Two years ago, Italian auteur Paolo Sorrentino won the Grand Jury prize at the Venice Film Festival for his autobiographical drama “The Hand Of God.” Now for his next film, Sorrentino returns to Naples for another tale about his hometown city.
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Sorrentino’s follows the life of a woman named Partenope, “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” according to the press release for the film. The name comes from Parthenope of Greek mythology, a nymph who attempted to lure Odysseus with her voice and threw herself into the sea when she failed. According to myth, her body washed ashore by symbolic rock that founds Naples; as such, Neopolitans consider themselves “Parthenopeans.”
Here’s a synopsis attached to the press release for Sorrentino’s new film:
From her birth in 1950 to today. Her long life embodies the full repertoire of human existence: youth’s lightheartedness and its demise, classical beauty and its inexorable permutations, pointless and impossible loves, stale flirtations and dizzying passion, nighttime kisses on Capri, flashes of joy and persistent suffering, real and invented fathers, endings, and new beginnings. Together with a host of other characters: men and women observed and loved, their waves of melancholy and disappointment, their impatience and despair, their anguish at never again laughing at an elegant man who trips and falls on a city street. All of this is accompanied by the passage of time, that most faithful of boyfriends. And by Naples, who charms and enchants, who shouts and laughs, and who knows just how to hurt you.
Newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta leads the cast for Sorrentino’s latest, which sees the director reunite with Luisa Ranieri from “The Hand Of God,” Silvio Orlando from “The Young Pope,” and Isabella Ferrari from “The Great Beauty.” Other cast members include Stefania Sandrelli, Pepppe Lanzetta, Alfonso Santagata, Lorenzo Gleijeses, and Silvia Degrandi.
Sorrentino pens the screenplay for his new film on top of directing, as he usually does. Fremantle leads the charge on the production side of things with Lorenzo Miele under The Apartment Pictures banner. Other producers include Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent, Ardavan Safaee for Pathé, and Sorrentino for Numero 10.
A new Sorrentino project is always a cause for excitement. Stateside, moviegoers know the director best for his 2013 film “The Great Beauty,” which won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film. He also directed “The Young Pope” and its sequel series “The New Pope” for HBO, with Jude Law starring. As for where his new movie will land distribution-wise, Netflix handled the release for “The Hand Of God,” so the streamer may be the safe bet there.