PARTHENOPE Luminaries

North American Premiere

Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta), a young woman possessed of near supernatural beauty, embarks on a sentimental education in her life and academic career in Naples in Paolo Sorrentino’s gorgeous dreamworld of a film. Named for the mythical siren who lent her name to the ancient Greek settlement where Naples now exists, Parthenope grows into a great beauty, one whose presence often unnerves the men around her. But Parthenope has a great thirst for knowledge and is devoted to her studies with her anthropology professor Devoto Marotta (Silvio Orlando), who encourages her career. Part bildungsroman and part tribute to his hometown of Naples, PARTHENOPE reunites Sorrentino with his HAND OF GOD cinematographer Daria D’Antonio who present a feast of intoxicating imagery, with newcomer Dalla Porta emerging as a most convincing screen siren. But for all of the film’s emphasis on image and surface beauty, it’s the cultivation of an inner life and the probing conversations Parthenope has with a variety of mentors – Professor Marotta, the notorious screen actress Greta Cool (Luisa Ranieri), the sozzled American novelist John Cheever (Gary Oldman) and a most disreputable bishop (Peppe Lanzetta) – that make PARTHENOPE most enticing. –Todd Hitchcock