Parthenope

Great beautician Paolo Sorrentino (The Hand of God; The Young Pope) returns to the city of his birth with this languorous, love-struck chronicle of the life of a modern day siren, the eponymous Parthenope (newcomer Celeste Della Porta). Born in the ocean across the from the city which inspired her name, Parthe grows up a brilliant student of anthropology and so beautiful she’s courted by movie scouts and billionaires alike; even her older brother falls under her spell. Yet she charts her own path…

Unapologetically stylish, sensuous and philosophical, this is a deeply, insolently Italian movie; there’s even sacrilegious sex with a bishop. Gary Oldman pops up as the American writer John Cheever. And Sorrentino reminds us again that when it comes to choreographing the camera, pop and gyrating crowds of extras, no one does it better.

Sorrentino isn’t interested in realism — or political correctness, for that matter. His work (including the Oscar winner The Great Beauty and the HBO series The Young Pope) is less about people than it is about big ideas: art, desire, religion, and, yes, beauty; the way they shape our lives with an almost mystical power… the hypnotizing Dalla Porta brings a strength and sadness to the role that underscores the film’s most compelling argument: Beauty may inspire awe and worship, but it also alienates.

Beatrice Loayza, New York Times

An exquisite treatise on cinematic beauty… an intoxicating reflection on the way people and places are seen, and the way they see themselves.

Siddhant Adlakha, Variety

[Sorrentino] makes resplendent movies that feel composed (visually and structurally) within an inch of their lives, but he lets in enough mystery that the people onscreen captivate us in unexpected ways.

Bilge Ebiri, New York magazine