Film Review

La Chimera (2023) — soulful Italian caper about nothing

A group of archaeologists and the black market of historical artefacts.

Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera is a beautiful tale about nothing. However, never has a film brimming with such life felt so cold by the time the credits roll. Set in 1980s Tuscany, Arthur (Josh O’Connor) is a dishevelled and downbeat Englishman abroad. A former archaeology scholar, he never looks clean-shaven, often sporting a grubby white suit and chain-smoking cigarettes…

We first meet Arthur on a train, dressed in a grubby white suit, having just been released from an Italian prison. His menacing posture and snarl make him look every bit the criminal, threatening the man selling odds and ends on the train. But delve a little deeper, and you’ll discover a lost soul — a once-respectable scholar in his field who’s fallen on hard times.

Upon his return from prison, he’s welcomed back into a gang of grave robbers. Though reluctant to rejoin after taking the blame for their last job, he has nowhere else to turn. He’s an outsider in the group, and not just because he’s an…