LA CHIMERA – Review by Diane Carson

Italian director Alice Rohrwacher avoids cinematic clichés, forging a unique blend of complex characters in unusual circumstances and settings. She’s true to form in her latest film, La Chimera, Rohrwacher’s critical assessment of a band of tombaroli, grave robbers in an eccentric 1980s Tuscan community. The foreigner Arthur and his Italian colleagues propel the narrative with unanticipated twists and turns. Pushing us out of a relaxed comfort zone, Rohrwacher includes characters’ direct-address to the camera, singers and dancers presenting alternative perspectives, and magical realism interwoven with Italy’s signature cinematic neo-realism.

Read more

LA CHIMERA (Melbourne IFF 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Alice Rohrwacher is back, and the filmmaker who brought us The Wonders (2014) and Happy as Lazzaro (2018) returns with the highly anticipated Palme d’Or nominated (and Palme Dog winning) La Chimera. A generic melange of sped-up slapstick, heist film and romantic fantasy, the film stars Josh O’Connor as Arthur, an archaeologist turned graverobber who returns to the rural Italian home of his lost love Beniamina (Yile Tara Vianello) where he reconnects with her eccentric mother Flora (Isabella Rossellini) and his old tombaroli crew who entice him back into the business of raiding tombs to pilfer Etruscan antiquities. Through Flora he meets the quirky Italia (Carol Duarte), with whom he develops an unexpected connection.

Read more