Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino, the film review

«It was wonderful to be kids. It didn’t last long,” he says Stefania Sandrelli in the role of the protagonist now in retirement age. It’s a joke that would fit well in the mouth of Jep Gambardella in Great beautyis a line that would fit well in the mouth of any character of Paolo Sorrentinothat mixture of wit, intellectual clarity, a touch of nostalgia but not too much. Parthenopein theaters from today, stages the vertigo of youththat time in which it is possible to truly abandon oneself to irresponsibility, to carefreeness, to that joy that over the years is still experienced but in a less all-encompassing way.

Like all Sorrentino’s films, Parthenope it lacks a true one plot. To summarize it one could say: it is the story of Parthenope, born at sea in 1950, and of her life in Naples, between youthful loves, an unforgettable summer in Capri, a family tragedy and the encounter with corruption. Parthenope, played by the magnificent Celeste Dalla Porta, is a beautiful woman, the object of desire of anyone who meets her and ultimately also of those who watch her, sitting in the theater, because the film itself is imbued with desire and beauty. The other great protagonist of the film is Naplesa very complex place of the soul, corrupt and full of life, the object of accusations (“You walk arm in arm with horror and you don’t know it. You are just scruffy and folkloristic”, says the unforgettable Greta Cool/Luisa Ranieri) and at the same time ‘Love.

Celeste Dalla Porta and Daniele Rienzo.

Gianni Fiorito

There are all the things that made us love it The great beauty: unforgettable monologues, incredible characters, a touch of the grotesque, mysterious elements (here two frightened young people from two Camorra clans), amazement (here there are no pink flamingos, but let’s not reveal anything: the scene is spectacular), witty jokes and the aphorisms, the bitter reflections on life. Sorrentino said that It was the hand of God and his youth, Parthenope the one he didn’t live. At Cannes, where it premiered, the film divided critics: “self-satisfied”, “mannerist”, without a solid plot. But in reality Parthenope it is a sensorial, emotional, intellectual and visual experience, a sort of “great youth” in a female version, with a girl in Jep Gambardella’s place, in which the plot is like the protagonist’s cigarette puff.