After all the confusion, wonderment, intrigue and occasional frustration that has come from three films (and one mediocre short), there's really only one conclusion I could reach: absolutely nobody is making movies like Alice Rohrwacher right now. At this point, I've given up trying to describe the sensation that her grimy-yet-whimsical features evoke; that strange tingling of magical realism defies labelling, and that's what makes films like La Chimera so appealing.

With its narrative focus on the unethical unearthing of Etruscan artifacts, Rohrwacher takes the otherworldly antiqueness of her atmosphere and drags it directly into the text. Her ethereal vision meshes well with the blurring morality that entrenches her protagonist, and La Chimera thrives on the ceaseless allure of what's clearly a mind-deadening existence. Though the artist's recent affection for sped-up footage may remain a sore spot in her filmmaking, Rohrwacher's other bold choices of framing and editing engulf the film in this sense of undeniable singularity.

Josh O'Connor leads La Chimera with the slumped demeanour of a man defeated by life before it's even begun; he inhabits the role like the shell of the character's former self, but the consistency and vividness of his portrayal signify that this is every bit the fulfilled man we were ever going to get—the tragedy starts well before he's even mumbled his first line of surprisingly fluent Italian. As O'Connor trudges through the mucky countryside, Rohrwacher affords the actor every opportunity to display with his posture what words cannot, very fitting for a director whose own style exists beyond description.

There's something almost dreamlike in La Chimera that betrays the cheap earthiness of its inhabitants' lives. Rarely does a world so detached from conventional atmosphere feel so vividly lived-in, and much of that can be attributed to a typically Italian sense of boastful modesty. Alice Rohrwacher has long been enamoured with the melding of Italy's past and present, and La Chimera signals a nexus point that leads to something entirely new, and entirely Rohrwacher. It's not the Italy of today, nor is it the Italy of yesteryear; this is the Italy that has always been, and will never be.

2023 Ranked.

Cannes 2023.
(PREVIOUS—> ANATOMY OF A FALL.
UP NEXT... NOTHING! So ends my second ever Cannes Quest!)