Paolo Sorrentino went to the brand new Saint Laurent podcast

Paolo Sorrentino was a guest on TALKS PODCAST, the new original format by Saint Laurent Rive Droite. After featuring Juergen Teller in the first episode and Jacques Audiard in the second, the Oscar-winning director is the third voice chosen by the French Maison to delve into the relationship between cinema, aesthetics, and creativity, this time in conversation with the French director Jacques Audiard. Saint Laurent’s decision to expand into podcasts might seem bold within the traditionally conservative luxury landscape, but under Anthony Vaccarello’s creative direction, the brand has already demonstrated a strong commitment to investing in new cultural formats, exploring publishing, gastronomy, art, and music, all strictly under the Rive Droite wing. While the Sorrentino/Saint Laurent duo may initially seem unusual, it is worth noting that the Maison’s film production company – Saint Laurent Productions – was among the co-producers of Parthenope, the latest film by the Neapolitan director. During the episode, Sorrentino touched on several central themes of his poetics, inevitably starting with Naples, a city that, according to him, embodies a contradictory fusion of absolute beauty and inevitable decay: «The beauty of Naples is that it is a southern city, it is a city that does not progress.»

The conversation begins with a reflection on imperfection, a key theme in the director’s aesthetics, which also emerges in the fragmented introduction of the episode. Sorrentino himself introduces the topic, recounting how the birth of his son confronted him with an ideal of pure and spontaneous beauty, linked to the wonder of facing the imperfections of reality. This ongoing search for hidden beauty in anomalies, misplaced details, and ordinary situations is a distinctive trait of his cinema, evident in both La Grande Bellezza and È Stata la Mano di Dio. During the interview, Sorrentino also delves into his unique way of conceiving cinema: not as a faithful representation of reality but as a poetic transfiguration. His films are often composed of scenes that seem suspended in time, imbued with melancholy and irony, where protagonists wander in search of a meaning that is rarely definitive: «Let's say that in my films, power dynamics are the engine of the fragile plots I build. In reality, I try to tell stories about emotions. Fundamentally, I think of myself more as a narrator of emotions than anything else. Very simple emotions like love, the passing of time, melancholy, this subtle feeling of being perpetually sorrowful. That’s what I talk about.» For Sorrentino, the image is not a mere exercise in aesthetics but becomes a fundamental narrative tool to explore existential, personal, and collective themes. Revisiting one of the main themes addressed in his works, Sorrentino talks about the sacred, the profane, and religion: «For me, sacred is everything one cannot forget. For example, I cannot forget my parents, who passed away when I was very young, so for me, they are sacred.»

Significant attention is also given to working with actors and character construction. Sorrentino emphasizes the essential role of minimal details, meaningful silences, and spontaneous gestures. His collaboration with Toni Servillo is emblematic of this method, based on the ability to transform artistic chemistry into deep and authentic characters. Regarding Parthenope, the director explained that his curiosity about a world unfamiliar to him (the female perspective) was the main reason he chose to tell the story of a woman constantly seeking her own freedom: «I don’t know women. I mean, I imagine them more than I know them. For me, it is very interesting to tell the story of a woman's freedom.» As the director himself puts it: «I find it interesting to portray a female character who experiences freedom in the '60s and '70s. Why? First of all, because it was not an obvious choice. It was a countercultural choice, but in reality, it still is today.» The theme of creative freedom, increasingly challenged by market dynamics, was also discussed in the conversation. Sorrentino reiterated the importance of preserving one's authorial vision, even when collaborating with commercial entities like Saint Laurent, as long as they are willing to uphold aesthetic and artistic identity without compromise.