She Is Naples, Born from Sea and Myth
From the very first scene, Parthenope makes it clear that it is more than a character study– it is a myth made flesh. Parthenope Di Sangro, the protagonist who was born in the waters off Posillipo, Naples in 1950, was named after the mythological siren who gave the city its older name. But Sorrentino consistently reminds us: she is not a myth. Still, she carries myth in her name, her body, her very way of being seen.
We follow Parthenope’s life from her privileged birth through summers in Capri, a tangled web of relationships with her family, lovers, her professors, and the city that adores her and also wounds her. As she moves through the seasons of her life, from girlhood to womanhood, she becomes a mirror to Naples: beautiful and chaotic, hopeful and flawed. Yes, the love affairs matter. But the story really digs into the desire for recognition, identity, and the tension of being admired and not really known.
When the Protagonist and the Actor’s Life Echo Each Other
Celeste Dalla Porta’s career path allows her to bring a deeper resonance to her performance as a younger Parthenope. Sorrentino did not cast her in previous projects — she was in The Hand of God but her scenes were cut. Returning to cast her as the lead meant she was waiting in the wings to be seen. In Sorrentino’s previous work, she was not the primary focus. In Parthenope, that delay seems to feed into the character’s longing: to belong, to be seen, and to be more than the expectations placed upon her.
Stefania Sandrelli, who plays older Parthenope, allows us to see what years do to myth and desire. She has been in Italian cinema for decades and has become a living icon. Sandrelli’s casting brings other layers to the story, for the weight of a lifetime brings the burden of being seen and now of being remembered. The film confronts us with a central image of Sandrelli: the passage of time, and what it does to beauty, desire, and myth.
There is also Gary Oldman as John Cheever — as an outsider, as someone looked up to, as someone Parthenope admires. Oldman was to portray the idol figure, distant from the self, chameleon-like, often cast as powerful or complicated men. The role required him to be both magnet and mirror to Parthenope’s desires, and his performance deftly oscillates between closeness and detachment, between the admiration and the loneliness of being looked at.
Between Desire and Disillusion: Themes That Resonate
What makes Parthenope linger is how it tackles love that arrives imperfectly. Parthenope is loved by many, desired by many, but truly known by few. There is an emotional spectrum: from youthful freedom in Capri, carefree summer days, the pleasures of the body and admirations, to a more troubling disillusionment in adulthood, an ache of longing, and the weight of regrets. She becomes someone who understands what admiration costs — how being an object of desire does not always mean having agency.
Symbolism intertwines. The sea, Capri’s light, and golden summer days do not represent an escape, but rather an illusion. Each of summer’s enduring beauties, each of love’s novelties, brings the sweet and the bitter. Naples is not only a path, she is a mother. A seductress. A watcher. Parthenope, named for a voice of a ‘virgin’, is silenced; she is far from voiceless and yet, in the substituted stories, the echoes she answers are of a distorted voice. There are also the drafts of silence, the failures, the shame, the ambition, and the fragmented public stare she is burdened and expected to carry all stitched to the persona.
The passage of time, the celebration and the fleeting loss of youth, the transience of beauty, and the relationships are accumulated like a deck of postcards. The film illustrates how lost moments, both the small and the big, have a persistent weight and shape a person more than the grand events of their lives. This is likely the reason many people find the film emotionally resonant, even if the narrative feels scattered.
The Build-Up: Trailers, Festivals, and Expectation
Once Parthenope was announced, many anticipated how Sorrentino would depict Naples that he has showcased in The Hand of God, The Great Beauty, etc. The name “Parthenope” itself carried expectation: myth, beauty, sound, identity. The trailers leaned heavily into that: shimmering water, youth, parties, elegant interiors, women in flowing dresses, sea, light glancing off balconies. All of these elements advertised a dreamy, melancholic romance.
At Cannes 2024, the film premiered, reportedly earning a standing ovation for over nine minutes. That moment was both hype and relief: people wanted this rich, painterly Sorrentino, and they were hungry for stories of female subjectivity, myth, beauty, decline. The buzz among critics was mixed, though: praise for beauty, cinematography, costume; critiques for length, narrative looseness, sometimes “she doesn’t do enough” kinds of complaints. Remove the hyperbole, though, and many said: yes, it’s imperfect — but the imperfections feel part of the texture.
Both domestically and internationally within cinephile circles, there was debate surrounding Parthenope and whether it would allow a female character to assume roles of impressive scope, whether Sorrentino would manage to merge spectacle with emotional authenticity. Upon the release of the trailer, Indian reviewers lauded the heavy romance and depression, drawing comparisions with Bollywood’s older, more European, and atmospheric melancholic melodramas and even more ‘sugar-sweet’ works.
Whispers to the Exact Shape and Feel
Some details, though few, could be publicized and are very intriguing. Take for instance the scale of production. Parthenope, as a for European art drama, was fairly large for that production zone, with a budget in the region of €32.6…€32.6 million. He also collaborated with Saint Laurent who did the costumes, though the fashion house, for, helped with the overall design and even helped with the styling and mood settings. There is, or rehearsal dinner, becomes character: what Parthenope wears, and how even more distinctly,, it becomes a character. np to be glamourous, it becomes a statements of identity, of class, of who she can be vs who she is.
Most of the filming locations for this production, as for most of Sorrentino’s films, were in Naples and Capri. He is particularly fond of using Naples as an inanimate character in his films and describing its narrow streets and alleys, the cliffs, and the sea. Daria D’Antonio (previously Sorrentino’s collaborator) nearly always captures Parthenope against the sea and sky, focusing on the duality of light and reflection. While some critics felt the footage lingered too long, the production notes tell us D’Antonio’s was the voice arguing for the longer takes and allowing light to change the scene, the actor’s performance, and the breath of the scene on several moments Sorrentino uses to cut, to change the rhythm of the film. Sassetti, the producer, also noted the rhythm cut was to breathe and change the pace.
Reports on Celeste Dalla Porta’s character being the vehicle of sorrow, of youth and beauty fully realized, and indulgence, of disillusionment, is heavy. She had not been the director’s focus before and reports tell of long hours in the studio to internalize not just the confidence and the beauty of Parthenope but also the spaces. Sorrentino loves these, the silences many.
It should also be noted that less acknowledged controversies were those related to Church and religious iconography. The scene that involved a cardinal and the blood of San Gennaro elicited ire of the relatives of the Neapolitans. The sacrilegious nature of the portrayal was noted by several. The explanation that power, myth, spectacle, and often the sacred and the profane in Naples dance together was of little relief to many. This ire was, for the most part, expected in the context of the film in Italy, and it is likely that the response informed some of the scene cuts or framing made in the final version.
Parthenope contains some truly memorable and stunning moments: a pool in the summer, golden light reflecting off the water, and the goddess Parthenope walking the terraces of Capri, the winds kissing her face; love, the affair ignited in smoke and laughter but dissipating in sadness; the heavy reflections of the professor Devoto Marotta, a figure of much art, wisdom, and the loss of youth that so many today still carry. Sandrelli, as the older Parthenope, encapsulated that soul-wrenching sorrow: not bitter, but wise, and looking back.
Many people think the character is too elusive. To some, the character Parthenope feels image more then essence. What does she think beyond pain and beauty? Where does this detachment come from? There are critics who say Sorrentino is so enamored with his own imagery that the content suffers. Perhaps that is intentional on the part of the filmmaker. Maybe the film asks us to experience the myth instead of academic deconstruction. To hold admiration and distance, to experience beauty that is wounded.
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