Weekend films

"Parthenope', Sorrentino moves with a nostalgic and touching film

The Neapolitan director's new film arrives in cinemas. Also among the novelties is the Sudanese 'Goodbye Julia'

25 October 2024

3' min read

The 'Parthenope' weekend: this week in theatres there is a highly anticipated film, ready to excite and cause discussion like (almost) all the films of its director, Paolo Sorrentino.

The only Italian title presented in competition at the last Cannes Film Festival, the film tells the story of a woman, the Parthenope of the title, whose life we follow from her birth in the 1950s to the present day. She is no mermaid and no myth, perhaps, but her existential journey has the flavour of the great epic.

Between realism and legend, Partenope is named after its city and its history will be constantly associated with that of the Gulf of Naples, a place of the soul and a space of memory in this film that represents it in all its beauty, but also in its contradictions.

“Parthenope” e gli altri film della settimana
Photogallery4 foto

After 'It was the Hand of God' (2021), a splendid and profoundly autobiographical film, Sorrentino returned to his hometown, which had not been the setting for his work since his feature debut with 'The Extra Man'.

This work is a real emotional whirlwind, combining nostalgia for the past and excitement for the future, extremely vital moments and others with melancholic and desperate tones.

Sorrentino limits the grotesque register to a few sequences to create one of the most delicate feature films of his career, even though the symbolic elements are numerous.

A female character of great depth

The director builds a female character of extraordinary depth, a young woman loved by everyone, perennially searching for her place in the world, who will see her family break up due to a tragic event that will mark her forever.

The Neapolitan filmmaker has courage, and he certainly does not show it today. On the contrary, this feature film confirms his desire to tell stories that are always different, yet united by a very evident poetic coherence. The result is an ambitious and fascinating film, which is likely to divide audiences between fans and detractors, but which cannot leave them indifferent.

The protagonist Celeste Dalla Porta is surprising in terms of intensity, but the cast as a whole works very well. Among the many familiar faces on stage are Gary Oldman, Silvio Orlando and Luisa Ranieri.

Goodbye Julia

Among the weekend's new releases in cinemas is the interesting Sudanese film 'Goodbye Julia', directed by Mohamed Kordofani.

Set shortly before the war of secession in Southern Sudan, the film follows the story of Mona, a former singer living and married in the North. The woman tries to make amends after causing the death of a man from the South and covering up the murder. She thus plans to hire the widow of the deceased as her maid and take in her son Daniel.

It is a powerful feature film, both in terms of its story and its content, capable of reasoning in political and social terms around the drama of a troubled and separated country.

Some of the messages are told in a scholastic manner, but the film works nonetheless, mainly thanks to the excellent writing of the main character, a woman who is unable to confess what she has committed and who tries in vain to leave her past behind her. Thanks to her character, the film also becomes an interesting ethical and moral reflection on the theme of guilt and forgiveness. A remarkable surprise.