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\u201cBeauty is like war \u2014 it opens doors,\u201d says the middle-aged American writer John Cheever (Gary Oldman) to Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta), a statuesque brunette from Naples whom he meets at a resort. It\u2019s southern Italy, 1973, and Cheever (Oldman in a small but memorably melancholic part) strikes up a friendship with her early on in the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cParthenope,” <\/em>a characteristically decadent drama by the director Paolo Sorrentino, is about all the doors opened by Parthenope\u2019s beauty. At first \u2014 when she\u2019s seen primarily in a bikini, lounging by crystalline ocean waters \u2014 this means capturing the hearts of male suitors, like her namesake siren from Greek mythology.<\/p>\n Cheever, who in real life spent years traveling around Italy, is one of the few men in the film <\/em>who is <\/em>immune to her charms \u2014 maybe it’s the booze, or his repressed yearning for men. Or maybe its because a woman like her should be admired from a distance as one does a religious icon or marble statue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n If this way of idealizing women sounds painfully retrograde, know that Sorrentino isn\u2019t interested in realism \u2014 or political correctness, for that matter. His work (including the Oscar winner \u201cThe Great Beauty\u201d and the HBO series \u201cThe Young Pope\u201d) 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Now add to this an enduring fixation with Sorrentino\u2019s native Italy, its past and present, and its contradictions. The country is home to some of the world\u2019s great triumphs \u2014 think ancient Rome and the Sistine Chapel \u2014 but the director also depicts it as a hotbed of spiritual rot personified by its corrupt leaders. At one point in the film, Parthenope enjoys a dalliance with a monstrous bishop (Peppe Lanzetta), representing a union of the sacred and the profane.<\/p>\n \u201cParthenope,\u201d <\/em>like Sorrentino\u2019s previous films, <\/em>is an intentionally garish display of sex and luxury that is both irritating and oddly seductive. From the opening scene, in which baby Parthenope is gifted a carriage from Versailles, there\u2019s an otherworldly feel that runs through the film, accented by gliding pans, voyeuristic close-ups and touches of the surreal.<\/p>\n Beginning in 1950, Parthenope\u2019s birth year, the film quickly skips ahead to 1968 \u2014 and later the \u201970s \u2014 showing her maturation through a series of symbolic interactions with other people. There\u2019s her romance with a local boy (Dario Aita) and her vaguely incestuous relationship with her older brother (Daniele Rienzo). For a spell, she considers becoming an actress, though gloomy encounters with two older divas (Isabella Ferrari and Luisa Ranieri) dissuade her.<\/p>\n Parthenope also has a beautiful mind. <\/em>At university she earns top marks in the anthropology department and wins over a grumpy professor (Silvio Orlando) who eventually becomes her mentor and guides her to a tenure track position.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This <\/em>is Sorrentino\u2019s first movie in which the main character is a woman, and because he\u2019s more interested in deifying Parthenope than he is in humanizing her, the portrait is inherently limited \u2014 and frequently dull. The opulence on display, coupled with the film\u2019s languid visual style, can feel anesthetizing.<\/p>\n At least the hypnotizing Dalla Porta brings a strength and sadness to the role that underscores the film\u2019s most compelling argument: Beauty may inspire awe and worship, but it also alienates. Can you ever be loved if you can never truly be known?<\/p>\n Parthenope<\/strong>
Rated R for nudity, suicide and sexual activities. Running time: 2 hours 16 minutes. In theaters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n