La Chimera

Alice Rohrwacher’s first feature since the widely acclaimed Happy As Lazzaro five years ago is an exhilaratingly unpredictable, mysterious, rough and tumble tale of a disheveled English tomb raider living on the margins amongst a roisterous group of Italian bohemians: singers, smugglers, peasants and petty thieves. Even in this rum company Arthur (Josh O’Connor) is an odd duck, but he’s at the heart of their operations because he has the gift of divination: he sniffs out ancient Etruscan graves, and with them treasure troves of artifacts buried with the dead.

Rohrwacher’s story (she wrote the original screenplay) could be called oblique and whimsical, but her movie is rooted in the rude, earthy tradition of Pasolini, the Tavianis and Roberto Rossellini (whose daughter Isabella has an extended cameo here as the mother of Arthur’s beloved, missing Beniamina). That is to say, it’s a vivid and authentic film of the land and the people who live on it, not to mention those who came before and are buried underneath.

La Chimera sneaks up on you. Rohrwacher is a discreet virtuoso with a visual style that is appealing and demonstrably unshowy. She reveals beauty rather than pummels you with it, the way flashier filmmakers do, and lets meaning emerge without trumpet blasts. She invites you to look at the world, to follow the thread, assemble the pieces.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Mournful yet exuberant, La Chimera is a towering work of art presented with the unassuming invitation of a warming summer morning.

Carlos Aguilar, LA Times

Given the way O’Connor lends this lost soul such a downbeat charisma and genuine sense of pain, you’re just thankful that we’re getting a performer of such immense talent doing justice to this tomb raider right now.

David Fear, Rolling Stone