Roger Erbert Review
Born in the waters off the coast of Naples, the 18-year-old Parthenope is first seen as she emerges dripping from the sea, smoking a cigarette, leaving a male suitor entranced. Named for a siren of Greek myth and the ancient name of her birthplace, this clearly statuesque and intellectually insatiable young woman (Celeste Dalla Porta, ambrosial in her first film role) has recently grown aware of the “disruption” her beauty causes, as one character puts it, but knows not yet how to harness its power for her own purposes—nor what those greater ambitions even are.