“Parthenope” is dominating the Italian box office, by virtue of the appeal exerted by him, Paolo Sorrentino, by this story about Naples and for Naples. At the same time, “Anora” by Sean Baker and “The Substance” by Coralie Fargeat are causing discussion, also bringing female stories that are different from the norm, atypical, powerful and modern. Modernity itself is perhaps the Achilles’ heel of the Neapolitan director’s film, an example of a vision that suffers from a static nature and an excess of conservation that is worth reflecting on.

Three films, three directors, three different visions of women in the world

“Parthenope” by Paolo Sorrentino, “Anora” by Sean Baker and “The Substance” by Coralie Fargeat are the titles of the moment. Three very different films in genre, style, objectives, and above all in the representation of the female universe, with the second and third being the great protagonists of the Cannes Film Festival and will almost certainly compete for the Oscars and Golden Globes. “Parthenope” on the other hand was well received by the Italian critical audience, although it was downplayed abroad.

Paolo Sorrentino made Celeste Dalla Porta the face of a complex, certainly ambitious cinematographic operation, where the life of a beautiful and mysterious girl becomes the metaphor with which to talk to us about Naples itself, about youth and passion. Parthenope is certainly an interesting character for sensuality, symbolism and characterization, her metaphorical essence and therefore distant from reality is her reason for being, but she still remains in the field of female representation, willy-nilly. And by making a comparison with the other two films mentioned here, we realize that for better or worse Paolo Sorrentino offers us, once again, a vision of women perhaps out of time, incapable of becoming a real mirror of the present, of an era , but even more of a complexity that goes beyond sleight of hand, fascination, abstract symbolism.

Is Parthenope elusive, free, nonconformist? Let’s talk about it. Because the vision of the woman that Sorrentino embraces, compared to Sean Baker’s film and that of Fargeat, is inevitably far too idealized, sometimes backward and in certain moments paternalistic. As we progress, Parthenope proves to be static, far from the reality of that same Naples of which it wants to be a vibrant monument, free from its dramas, from the real problems of real life. There is a certain inconsistency in her, a repetitive romanticisation which is not new in the cinematography of the most important Italian director of our time. Paolo Sorrentino to date has always offered in his cinema a representation of the two-faced woman: either a sensuous, passionate creature, or a caricatural and grotesque being.

But in both cases, it is the male point of view that triumphs, they move according to it without there being any possibility of escape. Celeste Dalla Porta herself, like the other women in “Parthenope”, is a “diva” to be adored, something that Sorrentino has also embraced in other films. The only exception? The mother played by Teresa Saponangelo in “It was the hand of God”, which is already more than enough to underline the predictability and conservatism inherent in her vision.

The inevitable idealization of women as a mere carnal symbol

“Anora” by Sean Baker features a sex worker as its protagonist, who tries to redeem her existence thanks to an encounter with a young and messed up scion of a family of Russian oligarchs. Mikey Madison is absolutely exceptional in giving us a true, real, dirty and filthy life, in a story that lacks any possible sanctification or Manichaeism. Anora is a girl who lives in a squalid environment, and she is a perfect product of that environment. She is absolutely not in love with that boy, for her he simply represents the possibility of a jackpot, of a check to be cashed that will take her away from there. A character who therefore moves in perfect contrast to the moral perfection that has dominated the representation of women on the big and small screen in recent years.

But she is an exceptional character precisely because she is very credible in her squalor, in the compromises that as a woman she is forced to accept. Sex and her body are the only cards she thinks she holds. “The Substance” by Coralie Fargeat is instead a body horror comedy with Demi Moore at its centre, here an old TV star, who feels she no longer has any value as she is deprived of beauty and youth. Weapons that the “clone” she will create, played by Margaret Qualley, wields with superficiality, selfishness, for the use and consumption of the average male.

In this contrast lies the success of two innovative and ruthless interpretations of being women in modern society, and how women themselves are the first to objectify themselves when they have to or when they can. For Baker and Fargeat, being women is disconnected from a sort of beatification, idealization and that supposed perfection that Paolo Sorrentino offers us with “Parthenope” so dictatorially, so much so that his protagonist, as we progress, becomes objectively unbearable. Yes, because Parthenope may also be the personification of Naples, but she is also a spoiled, narcissistic, superficial, snobbish girl, she has no particular talent, no particular sensitivity, only beauty and many clichés, and a sapiosexuality that is more fashionable than reality. .

Coming from a messed up and very rich family, she will be chosen as heir by Professor Marotta (Silvio Orlando). But unlike the protagonists of “Anora” and “The Substance” she appears to us without a crack, without any real ability to question herself in the slightest. We can certainly discuss how intentional this feature is, remembering the metaphorical intent desired by Sorrentino, here as elsewhere; but this does not make the other level, the pure narrative one, less static, less antiquated and in the long run disturbing in the limited representation it offers us.