‘La Chimera’ REVIEW: Phantoms and artifacts of yesterday
‘La Chimera’ REVIEW: Phantoms and artifacts of yesterday
Josh O’Connor as Arthur
Josh O’Connor is penniless and rugged, but don't be mistaken, this is not Challengers. He is the opposite of horny and ambitious in this film: he is lost, melancholic, and wounded by the past (yes, the man has range). Alice Rohrwacher’s magical realism-slash-heist film La Chimera is nothing short of dreamy and haunting, almost like a philosophical and spiritual Indiana Jones.
A magical realism-slash-heist film that might catch you off guard, but Rohrwacher did an excellent job blending genres in this one. She has a way of making stories focused on ordinary folks seem alluring and mystical, with The Wonders (a film focusing on the family of beekeepers), her Cannes 2018 Best Screenplay award-winning film Happy as Lazzaro (focusing on sharecroppers), and now with her recent film La Chimera.
Set in 1980s Tuscany, the film follows Arthur (Josh O’ Connor), an English archaeologist fresh out of prison, and his merry band of grave-robbing friends, also called tombaroli, as they search for hidden tombs filled with treasures and pay their debts to the mysterious Spartaco.
At first, Arthur was reluctant to return to his old ways, even angrily walking out as soon as he was reunited with his old crew. But his deep fascination and curiosity towards the Etruscan treasures motivates him to fall back to his old routine with his crew.
The film is part of a loose trilogy (which includes The Wonders and Happy as Lazzaro) exploring the Italian identity and its relationship with the past. In the film, he is not only interested in the Etruscan treasures that carry the beauties and rich history of the time long gone – the allure of which fascinates him. His background in archeology motivates his fascination with the past, as well as his unusual gift of finding tombs underneath the cityscape and landscape of Italy just by using a broken tree branch as a detector.
As much as Arthur is drawn to the past, it also haunts him, as he longs for his former lover Beniamina, who passed away due to reasons unknown to the audience. She appears frequently in his dreams, as seen in the opening shot of the film and throughout its duration. Beniamina’s mother Flora (Isabela Rosellini) enables his yearning, for even she is still waiting for her return, despite the protests from her daughters.
One can say his unusual power of detecting tombs intensifies due to his desire to reunite with his deceased lover, which may also be the reason why monetary gain from these artifacts isn’t a matter of great importance for him, unlike his friends. The film’s English title, The Impossible Dream, sums up these sequences with Beniamina: despite being unattainable, he searches for her in the physical world.
Arthur with his crew of tombaroli
His crew of tombaroli, seemingly plucked out of a Fellini film, brings joy and chaos to the film. At one point, someone sings a tale of their grave-robbing adventures in such an epic/folkloric manner. As stated, they never care about the moral dilemma of plundering these treasures. They turn these artifacts, made and left for the dead to enjoy in the afterlife, into commodities. In several scenes, framed and edited playfully, we see them hiding from the police for this is considered illegal.
The film does not completely stand by this practice. Etruscan treasures aren't meant to be celebrated by the living as they are left for the dead to be enjoyed in their afterlife. In one interview, Rohrwacher compares the Romans to Etruscans, stating how much we know about Roman culture because of how they flaunted it as opposed to the Etruscans who "spent their creative energy for the dead" as she put it. This explains several common folks in the film disapproving of this practice, even praying for the tombs after being invaded by the tombaroli for they wouldn't even give it a proper respect before plundering these goods.
Even Italia (Carol Duarte), Flora’s singing student and house help, disapproves of this. Throughout the film, we see how their connection slowly deepened through their wordless Italian language crash course sessions. She felt betrayed upon learning the nature of Arthur's occupation. Her visceral reaction greatly impacts Arthur as seen during the film's climax, as he quietly marvels at the beauty of Artume’s head statue bathed in the sunlight — something the Etruscans never intended — before tossing it out in the ocean.
In a way, Italia is the antithesis of Arthur. Even though Arthur comes to his senses during the film's climax and eventually feels guilty after being haunted by the dead he stole from, he still decides to live in the past and carry on with his practice, joining a rival crew of tombaroli. Italia learns to live with it, appreciate its beauty, and move forward to enjoy living in the present.
Italia's presence in the film made Arthur live in the present for a little while. But the beauty of the present is not enough for Arthur. At the end of the day, he is Orpheus longing to be reunited with his Eurydice. The ending might seem tragic out of context but within the film, it is magical and satisfying.
Ultimately, La Chimera tells a tale of grief: of a man putting his life on hold for the past while living in the present, much like the Hanged Man he was depicted as in its original release poster. The visuals of La Chimera feel soft and dream-like in quality (thanks to the film’s cinematographer, Hélène Louvart), contrasting the gritty and melancholic tone of the film. This sets Rohrwacher apart from her contemporaries for she is able to keep her treatment of her films fascinating and unique.
La Chimera screened at the 12th QCinema International Film Festival as part of the Contemporary Italian Cinema category. La Chimera is also available on VOD.
