La Chimera (2023), by Alice Rohrwacher
A chimera is a mythical animal, an utopia or something we long for but it’s hard to obtain. By this last definition, we can easily agree that we all have at least one chimera in life.
An archaeologist is someone who studies — and often digs — objects from a distant past. The Italian-French-Swiss movie “La Chimera” is dedicated to all archaeologists, “custodians of our endings”. The most famous archaeologist of cinema is Indiana Jones, but the lead of this multinational film couldn’t be more different than the noble Mr Jones.
English archaeologist Arthur Harrison (Josh O’Connor from England) has just been released from jail and resumes his position as one of seven grave-robbers who sell Etruscan artifacts in the black market. Another thing he does immediately after being released is to visit his mother-in-law Adelia Flora (Isabella Rossellini from Italy). Both are grieving the absence of Arthur’s beloved Beniamina. At Flora’s house Arthur gets to know Italia (Carol Duarte from Brazil), a wannabe singer who works as a maid in exchange for singing lessons — but it is her who will teach Arthur a few lessons.
The group of thieves rob graves because the Etruscans used to put artifacts in tombs in order to facilitate the entry of a soul in Heaven. Arthur finds these artifacts in an almost paranormal way, using a stick like the one used to find water in the desert or gold under the soil. He’s not the head of the group, but they wouldn’t do anything if it wasn’t for his skills.
The Etruscans were a people that lived in Etruria, a region of Italy, roughly between 900 B.C. and 27 B.C. The territory they occupied is now part of the Vatican City, San Marino and Corsica. The father of Etruscology is Thomas Dempster (1579–1625), a Scottish man who did most of his archaeological work in Italy. From the Etruscan civilization, the only constructions that survived are some walls and, mostly, tombs.
There is a duo of folk singers who sing ballads, in two different moments, to help the story develop, like medieval minstrels or troubadours. This is a wise choice, since Alice Rohrwacher, director and screenwriter, told in an interview for the website The Film Stage that the character of Arthur is inspired by Orpheus, who had nothing to do but mourn the loss of his beloved Eurydice.
In that same interview, Alice declared that “only the gaze of a foreigner can give new value to the things that we are accustomed to seeing every day”. Arthur is a foreigner that does that for us, but another foreigner, Italia — this probably Brazilian woman with the name of a country she migrated to -, who does that for Arthur. Italia’s chimera is to live a better life with her two children, and maybe show her talent as a singer.
In an interview for the website Mulher no Cinema (in Portuguese HERE), actress Carol Duarte defined Alice Rohrwacher’s cinema as “more poetry and beauty than answers”. About cinematographer Hélène Louvart, with whom Carol had previously worked in her debut film “The Invisible Life” (2019), the actress only had good things to say, including that “she works in a way that looks like a dance”.
In 2022, Rohrwacher listed her 10 favorite films in a Sight and Sound poll. Among them there is the underrated Neorealism masterpiece by Vittorio de Sica “Miracle in Milan” (1951) — one of my favorite movies — and Federico Fellini’s “Nights of Cabiria” (1957). “La Chimera” certainly has a nod to Fellini with a parade of grave-robbers dressed in flamboyant clothes — many even dressed as women — that could have emerged from any of Fellini’s movies.
Isabella Rossellini doesn’t have a lot of screen time, and her character could be more well developed — this makes us think that her role is almost a deluxe cameo. The same can’t be said about Alba Rohrwacher’s character, one that is vital to the plot.
I was expecting more magical realism in the film, probably contaminated by what I saw in one of Alice Rohrwacher’s previous films, “Lazzaro Felice” (2018). But we can’t measure a film with expectations that weren’t met. “La Chimera” is a great movie, a modern Fellinesque movie — probably a definition that would make the filmmaker and cinephile Alice Rohrwacher happy.
