A day before Paolo Sorrentino's latest feature, Parthenope, goes on general release, CinemaItaliaUK is hosting a special May Day preview at Picturehouse Central.
Since debuting with One Man Up (2001), Paolo Sorrentino had worked frequently with its star, Toni Servillo. There are those who prefer The Consequences of Love (2004), Il Divo (2009), The Great Beauty (2013), and Loro (2018) to such non-Servillo outings as The Family Friend (2006), This Must Be the Place (2011), Youth (2015), and The Hand of God (2021), even though the latter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Unfortunately, few will consider that Parthenope tilts the balance.
Born in the sea in 1950 and cleped after the Greek siren after who Naples was named, Parthenope Di Sangro (Celeste Dalla Porta) is presented with a bed from Versailles by a commander friend of the family (Alfonso Santagata). Eighteen years later, she allows the Sandrino (Dario Aita), the besotted son of the housekeeper, to watch her swim in the bay and gaze at her through the bed's gauzy curtains. He wonders what she thinks about, but the majority of those who watch her sashay in slow-motion to a class at the university are interested solely in her beauty.
The loss of youth and beauty are hardly new topics for Paolo Sorrentino, but his nine previous outings have not endured quite so many accusations that he has prioritised the male gaze in depicting his female characters. The criticism of this paean to his birthplace has been exacerbated by the fact that Sorrentino was 53 when he made the film and that the debuting Celeste Dalla Porta was half his age when he photographed her in various states of undress. There is some validity to these charges of objectivisation, as this does sometimes feel like a glossy commercial. But, by having Parthenope frequently fix the camera with her Mona Lisa smile, Sorrentino is also asking the audience to contemplate their own reaction to the imagery and how they look at other people in their daily experience.
While the voyeuristic element will dominate any discussion of the film, it's important not to lose sight of Sorrentino's attempt to capture the spirit of a city that defies easy categorisation. In a way, the blend of nostalgia, irony, insight, and regret often makes this feel like a cross between Federico Fellini's Amarcord (1973) and Peter Sarstedt’s 1969 hit, `Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?’ – which contained the lines that readily come to mind during the Criscuolo episode, `I remember the back streets of Naples/Two children begging in rags/Both touched with a burning ambition/To shake off their lowly-born tags, they tried.’ There's even an acrid whiff of John Schlesinger's Darling (1965), which, of course, has an Italian interlude.
Given the emphasis on the visuals, it should be remembered that cinematographer Daria D'Antonio is a woman, who insists that her aim was to present Parthenope in terms of beauty, freedom, and mystery. Designed by Carlo Poggioli and Yves Saint Laurent's Anthony Vaccarello, Dalla Porta's costume have a vital role to play in delineating her evolving personality, while also reinforcing the cautionary theme of judging by superficial surfaces. Despite such ethical gambits and an evocative score by Lele Marchitelli, this fetishistic fantasy remains a difficult film to watch on many levels. He once told a reporter that he knows very little about women. On the basis of his first feature with a female protagonist, one can only conclude he was right. Time, perhaps, to re-connect with Toni Servillo.