Alice Rohrwacher's new film,La Chimère, was presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, ahead of its theatrical release on December 6. Set in deepest Italy, the drama stars Josh O'Connor, Carol Duarte and Isabella Rossellini. It tells the story of Arthur, a man with the singular gift of dowsing, which he uses to help his friends plunder Etruscan tombs.
Back in his hometown on the Tyrrhenian coast, Arthur meets up with his Tombaroli gang of archaeological treasure hunters. Thanks to his gift, he helps them locate the remains of a past world buried beneath the earth. But Arthur also carries with him the void left by the memory of his lost love, Beniamina.
Alice Rohrwacher astonished us with her last appearance in the Cannes competition, Heureux Comme Lazzaro. Like Lazzaro, Arthur is a timeless character, puny and sickly-looking all the time, and his adventure seems straight out of an ancient fantasy. In this sense, La Chimera is a poetic film with a singular atmosphere, but suffers from serious pacing problems. With a third act that almost seems like too much, the film remains a beautiful escape whose meaning is sometimes unclear.
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