You're not meant to be seen by human eyes

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 films of 2024

#13 :  La Chimera

When Greta Gerwig says that a film has made her 'euphorically happy', you’d better take note. Alice Rohrwacher’s sunbathed curio, set in ‘80s Tuscany, stars rakish man of the moment Josh O’Connor as a gifted tombaroli (tomb raider) who is mourning the loss of his girlfriend and lives hand to mouth, making money by stealing artefacts from neighbourhood land. It’s a delightful role for O’Connor, who, armed with just a filthy linen suit and a knack for speaking fluent Italian, showcases irresistible charm. Yet it’s Brazilian actor Carol Duarte as local mother Italia who gets the film’s defining moment — a dazzling, weird, freeing display of choreography that is truly captivating to behold. Around them, Rohrwacher builds a fantastical world full of off-kilter characters and strange, bucolic corners of rural Italy. Paired with one of the most sweet and sincere closing shots that you’ll see this year, you’ll find that La Chimera is simply unmissable.

This is one I'd never even heard of until I saw it in various year-end lists, but if Greta Gerwig likes it then I guess I'd better check it out. This is the second time we've seen Josh and he was great last time so I'm quite looking forward to this, even if I've no idea what to expect from it.

And having watched it, I'm not entirely sure what I got. Josh O'Connor is Arthur who has been away somewhere but come back to Tuscany and he obviously knows plenty of people, but things are very unclear to start with. Thankfully, however (at least some) details are drip fed (very slowly) throughout the film. The details are often very confusing though, because this is very much not a documentary - it has strong fantasy/mythical elements which require you to just run with them. And the ending definitely had me scratching my head - but when the internet explained it to me, it did actually make some kind of sense (within the framework of a fantasy, anyway).

A lot of the film looks beautiful - there's an interesting variety of scenery, light conditions and angles used. However, it also does some very weird things at times for no obvious reasons - speeding up the film, breaking the fourth wall, no dialogue for a couple of minutes. rotating the camera such that the film is upside down. explaining the plot through the medium of song and replacing dialogue with animal noises all make an appearance at times. And, as Empire puts it, there's also some choreography that is truly captivating to behold (although I'm not sure it's "the film's defining moment").

Josh is good in this, but it's quite an odd character to play because he's very hard to pin down. What is undoubtedly impressive (to my uncultured ears anyway) is his Italian. Apparently he learned it for the film, so I'm sure he's not exactly fluent but if he hadn't done a good job with his lines he'd have been called out on it. It's seems unusual that the next major character Italia is also played by another actor, Carol Duarte, whose first language isn't Italian - she's enduringly quirky and gives the film some much needed conscience. Considering actual Italians, this is Isabella Rossellini's second appearance on this year's list - although I'm not sure I'd have recognised her if I hadn't known she was in it. I was also surprised to recognise Vincenzo Nemolato, but had no idea where from so had to check IMDB.com to find out I saw him in Martin Eden - which is a film that I simply remember as dull.

But what did I think of this film? Hmmm - it's an interesting one. An awful lot of it makes very little sense with some peculiar stylistic decisions being made, which did result in some head scratching which was nice for a bit, but did get a bit tiresome. I also didn't like that many of the characters are either unlikeable or just confusing - a bit more balance would have been appreciated. But, I was intrigued as to where it was going to go and I do think it improved as it went on, with at some of the confusion cleared up on the journey. Although I didn't understand the ending at the time, once I'd had it explained to me I thought it was quite a well-thought out ending and it's stuck with me - it also seems like there are quite a few earlier scenes that would tie in nicely on a rewatch (which it ain't gonna get).

I don't think this is going to be a film for many, but if you like a spot of good-looking European whimsical fantasy, then you might want to consider giving it a go - it's available to stream on MUBI or to rent in all the usual places.

#14 - A very watchable film
#12 - A good film you might well hate