Paolo Sorrentino's latest hymn to his
native Naples, Parthenope, got mixed reviews Wednesday after
debuting at the Cannes Film Festival Tuesday where the tale of a
woman personifying the southern Italian city is up for the Palme
d'Or.
Parthenope stars newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta as the title
character as a young woman while Italian screen legend Stefania
Sandrelli has a cameo as her in old age.
Gary Oldman plays alcoholic American writer John Cheever.
Sorrentino, who won the best foreign film Oscar in 2013 with The
Great Beauty, about Rome, and who won further acclaim with The
Hand of God, about Naples, in 2021, has said the film is about a
woman named Parthenope "who bears the name of her city but is
neither siren nor myth."
The Times, in a negative review, said: "This is a film that
strives desperately for beauty, sensuality and philosophical
depth and only sporadically achieves the first of those."
Screen International's Lee Marshall said: "There is no faulting
the radiant performance of Celeste Dalla Porta in her feature
debut. It's the objectification of her character that's the
issue."
But Deadline Hollywood Daily, in a positive review, said: "Porta
is a real find in the title role... The rest of the cast,
including Oldman's brief but moving turn and Sandrelli's lovely
work at the end, deliver lots of flavor."
Parthenope is the only Italian in competition at Cannes this
year.
As it debuted Tuesday, the director said: "Its an aesthetic
anthology on Naples, sacred and profane, beautiful and ugly. I
investigate the mystery of the woman and of my city. Not a love
letter, but a homage to unlived youth".
After it got 10 minutes of applause, Sorrentino, 53, said "it's
a celebration of my life".
However, Italy is also represented at Cannes by Marcello Mio,
French director Cristophe Honoré's tribute to the great Marcello
Mastroianni, with his daughter Chiara and former partner
Catherine Deneuve.
Sorrentino's other critically and publicly acclaimed films
include The Consequences of Love, Il Divo, This Must Be The
Place, Youth and Loro.
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