Its protagonist, Arthur (Josh O\u2019Connor), is living in the past himself, continuing to fixate on his lost love, Beniamina (Yile Yara Vianello). He has just been released from prison, and he soon falls back in with the motley crew of grave robbers, or \u201ctombaroli,\u201d who were his friends and accomplices before his stint behind bars. Though they help with the actual digging, Arthur\u2019s gift at dowsing means he is the only one in the group who can locate the buried tombs of the Etruscans, caches filled with pottery, frescoes, and other artifacts that will fetch high prices from antiquities dealers who obscure their true provenance. Arthur has the gift of unearthing what has been lost for ages, but he can\u2019t find the one thing he wants most: Beniamina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
La Chimera<\/em> is populated by a variety of characters with threads connecting them. Arthur is an Englishman living in Italy, a man who fumbles with the language and is immediately recognized as \u201cother\u201d by those he meets. He wears suits, giving him an air of respectability, but his trousers are often covered in dirt and he receives complaints about his body odor. He is the subject of songs of his exploits by the locals, who offer their insights into his wild story and strange gift. Meanwhile, his fellow tombaroli are a Fellini-esque band of misfits who look like a circus troupe as they shamble after him in his search \u2014 even though they\u2019re ultimately looking for different things in their quests. He makes regular visits to Beniamina\u2019s mother, Flora (Isabella Rossellini), who lives in a mansion and so has many daughters that their family seems like something out of a fable. Despite her aristocratic background, Flora is cash-poor, but she offers voice lessons to tone-deaf Italia (Carol Duarte) in exchange for her doing housework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As in her previous films, Rohrwacher takes a playful approach, even as she covers matters as serious as death and class structures. La Chimera<\/em> is especially rich in its handling of the economy around grave robbing and its fruits. Some people on-screen are rightly appalled by the actions of the tombaroli, but the petty criminals are neither the source of the problem nor the primary beneficiaries of the wealth created by it. There\u2019s the question of who owns these objects \u2014 everyone or no one \u2014 and what that means for Italy and its citizens. Arthur and his gang scrape by, while the middlemen and upper-class collectors perpetuate the cycle. \u201cThe tombaroli are just a drop in the ocean,\u201d a character sings, placing them as just one part of the systemic issue. Though La Chimera<\/em> may comment on the rich\u2019s exploitation of the lower class, as well as the nature of love and loss and the ephemeral versus the eternal, it never feels overly didactic or dour, thanks to Rohrwacher\u2019s skill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Happy as Lazarro <\/em>director is a master of seemingly disparate tones, and though she\u2019s indebted to Fellini (aren\u2019t we all?), she is still forging her own path\u2014and it\u2019s a winding one full of enjoyable diversions. Though set in the 1980s, La Chimera<\/em> has echoes of even earlier times. Arthur \u2014 whose name is so quintessentially British in its evocation of the legendary king \u2014 has songs sung about his exploits, like he\u2019s the hero of an epic tale. Some action scenes bear the sped-up look of a silent comedy, bringing a welcome goofiness to the proceedings. With cinematographer H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Louvart, Rohrwacher uses a variety of film stocks to create a nostalgic appearance. Her view of Italy lacks the travel and gloss of, say, a Luca Guadagnino film. Instead, despite the fantastical elements, La Chimera<\/em> is infused with realism. Dirt and age are everywhere; everything looks a little beat up, from the weathered faces to the crumbling walls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n La Chimera<\/em> is a curious, questioning experience, as pleasurably evasive as its title implies. Rohrwacher hasn\u2019t made a maddeningly opaque film that frustrates the audience with unanswered questions; instead, she gently teases viewers with a movie that requires equal parts of their intellect and soul. Sure, La Chimera<\/em> exists to be thought about, but it\u2019s also there to be felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “La Chimera” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/la-chimera2-1024x576.jpg\")
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