There is a moment in Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera where the frame seems to breathe. The grainy, shifting ratio of 16mm film expands into widescreen, then collapses back again. It feels like a heartbeat, or perhaps a gasp. This is the rhythm of the film itself: a suspended animation between the world of the living and the world of the dead, between the grime of the Tuscan soil and the golden perfection of the Etruscan afterlife.
that discusses the film's visual language and its "red thread" symbolism. At the Movies: La Chimera " : A feature by Michael Wood in the London Review of Books La Chimera
La Chimera feels like a dream you wake from and immediately try to return to. Rohrwacher uses time strangely. Characters pause mid-sentence. The world tilts. The score (by the experimental group La Tarma ) blends whistles, industrial clangs, and folk songs. There is a moment in Alice Rohrwacher’s La
: Unlike his companions, who seek material wealth, Arthur is driven by a desire to find his lost love, Beniamina, whom he believes is waiting for him in the afterlife. The Guardian 2. Etymology and Symbolism The title "La Chimera" carries multiple layers of meaning: The Hidden Treasures of La Chimera - Video Essay This is the rhythm of the film itself:
La Chimera offers a unique glimpse into the lives of the Etruscan people, who are often shrouded in mystery. The tomb provides valuable information about their:
But there is a moral weight here. The film asks a difficult question: Can you love the past while destroying it? Arthur respects the dead; he takes off his shoes before entering a tomb. Yet he is a conduit for the desecration of their rest. The black market dealer (Isabella Rossellini, fierce and regal) buys the stolen artifacts to adorn the walls of the wealthy, severing the objects from their souls.
In Greek myth, the Chimera was a fire-breathing monster—a hybrid of lion, goat, and serpent. To chase the chimera came to mean pursuing an impossible dream, a fantasy that could never be caught. Rohrwacher’s film plays beautifully with this double meaning. On one level, the “chimeras” are the illicit Etruscan artifacts the tombaroli sell on the black market: beautiful, stolen fragments of a lost world. On another, deeper level, the chimera is Arthur’s lost love, Beniamina. She is gone. He knows this rationally. But his entire being refuses to accept it.
