\u201cLa Chimera\u201d\u00a0plays\u00a0like a magical realism version of the\u00a0classic\u00a0one-last-heist movie.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The core of it\u00a0ultimately\u00a0may\u00a0reveal\u00a0itself to be\u00a0somewhat familiar: Newly released from prison for his crimes,\u00a0a thief\u00a0returns\u00a0home to pull off\u00a0the big job that will finally make him and his friends\u00a0rich.\u00a0But through the dreamlike lens of Italian writer-director Alice\u00a0Rohrwacher, \u201cLa Chimera\u201d takes an\u00a0unhurried and\u00a0unpredictable path to get there. The road to\u00a0its\u00a0destination\u00a0is full of eccentric characters and languid conversations, bits of overlapping dialogue, a song here\u00a0or\u00a0a parade there.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As with\u00a02018\u2019s\u00a0charming \u201cHappy\u00a0as\u00a0Lazzaro,\u201d\u00a0Rohrwacher\u00a0tricks you into thinking her film is a\u00a0pleasingly low-key hang. In truth,\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0saying something more substantive and profound about the tug of history\u2014of centuries of culture as well as a newly lost love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Josh O\u2019Connor\u2019s Arthur\u00a0is the hangdog\u00a0robber who feels both forces pulling on him equally.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0an Englishman in rural Italy with a preternatural gift for sniffing out\u00a0hidden Etruscan artifacts that have been buried with the dead, following his instincts in a trancelike state.\u00a0The ragtag band of\u00a0tombaroli\u00a0who\u00a0wander behind him\u00a0with\u00a0great expectations\u00a0adds\u00a0to the film\u2019s vibe of percolating, playful chaos.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But\u00a0Arthur is\u00a0also\u00a0distracted by visions of Beniamina, the bewitching young woman\u00a0who\u2019s no longer in his life for reasons that eventually become clear to him.\u00a0He returns to her palatial, decaying home, where the elegant Isabella Rossellini rules over a pack of chattering, hovering young women who all call her \u201cMom,\u201d\u00a0thinking\u00a0he\u2019ll\u00a0find some solace there.\u00a0Amusingly, he does not, but Rossellini\u00a0provides\u00a0a non-nonsense\u00a0kindness, which contrasts\u00a0with the passive-aggressive way she treats her\u00a0flighty singing student\/housekeeper, Italia (Carol Duarte).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Working with cinematographer\u00a0H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Louvart, whose films include \u201cHappy as\u00a0Lazzaro\u201d and Eliza Hittman\u2019s \u201cBeach Rats\u201d and \u201cNever Rarely Sometimes Always,\u201d\u00a0Rohrwacher\u00a0bathes the film in a gauzy haze, creating the sensation\u00a0that this is all an ethereal fantasy. When we first see Arthur, he\u2019s asleep on a train;\u00a0an attendant wakes him and teasingly asks if he was dreaming,\u00a0prompting\u00a0the young women opposite him in the car to giggle.\u00a0This\u00a0unreliable vibe\u00a0permeates\u00a0\u201cLa Chimera,\u201d causing us to question always what is real, even as the stakes\u00a0ultimately become\u00a0more immediate and concrete.\u00a0Sometimes this\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0work, as in\u00a0Rohrwacher\u2019s\u00a0use of\u00a0slapsticky,\u00a0sped-up sequences, an homage to the style of silent films which feels too quirky and out of place.\u00a0Similarly, the aspect ratio often changes,\u00a0creating\u00a0an unnecessary distraction.\u00a0But for the most part, she\u00a0casts a spell.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cLa Chimera\u201d\u00a0plays\u00a0like a magical realism version of the\u00a0classic\u00a0one-last-heist movie.\u00a0\u00a0 The core of it\u00a0ultimately\u00a0may\u00a0reveal\u00a0itself to be\u00a0somewhat familiar: Newly released from prison for his crimes,\u00a0a thief\u00a0returns\u00a0home to pull off\u00a0the big job that will finally make him and his friends\u00a0rich.\u00a0But through the dreamlike lens of Italian writer-director Alice\u00a0Rohrwacher, \u201cLa Chimera\u201d takes an\u00a0unhurried and\u00a0unpredictable path to get there. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[35,33,45,44],"class_list":["post-1277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy-movies","tag-adventure","tag-comedy","tag-drama","tag-fantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}