Paolo Sorrentino's Naples

A double-bill of Paolo Sorrentino's first and newest features:

One Man Up (2001)

Parthenope (2024)

Soccer and Women

Tell me someone is an Italian filmmaker without telling me someone is an Italian filmmaker.

The presence of Soccer and Women in these two films emphasizes Paolo Sorrentino’s Italian credentials even though both aren’t present in all his films.

One Man Up and Parthenope are set in Sorrentino's birthplace of Naples, which since the late 1980s has been associated with soccer after Diego Maradona’s arrival in 1984 to play for Napoli. Therefore, it isn’t a surprise that soccer features in Sorrentino’s first and newest film. In addition, Sorrentino’s 2021 film Hand of God is named after Diego’s infamous 1986 handball goal against England in the World Cup. Soccer is absent in Parthenope until the finale when the film ends with Napoli’s 2023 title celebrations to emphasize a magical finale to the film and the soccer team’s fairytale title.

Soccer is front and center in One Man Up, a tale of two men who share the same name, Antonio Pisapia, and an unlucky fate. The two Antonios live different lives and have different careers but their paths intersect slightly when both their lives are in a state of decline. One Antonio (Tony played by Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo) is a pop singer who is still living on past fortunes despite having his reputation in tatters after a sex scandal. The other Antonio (Andrea Renzi) is a professional soccer player who career is ended early after injury. Since Antonio has only ever known soccer, he tries to become a soccer coach and has some new innovative tactical ideas but he soon learns how talent and a reputation aren’t enough to open all doors for him. Meanwhile, Tony is used to having all doors open for him all his life but soon finds out that those doors aren’t opening like they used to.

It is refreshing to see that Sorrentino once made a film like One Man Up as the film is devoid of any glossy visuals like those in his subsequent films, such as Il Divo (2008), The Great Beauty (2013). Also, unlike those other films, One Man Up is narrative and acting driven. The film also contains the most soccer related content than any of his other films.

The Male Gaze

The male gaze has featured in a few of of Sorrentino’s films especially Youth (2015) where the two elder characters (played by Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel) watch all the female characters with lustful eyes. That same male gaze is prominent in Parthenope, which covers a timeline from the birth of the titular character until her retirement. The film shows Parthenope’s birth in water and then the next time we see her, she is an 18-year-old (played by Celeste Dalla Porta) emerging from the water in a bikini while Sandri (Dario Aita) is in awe of her beauty. Sandri isn’t the only one taken by Parthenope but so is Raimondo (Daniele Rienzo). Raimondo is Parthenope’s brother and his inability to be with her is given a Greek tragedy treatment, a tragedy that hovers over the entire film.

The film jumps in time and depicts fragments of Parthenope’s life as she grows up, completes her education and pursues her career. A constant throughout her life is that men are bewitched by her beauty. This includes writers (with a cameo by Gary Oldman playing John Cheever), actors, producers, professors, politicians and priests. They all want her and she obliges and gives them a few moments of attention but no one can truly have her.

Of course, since this is a Sorrentino film, there is beauty to be found in each frame. One particular segment shows Naples on a hot sultry day, which allows audience to witness all the beauties of the city (both men and women), cat walking through the streets while the camera slows down. This slo-mo music video treatment recalls The Great Beauty and even Il Divo, a Sorrentino signature.

In the hands of another director Parthenope would have been a different film, one that would have given the material an actual narrative and emotional core. In Sorrentino’s hands, the film’s beauty is only on the surface. There is nothing beneath the surface but that isn’t anything new with his films. Films such as Il Divo, The Great Beauty and now Parthenope are visual eye candy made as extended music videos with some dialogues. In the case of The Great Beauty, that treatment worked wonders but doesn’t do justice to Parthenope.