2024 | 136 min | Drama, Fantasy | Italy | Italian with English subtitles

CAST Celeste Dalla Porta, Stefania Sandrelli, Gary Oldman, Silvio Orlando, Dario Aita

Parthenope herself is transposed to a contemporary setting and intelligently played in a lush allegorical story by the dazzlingly beautiful actress Celeste Dalla Porta. Parthenope is a personification of the city, entwined in desires, forbidden love, beauty and danger. It is an irresistible aesthetic feast, where the locations, camera work, refinement, and sensuality create something both ancient and original. In my view, Sorrentino is the Neapolitan heir of Fellini. In Parthenope, enigma, mythology and dazzling beauty meld poetically together to elevate this coming-of-age story into something indiscernible, fleeting and mysterious, like youth itself. The great Gary Oldman as a wealthy, drunken poet in existential limbo is the perfect juxtaposition to the innocence of youth. Let Sorrentino transport you to the sun-soaked shores of the Bay of Naples, where the ancient is alive in every moment of the present.

I have matched and paired Parthenope with Sorrentino’s Youth to celebrate a truly masterful filmmaker exploring similar themes in such different ways but marked by his trademark elevated aesthetic style.

Paolo Sorrentino Crafts an Exquisite Treatise on Cinematic beauty. Variety. Siddhant Adlakha