‘La Chimera’ Review: Alice Rohrwacher and the Archeology of Grief

There’s a suffocating layer of sadness throughout “La Chimera” (directed and written by Alice Rohrwacher) as British archaeologist Arthur (played by Josh O’Connor) lumbers through the film, mentally living in the past while barely existing in the present. He’s mourning the loss of his lover Beniamina (Yile Vianello) and is obsessed with seeing her again. We get brief glimpses of her in the past and though it’s never explicitly said, it can be assumed that she died, possibly on an archaeological expedition. Arthur still longs to be with her every day and his journey throughout the film reminded me of that line from Shakespeare’s play “Richard II”: “Grief makes one hour ten.”

Arthur’s followed by a band of ne’er-do-wells who make a living digging up the artifacts Arthur discovers. In several scenes, the group follows him around when Arthur wanders into the forest, sensing he’s on the trail of another batch of artifacts that will bring them a huge pay day. It’s a slow arduous process. This isn’t an Indiana Jones film, with exotic booby traps and cliffhanger thrills. The film gives discovering archaeological treasures as much edge-of-your-seat excitement as you’d get from a low-level Accounting job. Arthur’s allies are looking for cash but Arthur’s on an eternal quest to find some magic portal or object that will take him back to Beniamina.  Money, clothes, food, etc. have lost all meaning to him, so much so that he spends most of the film in the same worn out suit. Did he ever wash the thing?

Arthur Rather than Italia

The only joy Arthur feels is when he visits Beniamina’s elderly mother Flora (the great Isabella Rossellini), a fiery woman who dotes on him even as she torments her student/housekeeper Italia (Carol Duarte). Italia is taking singing lessons from Flora but Italia’s pitch and tone is flatter then a Kansas highway. There’s a bizarre co-dependent dynamic between Arthur, Flora and Italia where they find both comfort and suffering from each other. I found Carol Duarte’s Italia so adorable and fascinating. She’s extremely shy, awkward and clumsy, the kind of person who’d start a chain of disasters by just opening a pack of Tic Tacs. 

I wish the film had concentrated more on her than Arthur. I found Arthur totally uninteresting, not because of Josh O’Connor’s performance, but the script had a stranglehold on the character and rarely let him out of the emotional trench it put him in. Arthur has the ability to use a stick as a divining rod to find ancient buried artifacts. Once he finds a burial location, director Rohrwacher turns the camera upside down, as if the world’s suddenly gone lopsided, the visual equivalent of yelling “Eureka!”

Style Over Substance

Rohrwacher chooses style over substance throughout the film, using various odd camera angles and speeding up the film at times for no particular reason. There’s one scene where Arthur and his group are hiding and running from a contingent of police after digging up some artifacts and in the middle of the escape, the film suddenly speeds up. I suppose it was done to make the scene funny but all it did was make me think of Benny Hill’s show, where he’d end every episode chasing or being chased by a bevy of buxom scantily clad women moving at double speed.  

Those Benny Hill episodes were HILARIOUS! But these scenes in “La Chimera,” not so much. There are a couple of touching moments in the film and you definitely feel the weight of Arthur’s grief, but he’s such a dull dour character that he becomes exhausting by the film’s end. That Italia is something else, though. Can we get a sequel and follow HER story next time, please?

“La Chimera” is available to watch on most streaming networks.