Glasgow Film Festival 2024: ‘La Chimera’ Review
Stars: Josh O’Connor, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato, Alba Rohrwacher, Isabelle Rossellini, Lou Roy-Lecollinet | Written and Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Fresh out of jail, Arthur (Josh O’Connor) is a man who seems reluctant to head back to his past, although haunted by his lost love Beniamina. Meeting back up with his rag-tag bunch of friends, Arthur succumbs to the means of living he loves the most — stealing Etruscan artifacts from local graves. Sinking deeper and deeper into his work, Arthur’s quest to find a door to the afterlife becomes overwhelming.
2020s cinema has, so far, been a time of reminiscence. As a collective, we’ve been harking for the 1980s in particular, longing for its synth-based tunes, garish colours, and a future that felt as though anything could happen next. Typically, this manifests in something that looks of its time but clearly is made in the modern day. Instead of a synthetic homage, Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera appears to distort time, introducing itself as an authentic article, much like its subject matter.
Filmed through a romanticised lens of Italian culture, La Chimera also doesn’t shy away from stereotypes. From passionate arguments to opera singing and talking with your hands, quintessential Italian characteristics are incorporated into a movie that appears as bedded into its surroundings rather than masquerading as a tourist. This is something that lead actor Josh O’Connor also does seamlessly, learning Italian in order to star in the film. Delivering his lines through what could be his mother tongue, O’Connor is a far cry from his English roots, injecting Italian passion and heightened emotion into every breath, frame, and scene.
Creatively, Alice Rohrwacher’s ideas are an abundant playground. Experimenting with framing, personification, breaking the fourth wall and different levels of intimacy, there’s no direction in which Rohrwacher is unwilling to travel, yet all seem to work together cohesively. If a choice leaves a viewer asking questions, there is undoubtedly a reasonable payoff. Coupled together with the jaw-dropping vistas of the Italian countryside, La Chimera’s visuals are a heady mix.
Interesting, it’s La Chimera’s plot that probably holds the least amount of interest. Though, in parts, cast members are addressing the camera like they’re on an episode of Time Team, archeological newbies are thrust into the world of the Etruscans, who are unfortunately having their possessions robbed from their rotting sides. To the untrained eye, one battered pot looks much like the rest, leaving a feeling of yearning for the personal journey rather than the historical one. As much as the narrative pays homage to Italy and its love affair with the past, Rohrwacher’s story possibly does this relationship a slight disservice, not crediting a wider affiliation of those who have lost and loved.
Nonetheless, La Chimera is an exceptional piece of independent filmmaking, leading with head as well as heart. Its ensemble cast is as impassioned and vibrant as the country itself — even legendary Isabella Rossellini’s brief turn is one for the books — continually asking viewers to take a journey inwards, through time, and through the thick of it.
**** 4/5
La Chimera screened as part of this year’s Glasgow Film Festival. The film will also be released across the UK on May 10th.
