La Chimera
Just out of jail and still searching for his late beloved Beniamina, crumpled English archaeologist Arthur reconnects with his wayward crew of tombaroli accomplices – a happy-go-lucky collective of itinerant grave-robbers who survive by looting Etruscan tombs and fencing the ancient treasures they dig up. Arthur isn’t interested in the artefacts, though; he’s seeking a legendary door to the underworld, and to Beniamina.
- Released:
- Runtime: 130 minutes
- Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
- Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Josh O'Connor, Alba Rohrwacher, Vincenzo Nemolato, Carol Duarte, Barbara Chiesa, Elisabetta Perotto, Chiara Pazzaglia, Francesca Carrain, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Ramona Fiorini, Yle Vianello, Carlo Tarmati, Gian Piero Capretto, Giuliano Mantovani, Luca Gargiullo, Luciano Vergaro
- Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Comments
- hchmmyzv - 11 June 2024
Just go with it
Just go with this film. It's like being in a dream with a weird and wonderful cast of characters. I didn't know anything about the film but I think Josh OConnor is a really good actor and being at Richmond Curzon on a Sunday afternoon with a glass of wine is far better than doing housework. I was sold. I loved it. I wasn't sure where it was going at times but it didn't matter, somehow I believed the madness going on and emotionally invested. It's like a dark fairytale and Greek myth combined. In fact a breath of fresh air compared to the cynical glossy product placement overload in films like Challengers (in which Josh O'Connor is good in). Now I will watch Happy as Lazarus. - jc-15900 - 6 May 2024
It was .... ok
Solid premise, acting from the lead (at points he and it reminded me of the kind of film you might have seen Donald Sutherland in in the 70s) and a number of individual scenes that were compelling and held your attention (in the tomb by the power plant, the railway station squatter house of women and children, the bookending train scenes). It's all the inbetween that I struggled with ... and I read a review that described it as a comedy? Any comedic elements I found a bit naff. At points it reminded me of "The Last Wave" (but that's a much much better film), and at others of "Memoria" (also at turns compelling and repelling). Interesting moments but at parts a real trudge. - ocupadoemnascer - 19 December 2023
Two hours lost in a world of poetry
Poetry is the first word that comes to mind when trying to describe that movie. Alice Rorhwacher depicts a world where past and present are interwoven. A forgotten rural Italy, haunted by the remnants of Antiquity. The movie is full of symbols, and the boundaries between past and present, life and death, reality and fantasy are constantly blurred.
The main character, Arthur, is marked by grief, and hides his pain among a band of gentle thieves. All around him, there is misery but also resilience, joy, survival. In this picaresque landscape, Arthur seems to be the only character inhabited by tragedy.
Rorhwacher has the power to evoke emotions that are hard to describe. I left the theater in a contemplative state and I've been thinking about the movie a lot since then. Only good movies can do that.
