La Chimera
Past and present interact in Alice Rohrwacher’s adventurous film that could not be more Italian in spirit.
Josh O’Connor
La Chimera is only the fourth solo feature from the writer/director Alice Rohrwacher. The first was Corpo Celeste (2011) which was followed by The Wonders (2014) and then by Happy as Lazzaro (2018). It is notable that all four films won a host of awards and Rohrwacher’s standing in Italian cinema (she was born in Tuscany) continues to grow. La Chimera is markedly Italianate in character, the regional atmosphere well to the fore, and in many respects it shows her at her best. It helps too that, as with that other recent release Close Your Eyes, the casting is perfectly judged. Nevertheless, La Chimera may not be to everybody's taste because Rohrwacher’s screenplays are more appealing to some than to others. In saying that it might be assumed that I have in mind the elements of magic realism which, especially in Happy as Lazzaro, were blended with scenes that echoed Italian cinema’s neo-realism. But it is more a case of Rohrwacher’s writing becoming too imprecise to bring out her purpose clearly and effectively.
Although I personally had difficulty in responding positively to Corpo Celeste, I found great promise in The Wonders with its skilled portrayal of family life in Tuscany achieving a remarkable sense of authenticity. However, its study of a potentially rebellious 12-year-old girl with a mind of her own seemed to be less than fully developed in the meanderings of the film’s last quarter. Then when Happy as Lazzaro came along I described it as a film made with a sureness of touch and a technical mastery while also acknowledging that it handled a midway shift in tone and style very effectively. Yet once again I felt let down by its concluding scenes due to the inclusion of obscure symbolism and to the way in which it was left to the audience to decide as best they could what Rohrwacher’s film really was trying to say.
Initially, La Chimera, splendidly photographed like all four of these features by the great Hélène Louvart, struck me as taking Rohrwacher’s skills to new heights. Nevertheless, I would find once again that the film’s final quarter left me uncertain as to the intentions behind it. Until then all looks set fair with the great cast, the local flavour and the fluid direction all combining to fine effect. At the outset we encounter an Englishman named Arthur (Josh O’Connor). He has made his home in Italy and is travelling by train back to Riparbella where he had met and fallen in love with Beniamina (Yile Yara Vianello). Although Arthur is an archaeologist by profession, he has used that experience to throw in his lot with a group of grave robbers who dig for Etruscan artefacts buried with the dead. Their leader is Pirro (Vincenzo Nemolato) but it is Arthur who, using a dowsing rod, has a gift for locating local burial sites. Their hope is to find ancient items of real value and Pirro has contact with a woman dealer, Spartaco (Alba Rohrwacher), who is a big-time operator selling such items to museum curators.
Lasting for over two hours, La Chimera is a film ready to take its time but the atmosphere of Tuscany is so much a part of its character that this approach is welcome. There is also the sense that Rohrwacher’s conception of the film will embrace the fanciful and hybrid character associated with chimeras. Varying the screen size, she incorporates from the start images of Beniamina although we soon discover that she has gone missing and could well be dead even though her mother, Flora (Isabella Rossellini), continues to believe that she will return. Arthur may not really share her belief for what we see of Beniamina could be his dreams or just the hauntings of his imagination. Nevertheless, his obsession with this memory of past love seems to discourage any new attachment even when he finds a certain rapport with a student named Italia (Carol Duarte) who is having singing lessons with Flora and acting as her housekeeper. As the story develops, we can sense parallels of a kind between Arthur not letting go of his memories and the questions that surround the work of the robbers: should ancient treasures be left underground out of respect, is sacrilege utterly immoral and repugnant and to what extent and how should the past be allowed to influence the present?
But, whatever else one may want to read into it, La Chimera comes across as a tale centred on Arthur, a man who is inward-looking and who never fully reveals himself. We learn that his thieving gave him a spell in jail and discover that his thoughts of Beniamina persist, but the audience is left to decipher him and O’Connor's interior performance fits this perfectly. In contrast to that, Rossellini brings enormous warmth to her supporting role while Duarte has sufficient character and skill to make Italia distinctive and engaging. Meanwhile, Rohrwacher finds striking ways to indicate the grandeur of Etruscan art works through an effective use of extracts from classical music. That's all part of the freedom in her approach including the on-screen performance of two songs that are in effect reflections on the narrative unfolding. But at times the style that she adopts can be tiresomely self-conscious. That happens, for example, when she uses speeded-up footage, when she opts to impose a fine recording of an aria over shots of Italia’s inept singing and yet again when she features a mimed conversation in which the words indicated are written up on the screen.
However, these are minor flaws compared to what for me is the real misjudgment here. The storyline does suggest that at its centre is a character arc in which Arthur is gradually brought to the point of taking a stance that will at last make him a forceful agent in the present. That would be fine if that moment became the film’s conclusion. But, instead of that, the story moves on, uncertainly at first and then as though heading for a somewhat conventional ending after which it turns to increasingly stylised footage that completely failed to convince me on any level. Ultimately then there are many fine things in La Chimera but its final section is one that will surely leave many dissatisfied even if others are able to take the leap required if they are to find it both meaningful and emotionally affecting.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Josh O’Connor, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato, Isabella Rossellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Ramona Fiorini, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Giuliano Mantovani, Gian Piero Capretto, Melchiorre Pala, Yile Yara Vianello, Julia Vella Pandolfo, Luciano Vergaro, Paolo Bizzarri, Barain Chiesa, Francesca Carrain.
Dir Alice Rohrwacher, Pro Carlo Cresto-Dina and Paolo Del Broco, Screenplay Alice Rohrwacher, Carmela Covino and Marco Pettenello, Ph Hélène Lauvant, Pro Des Emita Frigato, Ed Nelly Quettier, Costumes Loredana Buscemi.
Amka Film Productions/Arte France Cinéma/Radiotelevisione Svizzera-Curzon Film Distributors.
130 mins. Italy/France/Switzerland. 2023. US Rel: 8 December 2023. UK Rel: 10 May 2024. Cert. 15.
