La quimera

Poetry is the first word that comes to mind when trying to describe that movie. Alice Rorhwacher depicts a world where past and present are interwoven. A forgotten rural Italy, haunted by the remnants of Antiquity. The movie is full of symbols, and the boundaries between past and present, life and death, reality and fantasy are constantly blurred.

The main character, Arthur, is marked by grief, and hides his pain among a band of gentle thieves. All around him, there is misery but also resilience, joy, survival. In this picaresque landscape, Arthur seems to be the only character inhabited by tragedy.

Rorhwacher has the power to evoke emotions that are hard to describe. I left the theater in a contemplative state and I've been thinking about the movie a lot since then. Only good movies can do that.

"La Chimera" is a bittersweet addition to the magical-Italian-realism cinematic universe of director Alice Rohrwacher. Her new parable about Italy that's also a folklore fairytale tells the story of clairvoyant/haunted archeologist/graverobber Arthur, played by Josh O'Connor. Arthur's journey to retrieve the film's buried namesake is not one for glory and it's barely for riches; O'Connor commits both emotionally and physically to a naturalistic portrait of a lost man searching for something that is beyond the tangible. This heavy-hearted quest is balanced thanks to moments orchestrated by Arthur's local gang of merry graverobbers, played by former collaborators from Rohrwacher films. Another great performance is by Isabella Rosellni, playing a women that is connected to Arthur through personal history and in her attachment to living in the past. The film is far less narrative-driven, instead choosing to follow Arthur from one moment to another, a nod to the wandering man of other Italian greats, Pasolini and Felini. The ending, similarly, leaves viewers with the choice of deciding whether Arthur was victorious in fulfilling his wish or not.

When an English tomb raider (Josh O'Connor) skilled at dowsing uses his skills to hunt down buried Etruscan artifacts, he achieves success at his craft but suffers setbacks when he falls in with the wrong crowd. As a consequence, he drifts through life, trying to find his way (and, ironically enough, a moral footing), an odyssey filled with quirky people and events, a would-be romantic interest (Carol Duarte) with two carefully concealed children, an aging operatic instructor (Isabella Rossellini) skilled at fleecing her "students," and, of course, his coterie of comical criminal cronies. Writer-director Alice Rohrwacher's latest tells a delightful fable full of wit, whimsy, colorful characters, high intrigue and its share of surreal moments, all set against the Italian landscape. The film admittedly takes a little time to find its stride, so getting through the opening act will require some patience (editing here would have helped). But, once the picture finds its way, it becomes a fun-filled ride, peppered with absurdist humor and filmed with Fellini-esque cinematography and a production design reminiscent of the famed auteur. With a runtime of 2:10:00, it could stand some trimming (most notably at the outset, as noted above), but this cinematic charmer is a modestly pleasant diversion to watch while stretched out on the couch while casually savoring a demitasse of espresso and a plate of biscotti. Godere!

A rather scruffy looking Josh O'Connor is "Arthur" who has found a way to make a living in rural Italy where he uses his unique gift with a divining rod - well a big twig, really - to uncover ancient artefacts from deep beneath the surface. He's not averse to a bit of grave robbing either - for which he has recently been imprisoned, and now he and his cohorts sell their stuff to "Spartaco" (Alba Rohrwacher) and via a rather unique technique, too! What's clear is that "Arthur" is getting over something fairly monumental in his life, and we get a clue to that when he visits the rather doting but blissfully ignorant and elderly "Flora" (Isabella Rossellini) at her increasingly dilapidated mansion house where the furniture is destined for the furnace and her family all know the secret, but dare not speak it. He, himself, inhabits a shanty-town style shed abutting the old city wall, his once proud linen suit now grubby and filthy and he is rarely without a cigarette. As the plot unfolds - aided by an agreeably sparing amount of dialogue - we start to get a sense that "Arthur" is actually coming to his senses after something akin to a concussion. The pieces of his life are slowly coming together again as he and his pals make the discovery of a lifetime, only for... It's a slowly paced film, but that works well - as do the infrequent but quite punchy comedic elements of the drama. There can be a comparison drawn between the gradual unearthing of the long lost relics and with his own re-realisation but it's all delivered with a brightness that keeps it from becoming downbeat or depressing. Director Alice Rohrwacher offers us a personal story tempered with a bit of mythology and a fair degree of ill-defined humanity that is compellingly incomplete in many ways. I reckon it might merit a second watch, there's plenty of nuanced writing here.

La Chimera is a slow burning journey with plenty to say that's deliberately hard to pin down, making it all the more rewarding when it coalesces. Coincidentally, it's also the best film released in the last year about a grizzled archaeologist returning to recovering ancient artefacts on one last adventure whilst still grieving the loss of a loved one.

Josh O'Connor is so good at being reserved without being completely closed off. The only real emotion that he shows is anger but everything else is so clearly contained in his anguish and charming smile. He's supported by a crew of boisterous personalities who are initially a lot of fun to be around though not without their darker sides.

Alice Rohrwacher's direction draws you in and keeps you so invested that the subtle aspect ratio shifts almost go unnoticed. It's simultaneously a film that's very grounded with stunning locations which all feel lived in and at the same time has it's more surreal moments that imbues the film with a dreamlike nature, especially in its final moments.