La chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, 2023)

[Finch]

NEON bought US rights for Alice Rohrwacher's new film La Chimera with Josh O' Connor and Isabella Rossellini

[Matt]

I’m glad to know I might get a chance to see it at some point. (Fantastic shot of Josh O’Connor accompanying that article.)

[brundlefly]

La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher) – Less overtly magical realist than Lazzaro Felice, but in the same ballpark. It’s an elusive tone that Rohrwacher can pull off better than almost anybody else working today.

Trailer

[Matt]

Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera has been quietly released to VOD already. That’s great for me because it never opened anywhere near me in its brief theatrical release.

EDIT: Wow, I thought it was smart of Neon to hold its release back to ride the free wave of Josh O'Connor's publicity tour for Challengers, but it's clear to me now they just did not know how to market this at all. And who would? It's unclassifiable. The trailer I saw made it out to be some kind of looted antiquities thriller, which I suppose it is but only in the sense that Asteroid City is a sci-fi adventure or Challengers is a romantic comedy. I would have a hard time describing it to anyone, especially anyone who has not seen one of Rohrwacher's films before.

"So it's about a depressed and disgraced archaeologist," I would say, "who lives in a shack and who seems to have been romantically involved with Isabella Rossellini's missing daughter (of which she seems to have an infinite number). He sells Etruscan antiquities looted from graves he discovers with a dowsing rod to a mysterious Bond villian-like art dealer." (None of this is a spoiler by the way, not that there is really anything in the film that could be spoiled.)

Rohrwacher is making films like no one else, something like folk tales (in fact, some of the exposition in this film comes in the form of diegetically sung folk ballads) with equal doses of whimsy and sadness. Like a rougher-edged Wes Anderson (changing aspect ratios and all) who watched more Antonioni and De Sica than Truffaut. She's got the same eye for character as the Safdies (lots and lots of "real" faces here) and can just as fearlessly and effectively incorporate a Kraftwerk needle-drop over a montage sequence.

[therewillbeblus]

I hesitate to say anything about a film whose brand of strange is so singular that it can only emanate in feelings for me, but this just won't leave my brain. It's fun and funny, but all under an elegiac yet hopeful, if elliptical spirit, oscillating between magical realism and realism but always magical. I thought of Antonioni's L'Avventura a few times during my two viewings, and the second time it really clicked how, like that film, the languorous shift in the second half is very much the point. Italia's comment about eyes sobers Arthur into a differently-paced narrative - which I loved, even if the first half is just a gas. More like this, please.

[ellipsis7]

While there is an obvious nod to Fellini, with the scene of the frescoes fading when exposed to the fresh air, an image replicating similar in Fellini's ROMA, a less obvious obvious influence, cited by Rohrwacher herself on RAI 3 Radio's Hollywood Party, is INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM....

Incidentally, I caught a theatrical screening as part of the Dublin International Film Festival in February. LA CHIMERA then was released theatrically here mid May and is in fact still showing in IFI Cinemas nine weeks on - quite a remarkable feat... I also picked up the rather decent Italian BR package, sadly only Italian subs however...

[therewillbeblus]

If anything I thought the Fellini nods were less obvious than the Indiana Jones ones!

It's worth noting that the U.S. BD is apparently a BD-R, so probably worth springing for the pressed Curzon blu that comes out next week if you're region-free/B, even though its package is pretty barebones

[Aunt Peg]

This is the first Alice Rohrwacher film that underwhelmed me (saw it back in October last year). Perhaps my expectations were too high but I'm going to purchase the Curzon Blu Ray and re-watch it again.

[nicolas]

If anything I thought the Fellini nods were less obvious than the Indiana Jones ones!

It's worth noting that the U.S. BD is apparently a BD-R, so probably worth springing for the pressed Curzon blu that comes out next week if you're region-free/B, even though its package is pretty barebones

I've now got the Curzon BD and it's a very good disc. Much, much better than any of their botched Wenders BDs. The Decal / Neon BD is likely significantly worse than the Curzon.
Here are some screenshots I made: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=376512

[therewillbeblus]

My copy is arriving today! (tho I just watched it for a fourth time on a plane yesterday..)

Speaking of, the pivotal moment with the statue head reminds me of California Split’s ending meshed with La Dolce Vita’s less defined-surrender in its final moments, which just adds to its poetic but mysterious tone. I’m now comfortable declaring La Chimera as one of my favorite films

[nicolas]

My copy is arriving today! (tho I just watched it for a fourth time on a plane yesterday..)

Speaking of, the pivotal moment with the statue head reminds me of California Split’s ending meshed with La Dolce Vita’s less defined-surrender in its final moments, which just adds to its poetic but mysterious tone. I’m now comfortable declaring La Chimera as one of my favorite films

Great to hear your high praise. Can’t wait to see La chimera soon and hopefully California Split also sooner than later on a beautiful UHD release once they clear the music.

[isakorg2]

Well, hearing such good things about La Chimera, I ordered the Region 1 blu-ray. When I tried to play it I received the the unable to recognize this disc message. Was sent a second disc. Just as a test I put it in the 'ol Oppo, and it was accepted and I got copright info etc, but I planned to watch the film later, so ejected it. However, a couple of weeks later, the sat down with the missus to watch the film, but it never loaded. Glad to hear there is a Curzon disc because I really would like to see this film and so ordered it (I have a multi-region Oppo). Meanwhile, for anyone who wants to see the film, let me caution you that something's going on with Region A version. (And yes, I shall be poleaxed if problems show up for the incoming Region B.

[brundlefly]

If you're in the U.S., it will be on Hulu come 8/14.

[therewillbeblus]

Well, hearing such good things about La Chimera, I ordered the Region 1 blu-ray. When I tried to play it I received the the unable to recognize this disc message. Was sent a second disc. Just as a test I put it in the 'ol Oppo, and it was accepted and I got copright info etc, but I planned to watch the film later, so ejected it. However, a couple of weeks later, the sat down with the missus to watch the film, but it never loaded. Glad to hear there is a Curzon disc because I really would like to see this film and so ordered it (I have a multi-region Oppo). Meanwhile, for anyone who wants to see the film, let me caution you that something's going on with Region A version. (And yes, I shall be poleaxed if problems show up for the incoming Region B.

I mentioned(/warned) upthread that it’s a BD-R. I know one of my players has struggled to play those discs before too - So frustrating

[denti alligator]

I knew next to nothing going into this—and came out loving it. The ending is incredibly poignant. It resonated with me especially because I recognized the music from Monteverdi’s Orpheo, used three times earlier in the film, including near the very beginning, so I was ready for allusions to that story in the plot, which of course are all over the place. But the end really brings it to another level. Marvelous.