OFFICIAL SELECTION – IN COMPETITION
From The consequences of love, in 2004, almost all of his films competed for the Palme d’Or. This shows if Cannes remains faithful to the Italian Paolo Sorrentino, once again in competition with Parthenope, tenth feature film by the filmmaker (The Great Beauty2013; God’s hand, 2021) where we find a large part of his favorite themes. Naples (his city of birth), the wandering and idleness of rich people acting on the basis of brief and insignificant encounters, quotes from his fathers (Fellini, in the lead), fascination for beauty and aversion for the decline to which he likes to add a good dose of vulgarity. At 53, Sorrentino revisits his disenchantment through the journey, from 1950 to the present day, of a heroine with the appearance of a model.
The film begins with the first cry uttered by this little wonder, destined to the rank of both a goddess – given the first name her parents chose to give her – and a princess if we judge by the gift she received. destined for his father: a golden carriage coming from Versailles transported by sea, floating on the surface of the water. Magnificence, calm and voluptuousness reign in these first hours of a life whose childhood will be swept away in favor of a jump in time which takes us directly to 1968.
We are in Capri, the baby who has become a young girl (Celeste dalla Porta) moves without hindrance, her body largely naked offered to the sun and the waves, languishing on a terrace which overlooks the azure bay, sliding from the lounges of a Palazzo to those luxury hotels. Accompanying him in this idyllic setting is his lifelong friend and tormented brother. A trio that brushes against each other, embraces, touches their lips, diffusing without of course succumbing to it, a vague and childish scent of incest.
Above ground society
Because Parthenope hardly gives in to the desire to which, on the other hand, all the men she meets succumb, who follow one another for almost an hour, providing a gallery of characters unhappy to see themselves aging, but ready to try their luck . Encounters which seem to have no other purpose than to show to what extent the beauty of this heroine captivates them, whose outfits – bikinis, generously low-cut evening dresses – focus on showing more body than is necessary.
A tragedy arises which will turn the page on this beautiful, carefree summer. Five years later, in Naples, Parthenope, still very much courted, undertook studies in anthropology. Now gifted with intelligence, the beauty serves as the portrait of a city, Naples, sad and frivolous, lively, determined and decadent.
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