A baby is born in the sea off Naples, and a gilded carriage from Versailles becomes her bed. Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope follows that girl for 73 years, through beauty, grief, and a great deal of cigarette smoke. Everyone keeps asking what she is thinking. She takes a lifetime to answer.
Detailed Summary
Birth in the Bay of Naples (1950)
In 1950, the wealthy Di Sangro family welcomes a daughter in the waters of Posillipo. Her godfather, the shipping magnate Achille Lauro, known as the Commander, attends the birth. He names her Parthenope, in honour of the city.
His gift is an ornate carriage, supposedly brought straight from Versailles, which serves as her bed. Her older brother Raimondo and Sandrino, the housekeeper’s son, watch it all happen.
A Goddess at Eighteen (1968)
By 1968, Parthenope has grown into a striking young woman. Sandrino is obsessed with her, and Raimondo’s attachment to his sister is openly incestuous in feeling.
She is far more than a face, however. At university she studies anthropology under the famously severe Professor Devoto Marotta. During an exam she challenges him, and the two develop a lasting mutual respect.
The Capri Summer and John Cheever (1973)
In 1973, Raimondo persuades Parthenope and Sandrino to join him on Capri. Her carefree manner draws constant attention, including a rich suitor who hovers above her in a helicopter. She turns him down.
On the island she meets the American writer John Cheever, whose books she has read. He is alcoholic, melancholy, and kind. Cheever declines her company on a walk, because he does not want to steal a minute of her youth.
Raimondo’s Death
Raimondo tries to charm an heiress, yet he cannot bring himself to kiss her. He realises that he loves only his sister.
One night, Sandrino finally seduces Parthenope, and Raimondo sees it. He throws himself from the cliffs of Capri. Their golden summer ends there, and a cholera outbreak in Naples darkens the return home.
Blame, Grief, and the Acting Detour (1974)
Back home, Parthenope’s mother blames her for Raimondo’s death. Her father withdraws completely.
She asks Marotta to supervise a dissertation on suicide. He steers her elsewhere, toward the cultural impact of miracles.
For a while, Parthenope pauses her studies and tries acting. She visits Flora Malva, an ageing diva and coach who hides her face after botched plastic surgery. Flora then sends her on to Greta Cool, a famous actress with Neapolitan roots.
Greta Cool and the Tirade Against Naples
Greta finds Parthenope very beautiful. Even so, she judges that the girl’s sad, vacant eyes will stop her from ever leaving a mark.
At a public event in her honour, Greta delivers a vicious speech against Naples and its people. Sorrentino also shows the bitter star balding and worn beneath the glamour. Parthenope soon abandons the idea of acting.
Roberto Criscuolo and “the Great Fusion”
At Greta’s party, Parthenope meets Roberto Criscuolo, a camorra man. He leads her into the poorest quarters of the city.
There she witnesses “the great fusion”, a ritual in which the heirs of two camorra families conceive a child before their relatives to seal an alliance. Parthenope becomes pregnant by Criscuolo and privately procures an illegal abortion.
Sandrino later comes to say goodbye before moving to Milan. She lashes out and blames him for Raimondo’s death.
Cardinal Tesorone and the Blood of San Gennaro (1982)
By 1982, Parthenope is a university scholar. An anthropology journal invites her to write about the liquefaction of the blood of San Gennaro.
Marotta warns her about Cardinal Tesorone, who oversees the miracle, and calls him a scoundrel. The cardinal dresses her in the jewels of the saint’s treasure and asks her to sleep with him. She agrees, and the blood liquefies as they have sex.
Marotta’s Son and the Road to Trento
Marotta plans to retire. He urges Parthenope to apply for a teaching post at the University of Trento, but she resists because she loves Naples.
He then introduces her to the son he keeps hidden at home. The young man is an enormous, infant-like figure who, in his father’s words, is made of water and salt. Parthenope is moved, not frightened, and she finally leaves for Trento.
Movie Ending
Sorrentino jumps to 2023, and Stefania Sandrelli takes over the role. Parthenope is retiring after roughly forty years of teaching in Trento. Two students tell her how deeply she shaped their lives.
They also ask about her private life, and she answers briefly. Asked why she never married, she says nobody ever asked her seriously.
She visits Capri, where memories of 1973 return. In voice-over, she looks back on that summer as a time when they were beautiful and unhappy. Youth was wonderful, she reflects, but it did not last.
Her self-portrait is the key passage. She describes herself as sad and frivolous, determined and listless, like Naples, where there is room for everything. She adds that she was alive and alone.
Finally, she turns the film’s refrain on herself and wonders what she was thinking. Love, as a way of surviving, was a failure, she says. Then she softens it: perhaps that is not so.
Back in Naples, she stops in the street at night. A float shaped like a blue ship rolls past, packed with singing fans who are celebrating SSC Napoli’s third league title. Parthenope watches them and smiles.
Why does that smile matter? Marotta once told her that anthropology is seeing, and that seeing is the last thing a person learns. Only when everything else is gone does she truly look at her city, and she seems at peace with it.
Is she the siren, or Naples itself? Sorrentino has said she bears her city’s name but is neither siren nor myth. Many critics still read her as Naples in human form, and her closing words invite exactly that comparison.
Are There Post-Credits Scenes?
There is no extra scene. Stay for the start of the credits, though, because the voice of Cardinal Tesorone delivers one last line: “And anyway, God doesn’t love the sea.”
Type of Movie
Parthenope is a coming-of-age drama that stretches across seven decades. It moves in episodes and encounters instead of following a tight plot.
In tone, it is sensual, melancholic, and at times grotesque. Sacred imagery and erotic provocation sit side by side, which is classic Sorrentino territory.
Cast
- Celeste Dalla Porta – Parthenope Di Sangro
- Stefania Sandrelli – Older Parthenope
- Gary Oldman – John Cheever
- Silvio Orlando – Devoto Marotta
- Luisa Ranieri – Greta Cool
- Peppe Lanzetta – Cardinal Tesorone
- Isabella Ferrari – Flora Malva
- Daniele Rienzo – Raimondo Di Sangro
- Dario Aita – Sandrino
- Marlon Joubert – Roberto Criscuolo
- Alfonso Santagata – Achille Lauro, the Commander
- Lorenzo Gleijeses – Sasà Di Sangro
- Silvia Degrandi – Maggie Di Sangro
- Nello Mascia – Riccardo Macchia
Film Music and Composer
Lele Marchitelli wrote the original score. The film also features an original song, E si’ arrivata pure tu, by Valerio Piccolo.
One older track dominates the soundtrack: Era già tutto previsto, recorded by Riccardo Cocciante in 1975. It plays over the love scene on Capri and returns as a recurring motif. After the Italian release, the song climbed to the top of Spotify’s Viral 50 chart in Italy.
Frank Sinatra’s My Way appears as well. In addition, Gino Paoli’s Che cosa c’è accompanies the closing stretch.
Filming Locations
Principal photography took place in Naples and on Capri. The seafront at Posillipo frames Parthenope’s birth and her family home, which ties her directly to the water.
Capri hosts the 1973 summer, all cliffs, terraces, and wealthy holidaymakers. In contrast, the camera later descends into ramshackle alleys in the poorest parts of the city.
The San Gennaro sequence unfolds in church interiors that evoke the Naples Cathedral and its Chapel of the Treasure. As a result, the city works as a second protagonist throughout.
Awards and Nominations
Parthenope competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Cinematographer Daria D’Antonio won the CST Award for Best Artist-Technician there.
At the 2025 David di Donatello awards, it tied for the most nominations with 15, including Best Film and Best Director. It did not convert any of them into a win.
Peppe Lanzetta received the Capri Breakout Actor Award at the Capri Hollywood International Film Festival.
Behind the Scenes Insights
- This is Sorrentino’s tenth feature and his first with a female protagonist.
- Celeste Dalla Porta had never been in a feature before. Her only prior experience was a scene as an extra in The Hand of God, which ended up cut.
- Sorrentino confirmed her casting only after a long period of auditions.
- Anthony Vaccarello of Saint Laurent served as a producer, and Carlo Poggioli earned a David di Donatello nomination for the costumes.
- Daria D’Antonio, who also shot The Hand of God, handled the cinematography.
- At Cannes, the premiere received a standing ovation of about nine and a half minutes.
- A24 acquired North American rights before the festival premiere.
Inspirations and References
Greek myth supplies the name. Parthenope was a siren who, in legend, died after failing to enchant Odysseus, and her body washed ashore where Naples later rose.
Sorrentino wrote an original story around that name. He has described the film as being about the youth he missed, as opposed to the youth he lived in The Hand of God.
Two real people appear in fictionalised form: the writer John Cheever and the shipowner and Naples mayor Achille Lauro. Italian critics have also pointed to echoes of Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica’s L’oro di Napoli, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, and Raffaele La Capria’s novel Ferito a morte.
Alternate Endings and Deleted Scenes
No alternate ending or official set of deleted scenes has been publicly documented. Research for this article turned up no extended cut either.
Book Adaptations and Differences
Parthenope is not based on a book. Sorrentino wrote the screenplay himself as an original work.
Memorable Scenes and Quotes
Key Scenes
- The sea birth and the arrival of the Versailles carriage.
- Parthenope’s exam showdown with Professor Marotta.
- Her conversations with John Cheever on Capri.
- The night on Capri that ends with Raimondo’s leap from the cliffs.
- Greta Cool’s furious speech against Naples.
- “The great fusion” ritual between two camorra families.
- Parthenope in the jewels of San Gennaro while the blood liquefies.
- The reveal of Marotta’s son, made of water and salt.
- Older Parthenope smiling at the Napoli title celebrations.
Iconic Quotes
- “Are you aware of the disruption your beauty causes?” (John Cheever)
- “Beauty is like war. It opens doors.” (John Cheever)
- “Desire is a mystery, and sex is its funeral.” (Parthenope)
- “Anthropology is seeing.” (Professor Marotta)
- “What are you thinking?” (asked of Parthenope throughout the film)
- “God doesn’t love the sea.” (Cardinal Tesorone, over the credits)
Easter Eggs and Hidden Details
- Parthenope is the ancient name of Naples, so every remark about the heroine doubles as a remark about the city.
- Marotta’s son is described as water and salt, like the sea. Parthenope herself was born in that sea.
- Raimondo shares his name with Raimondo di Sangro, the eighteenth-century Neapolitan prince, a link some Italian critics have noted.
- Parthenope carries Cheever’s books long before she meets him on Capri.
- The final parade marks Napoli’s real 2023 Serie A title, the club’s third.
- When she first emerges from the water, some critics see a deliberate nod to Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus.
- The repeated question “What are you thinking?” remains unanswered until Sandrelli’s closing voice-over.
Trivia
- The film runs 136 minutes and uses Italian, Neapolitan, and English.
- It opened in Italian cinemas on 24 October 2024 and arrived in US cinemas on 7 February 2025.
- Its Italian box office was reported as the best of Sorrentino’s career at home.
- The San Gennaro scene drew protests from Catholic voices in Naples, who called it blasphemous.
- Sorrentino has stressed that Greta Cool is not meant to be Sophia Loren.
- During the release, a Naples pizzeria created a “Parthenope” pizza, and nativity-figure makers sold statuettes of the heroine.
Why Watch?
Few recent films look this ravishing or ache this openly. Sorrentino turns one woman’s life into a portrait of beauty, loss, and Naples itself. Celeste Dalla Porta, moreover, makes a magnetic debut. Come for the images, and stay for that final smile.
Director’s Other Movies
- One Man Up (2001)
- The Consequences of Love (2004)
- The Family Friend (2006)
- Il Divo (2008)
- This Must Be the Place (2011)
- The Great Beauty (2013)
- Youth (2015)
- Loro (2018)
- The Hand of God (2021)
- La Grazia (2025)
