#REVIEW: “PARTHENOPE”

Review by Amanda Gilmore for Mr. Will Wong

Writer-Director Paolo Sorrentino’s latest is a gorgeous film about our preconceived judgements of those we deem beautiful.

Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta) is the embodiment of beauty. Everyone in her seaside Italian town is enamoured by it. Even her brother’s stare lingers long enough to raise eyebrows. The Film opens with her being born in the sea outside her lavish family home. The next time we see her, she’s 18 years old and emerging from that very same water. Sorrentino shoots this in a dream-like way. Parthenope looks like a mythical creature, too beautiful for this world.

Yet, Sorrentino makes her more than her shell. She’s a top-of-her-class anthropology student who has an appetite to learn and desires to live life to the fullest. Della Porta’s magnetic performance leaves ample mystery behind Parthenope’s eyes. There’s always something on the girl’s mind. Sorrentino adds this into his Script. Many who encounter Parthenope ask the same question: “What are you thinking about?” The esoteric Parthenope never answers such trivial queries.

Sorrentino shoots his latest in a dreamlike style. Summers in Italy are filled with travel, romance, the beach, and, of course…many cigarettes. This dreamy cinematic style mirrors the dreamy quality of the subject. She is so beautiful yet so smart. It’s as though she isn’t real. How could someone so beautiful also be so intelligent?

But why do we think that? Why do we think someone so beautiful can’t be more than that beauty? One of the highlights of these Italian summers is a few days spent with John Cheever (a fantastic Gary Oldman), an alcoholic American Author who sees Parthenope for who she is and not what she’s perceived to be. He sees her intelligence, charm, humour and her beauty. But he sees them as a package of the whole, not as individual.

For all the beauty within the Film, it has the power to make us evaluate our ugly judgements. How some can be held hostage by their beauty because of how others withhold their freedom. When Parthenope concludes, we question our preconceived notions of others based solely on their exterior package.

Mongrel Media release PARTHENOPE in theatres Friday, February 21, 2025.