‘Parthenope’: the extraordinary movie Oliver Stone needs to see “again and again”
There is no other filmmaker quite like Oliver Stone, for better and for worse. The controversial director is equal parts brilliant and deranged, as unflinching in his views as he is unaware of the damage they can cause.
He’s won Oscars, made millions at the box office, and been scorned by the Hollywood community, and he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
From a purely technical standpoint, Stone is one of the greats. That makes his opinions on other people’s works extremely valuable. Stone has frequently shared his love for the films of Bernardo Bertolucci, citing him as a cinematic hero. But while the high-falutin’ brilliance of arthouse cinema may seem like the more acceptable genre of movie for a director to like, Stone has also shared that he loves Basic Instinct 2, widely regarded as one of the worst sequels ever made. His commentary, therefore, isn’t exactly the most reliable.
In an October 2024 post on his Twitter account (I’ll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I call it ‘X’), Stone revealed three films he’d seen recently that had left a strong impression on him. He bafflingly shouted out Francis Ford Coppola’s self-indulgent bore-a-thon Megalopolis, calling it “one stunning scene after another”. He also praised Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice, a biopic of Donald Trump. Given Stone’s proclivities for making films about US Presidents, this shouldn’t come as a shock. Then there’s his final pick, a recent release from an icon of European cinema.
“In Rome, I saw Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope,” he wrote. “Once isn’t enough. Like Coppola, or Fellini, it’s a fresh vision of the world through the eyes of a naïve young woman who, in a sense, becomes a goddess figure of beauty. The transitions he achieves are remarkable, and the ending is mind-blowing. I need to see it again and again. The closest thing I can think of to it stylistically was Poor Things with Emma Stone, which I much admired.”
This 2024 offering from acclaimed Italian filmmaker Sorrentino follows the title character, a beautiful young woman played by Celeste Dalla Porta, as she experiences the perils of her beauty and those looking to exploit it. The mostly Italian cast is composed of the likes of Luisa Ranieri of The Hand of God fame and esteemed comedy actor Stefania Sandrelli. There’s also a cheeky appearance from Gary Oldman, who plays real-life American writer John Cheever.
Parthenope‘s charms weren’t reserved only for Stone. It gathered up a lengthy standing ovation following its debut at the Cannes Film Festival. But while it left the director in tears, it should be remembered that almost every movie shown at the festival receives some kind of ovation akin to a high-school graduation. The reaction of audiences in the real world is the one that matters, and this movie fell flat like a pancake hurled from the Eiffel Tower.
Parthenope is one of those movies that you need to see for yourself. It might see you decide that Stone is in the right or that audience democracy is the ultimate, and fairest, test. But the worst that can happen is you get to see some beautiful shots of the Italian coastline, and there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.
