porta.
An unbearable tragedy happens early with Parthenope in the film, and although it colors much of the rest of her adult life, she remains open to new experiences, whether it is to have a kiki with a drunken John Cheever (Gary Oldman) and kisses a Aging actress, after a man into the depth of Naples, or explore the miracle in the blood of Bishop San Gennaro. These experiences become feed for her studies, while keeping her open and non-assessing and unwilling to compromise with herself or what she wants against a family associated with mishaps. Or, of course, society’s expectations of what a woman should be or do.
Men throughout the movie are immediately attracted by her beauty, but many are not easily interested in what she has to say. The question “What are you thinking about?” Coming as a placeholder when it comes to a rich man who wants to impress her with a helicopter or man on a motorcycle that takes her to a shocking neopolitical family association. You may want Parthenope to give some of these men finger, but that she never does is what makes Dalla Porta so convincing on the screen.
“I think this is a page that Paolo Sorrentino has in itself. It is the ability not to negatively assess any or anything, (show) situations that other people can classify as ugly or grotesque that he finds a poetry in … Parthenope does it in all people she meets. She can go beyond performances and go beyond the surface. She emphasizes that, even in situations that can be dramatic or tragic, she can see the beauty, she said.
While her relationship with her brother is the tip of her life, the platonic with her anthropology professor and possible mentor is equally crucial. Unlike other men in her life, he sees and understands her intelligence and promotes it, even when she falters. One of the film’s most beautiful scenes finds patenop brought into her professor world in a surprising way. Throughout the movie, the couple is bound by a pact to never judge each other while they share their secrets, so when it is really tested it is a heartbreaking moment that Pinpoints what makes her such a big and modern heroine.
“It is a moment where Parthenope and Professor Marotta (Silvio Orlando) really recognize each other, and what really marks it is the absence of some judgment. He trusts her completely because he feels that she may be the only person who could not take that judgment. At the same time, she also trusts him completely. She sees him as she would see a father because he is someone who would really drive her or stimulate her to become what she is really meant to be what she wants. He is the first person to really believe in her and in her potential, Dalla Porta said.
While Sorrentino was trying to make a movie about young people and the passing of time, themes that ever lose his work, perhaps he did not really expect a movie about women who do not take a traditional path. So when we later see Parthenope as an older woman (played by Stefania Sandrelli), after the great love and losses in her life, it feels so rewarding to have been on the ride.
“Parthenope” is now in theaters from A24.
