La chimera (Italy-Switzerland-France-Turkey 2023)

At a time when global cinema is, in my view at least, facing a general downturn in artistic quality, it’s encouraging to see the development of a group of international auteurs, each with a significant catalogue of films. Alongside such undoubted talents as Christian Petzold, Jia Zhang-khe, Kore-eda Hirokazu and Hamaguchi Ryusuke, I definitely include Alice Rohrwacher. La chimera is a joyous movie written and directed by Rohrwacher and her collaborators following The Wonders (2014), and Happy as Lazzaro (2018). La chimera offers some of the same pleasures and insights into Italian culture as those two previous features. Rohrwacher’s previous film, the ‘medium-length’ (39 mins) Le pupille (Italy 2022) seems to me perhaps closer to her first feature Corpo Celeste (Italy-Switzerland-France 2012). Overall, Rohrwacher has 14 directorial credits (including shorts , a documentary and a contribution to an anthology film) but these are the five titles that have been most accessible in the UK.

The first point to make is that ‘La chimera’ is a wonderfully ‘open’ title which promises so much because the concept has a range of meanings. In Greek mythology a chimera was a beast with body parts from different creatures – a lion’s head, a goat’s body and the tail of a reptile. More generally a chimera is anything made from bringing together different things/meanings. It also means something illusory or impossible to realise and more specifically in biology a fusion/mutation/grafting of cells from different organisms to create something new, a hybrid. To this end there are many works of art: films, novels, music albums etc. titled ‘chimera’. In Rohrwacher’s film narrative, there is a sculpture of a mythological chimera, but in a sense this is like Hitchcock’s MacGuffin – something sought by characters in the narrative, but not necessarily what the narrative is ‘about’. The culture of the region and the people where Rohrwacher’s narrative is set is in several different ways a ‘hybrid’ culture.

Essentially we are in a familiar territory for Rohrwacher’s films – the Tyrrhenian coastline of Tuscany and Lazio with diversions to Umbria and Switzerland. The central character is ‘Mr Arthur’ (Josh O’Connor), an Englishman whom we first meet on a train. Arthur is a character beset by memories and in particular those of Beniamina (Yile Yara Vianello – the young teenager at the centre of Corpo Celeleste, now grown up) and she in turn evokes a character from Greek mythology, pulling on a red thread that possibly signals a way out of a labyrinth. Arthur is returning to a household headed by Flora (Isabella Rossellini) a music teacher with a group of women students – I wasn’t sure if these were her daughters, her paying guests or a mix of the two. Beniamina is her lost daughter who might be dead but Flora hopes will return one day. The fourth central character is Italia (Carol Duarte), a woman acting as Flora’s maid who keeps her two children hidden from Flora and the others. Italia has a ‘hybrid family’ with children from different fathers. Her name and this hybridity appear significant. Arthur actually lives in his own lean-to on the hillside (the walls of the town?) and he has a volatile relationship with the local villagers who appreciate his special powers. The villagers are tombalari ‘tomb robbers’ and Arthur is sensitive to the presence of burial chambers underground, searching for them with a form of ‘divining rod’. The film narrative is structured as a parallel quest – the tombalari seek Etruscan grave objects which they can sell (illegally) to collectors but Arthur really seeks Beniamina. I don’t want to spoil the narrative for those who haven’t seen the film. All I will say is that if you’ve seen the earlier films you might be expecting to see Alba Rohrwacher, the director’s sister and a star of contemporary Italian cinema. You won’t be disappointed.

As well as working with her sister Alba, Alice Rohrwacher has developed a significant working relationship with Hélène Louvart the French cinematographer who has worked with Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders and many other leading filmmakers. For Rohrwacher, Louvart has worked on creating images using a variety of film formats (16mm, Super 16 and 35mm) presented in different aspect ratios within an overall 1.85:1 frame. There are some ‘undercranked’ (i.e. speeded up) sequences and a variety of colour palettes and textures. There is also a fascinating musical score and a remarkable range of intriguing locations. I especially liked a dilapidated ex-railway station. I assumed it was built as a set but Riparbella station does seem to be still in situ and if you are in the region you can catch a local ‘stopper’ from Cecina or Volterra.

What does all this add up to? I’ve seen one reference to a ‘romantic drama’ and that is certainly an element but there is so much more in the film. The narrative is set in the 1980s. As in the earlier films Rohrwacher is interested in the folkloric culture of the region which looks back to the Ertrurian history which in modern times is marked by the carnivalesque celebrations seen during the feast of Epiphany. The stealing of ‘grave objects’ is a crime and an important issue in Italy but we are complicit in identifying with the celebrants.Having said that, the gender split between the men who rob graves and the women who keep families together is clear and emphasised by the creation of women’s groups. The only interlopers into Flora’s group for instance are Arthur the Englishman and the ironically named ‘Italia’ (played by a Brazilian actor) with her two children representing different ethnicities. Rohrwacher, herself of migrant heritage from Switzerland, appears to be exploring a range of identity questions.

The romance of Arthur and Beniamina references the story of Eurydice and Orpheus. You can research that and work out how Rohrwacher engages with it – it’s a story that has inspired a long list of films. Here I’ll just note that the story in Virgil’s version also involves Aristaeus, the beekeeper. Rohrwacher’s family are also linked to beekeeping which is central to her earlier film, The Wonders. Arthur is drawn to Italia who might be a living future partner while Beniamina remains simply a memory?

Most of all, however, this is a film which I find filled with joy. It took me a little while to fully appreciate what Alice Rohrwacher had created but when it finished I felt uplifted. The film is still in a few cinemas in the UK and it is distributed by Curzon so it will soon appear on Curzon’s streaming service – and presumably other streamers as well. In these dire times in the UK for European films La chimera is unusual as an art film hit. In its first three weeks it retained a position in the Top 15 films on release and it  will go on to make well in excess of £500,000 in the UK, placing the UK and Ireland as its third best market after Italy and France (I’m estimating here based on BFI Box Office and Lumière Observatory figures). It has been seen on 80-95 screens over four weeks since 10th May. I think its success is arguably down to its appeal to women, but it should be equally attractive to men. If you get the chance do go and see it. This is real cinema!