Rohrwacher’s direction is tactile. You can almost taste the dust in the air and feel the grit of the soil under the fingernails. She shoots on 16mm film, a choice that gives the movie a grainy, textured quality that feels like a relic of the era in which it is set. This is not a polished, digital look at the past; it is a fuzzy, nostalgic, and sometimes scratchy vision.
In the cinematic landscape of the 21st century, few directors possess the ability to weave the ethereal with the earthy quite like Alice Rohrwacher. With her 2023 film, La Chimera , the Italian auteur cements her reputation as a conjurer of stories that feel less like scripted narratives and more like half-remembered folktales whispered by the wind. Starring Josh O'Connor in a career-defining performance, La Chimera is a sun-drenched, dust-choked meditation on the past, the afterlife, and the things we dig up when we are looking for something else. La Chimera Film
At the heart of the narrative is Arthur’s relationship with Italia (Carol Duarte), Flora’s maid and a classical singer who breathes life into the musty rooms of the villa. As Arthur helps the band unearth priceless Etruscan treasures, he is pulled between two worlds: the greedy, materialistic world of the living (represented by the black market trade) and the silent, sacred world of the dead. Rohrwacher’s direction is tactile
However, Arthur is a man haunted by a profound loss. He has recently been released from prison, and his heart is anchored not in the present, but in a memory of a woman named Benedetta. He returns to a small village where he encounters a makeshift family: the chaotic, loud, and fiercely loyal band of tombaroli led by the charismatic Pirro (Vincenzo Nemolato), and a matronly local woman, Flora (an imperious Isabella Rossellini), who houses the treasures of the past in her dilapidated villa. This is not a polished, digital look at
The title, La Chimera , serves as a multifaceted metaphor. Historically, it refers to the Chimera of Arezzo, a famous Etruscan bronze statue found in the region. Mythologically, it is a fire-breathing hybrid monster. But for Arthur, the chimera is an illusion—an unattainable dream of recovering what is lost, be it a lover, a past, or a sense of self. Alice Rohrwacher has always been fascinated by the friction between modernity and tradition. In The Wonders and Happy as Lazzaro , she explored disappearing rural ways of life with a magical realist touch. In La Chimera , she turns her lens toward the ground itself.
The film’s pacing mimics the act of excavation. It is slow, deliberate, and requires patience. But just like an archaeological dig, the rewards are found in the discovery. Rohrwacher layers her frames with symbolism. She contrasts the darkness of the underground tombs—shot with a claustrophobic intimacy—with the bright, overexposed brilliance of the Italian summer above.
Crucially, Rohrwacher refuses to judge her characters. The tombaroli are criminals, desecrating graves for profit, yet