Josh O'Connor

Carol Duarte

Alba Rohrwacher

Isabella Rossellini

Vincenzo Nemolato

Lou Roy-Lecollinet

Giuliano Mantovani

Gian Piero Capretto

Melchiorre Pala

Ramona Fiorini

Luca Gargiullo

Yle Vianello

Barbara Chiesa

Elisabetta Perotto

Chiara Pazzaglia

Francesca Carrain

Luciano Vergaro

Carlo Tarmati

Valentino Santagati

Piero Crucitti

Milutin Dapčević

Luca Chikovani

Julia Vella

Agnese Graziani

Alessandro Genovesi

Cristiano Piazzati

Sofia Stangherlin

Marianna Pantani

Maria Alexandra Lungu

Paolo Bizzarri

Claudio Fabbri

Monaldo Gazzella

Sofija Zobina

Silvia Lucarini

Pancrazio Capretto

Elisabetta Anella

Maddalena Baiocco

Leila Nuniz

Giulia Caccavello

Franco Barzi

Fabrizio Pierini

Andrea Pettirossi

Maria Pia Clementi

Anna DeLuca

Adriano Tardiolo

Giorgio Gasparini

Nelly Quettier

Loredana Buscemi

Alice Rohrwacher

Fiona Weir

Chiara Polizzi

Daria Di Lernia

Virginia Renzi

Romualdo Benedetti

Pistillo Annalisa

Dattoli Antonio

Maxence Ciekawy

Sgrulloni Andrea

Francesco Monaco

Riccardo Monaco

Romani Loretta

Cristina Pucci

Laura Petruccelli

Andrej Chinappi

Jacopo Giulini

Io Baur

Dario Currò

Eleonora Medolla

Julien D'Esposito

Alessandro Lanini

Lea Gazzurra

Elisa Tiziani

Shara Spinella

Lena Di Gennaro

Ernst Brunner

Paolo Monetti

Sara Cavani

Miguel Barbosa

Toshiyuki Ishii

Riccardo Umetelli

Giorgia Villa

Marta Natoli

Mattia Pederzoli

Thomas Bouffioulx

Ciro Manfellotto

Gaia Tironi

Alessandro Grassadonia

Marie Mougel

Michela Menchini

Carolina Felicissimo

Castiglione Gaetano

Fausto Vitali

Alberto Bracalente

Aldo Chessari

Marta Rotelli

Santo Krappmann

Rodolfo Migliari

Silvio Capozzi

Sandro Hofstetter

Alice Siesto

Hélène Degrandcourt

Viola Pagli

Simona Pampallona

Paolo Pacioni

Pierre Collodin

Marta Fava

Mariachiara Incecchi

Stefania Colombo

Ilù Seydoux

François Wolf

Clarissa Bragaglia

Roberta Aloisio

Riccardo Carletti

Monica Mele

Ilya Sapeha

Annalia Silecchia

Virginia Enrico

Matteo Claudione

Paola De Lorenzo

Luca Bertini

Francesca Claudione

Mannozzi Manolo

Lopis Stefano

Di Marco Giancarlo

Amir Kamal

Cristiano Ciliberti

Giuliana Claudione

Hélène Louvart

Carlo Cresto-Dina

Alice Esposito

Rachele Meliadò

Tom Quinn

Xavier Lavorel

Eli Bush

Michael Weber

Emita Frigato

Jeff Deutchman

Nicola Scorza

Daniela Baldasarre

Daniela Tartari

Fabio Capozzi

Ivan Spignese

Esmé Sciaroni

Annamarie Dicesare

Drama

Fantasy

Comedy

La chimera

Tempesta

RAI Cinema

Ad Vitam Production

Amka Films

ARTE France Cinéma

France

Italy

Switzerland

English

Français

Italiano

Português

La Chimera

archeology

englishman abroad

1980s

tomb raiding

exuberant

chimera

magical realism

Brent Marchant

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!

CinemaSerf

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( 2023)

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A review by Brent Marchant

Written by Brent Marchant on Thu Oct 19 2023

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