When cinematographer Daria D’Antonio first stepped into the role of director of photography on Paolo Sorrentino’s film “The Hand of God” after working with him for many years (including as a camera operator on “The Great Beauty”), the focus was on finding the truth in the ’80s set coming-of-age drama.
“We were looking for a close adherence to an experience of Paolo’s,” D’Antonio tells Variety of working on the Oscar-nominated film. But despite her latest film with the Italian auteur once again being set in Naples, their latest collaboration, “Parthenope,” required a more poetic and less realistic approach.
In the classic Parthenope myth, the siren whose voice brought sailors to their doom throws herself into the sea after Ulysses successfully resists her temptation. Her body is discovered on the shoreline and she is buried by fishermen after they are enchanted by her beauty.
“We wanted to continue that idea of the myth, that Parthenope had not resisted the calling of all of what she was expected to do and she decided to put an end to her life in the legend,” D’Antonio explains. But instead of focusing on her tragic death, D’Antonio and Sorrentino “wanted to turn it into a celebration of life.”
D’Antonio, who herself was born and raised in Naples and is renowned as the only female filmmaker to win the Globo D’Oro award for cinematography twice, brought an approach to “Parthenope” based on pure curiosity.
It’s the very same curiosity that she believes bonds her with Sorrentino. In the film, Sorrentino tells the decades-spanning story of a woman named after the myth of Parthenope, played by newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta. In Sorrentino’s take on the myth and love letter to Naples, Parthenope spends her youthful summers falling in love and searching for meaning through her academics and romantic relationships.
Courtesy of A24
In one memorable scene, Parthenope emerges out of the ocean and the men at the beach are immediately drawn to her as they are in the Greek myth. This required careful planning with the time of day to maximize the moment.
“She’s a very beautiful woman but also a very beautiful city, and they end up being one in the same thing,” D’Antonio explains. “In our approach to storytelling, we tried to fully grasp this beauty and enhance it.”
The film returns to Naples in the ‘60s, ‘70s and present day, adding another careful consideration for D’Antonio — how do you photograph the city and wide ocean over multiple decades?
While the way D’Antonio shot the sea doesn’t change much as an illustration of nature remaining the same as the city and mankind become less beautiful, Parthenope’s closeness with the sea does change.
Courtesy of A24
“My representation of the sea makes it so that at one point, it becomes something that’s far away, whereas at first it was a fundamental element for her,” D’Antonio says. “Because there’s such a deep wound that’s connected to the sea and such a huge pain, for her, it eventually becomes something that can no longer be explored but just looked at from a distance.”
Daria D’Antonio spoke through interpreter Lilia Pino Blouin for this interview.
