The Hidden Treasures of La Chimera | Video Essay

Throughout Rohrwacher’s work, pastoral settings are infused with magical imagery and complex moral questions; La Chimera adds to this by opening a conversation with both its own storytelling and the traditions it sits alongside. So, if La Chimera is a tomb, what ancient treasures lie inside?
Written and edited by Will Webb.
LA CHIMERA is now showing in cinemas.
Set in the 1980s, in the former Etruscian landscape of rural Italy, Arthur, a vagabond-type character, is mourning the loss of his love. A local ragtag group of graverobbers make use of his archaeological skills to find ancient tombs filled with artefacts, but Arthur uses the digs to search for a door to the afterlife, of which myths speak, where he imagines reuniting with her.
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ABOUT CURZON FILM:
Curzon Film is the film distribution label of Curzon with a strong legacy of releasing and connecting critically acclaimed films to audiences across the U.K..
Curzon film was born in 1976 with the creation of Artificial Eye film releasing - a renowned film label widely recognised for being the leading distributor for international cinema, and introducing some of the greatest film directors of all time to discerning U.K. audiences including Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, Andrei Tarkovsky and Abbas Kiarostami amongst others.
In 2006, Artificial Eye became part of Curzon. Curzon Film has released more Cannes PALME d’Or winners than any other UK distributor and is the recipient of multiple Academy Awards including Best Picture for Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which made history in 2020 by becoming the U.K.’s highest grossing foreign language film of all time. In 2017, Curzon received a BAFTA in recognition of its Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema.
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[@guest_informant]

Lazzaro makes an appearance in La Chimera. He's in the marching band :-)

[@Chinmay.P]

Such a beautiful essay. Thank you for making it :) Also lovely to see how you didn't spoil the magical ending. Just a small glimpse for the people who have already seen the film :)

[@cavalheirosa]

Great video essay, would just like to offer a little correction. Italia is not Italian. She is Brazilian, speaks with a Brazilian accent, even in Portuguese with her daughter, talks about the trees where she grew up "jacarandá, jatobá", the name Italia to me also marks that. In this small but cosmopolitan town, she doesn't explain how she arrived, just like Arthur, and I think it's intentional that Arthur and her identify with each other in this search for art (her in singing), in Italy as a foreign land but part of their nature :)

[@aliofly]

do you think she genuinely had an interest in singing, or was it just a way of getting board for herself and her children? If so she wasn't deluded and being taken advantage of by Isabella Rosselini's character, quite the opposite was going on

[@bonnacon1610]

Thank you for this thoughtful exposition of a masterpiece.

[@defnotkevin]

Great video, this really helped me process this movie in a new way

[@sergiosavini4817]

I found this Video Essay very interesting.
The themes as well as the narrative technic you emphasised really are the core of Alice's work.
In my opinion though what really stands out as a key theme in this movie is the Male/ Female spirit structural difference.
"There are things that are not made for human eyes" to me really resonate with Lacan's "Women are not wholly immersed in the symbolic order".
Rohrwacher’s identifies Roman Empire as masculine and Etruscan civilisation as feminine, but the pillars of our society comes from Romanian Empire.
I think Alice in this movie try to manifest the urgency to revitalise the feminine in our world, life, love relationships.
Maybe thats why male/female attributes are often reversed in the film: Tombaroli (tomb hunters) dress as girls for carnival and the key power figure in the movie (the art buyer) we discover to be, suddenly and with amazement, a woman (Alba Rohrwacher).

[@Rswany]

Just want to say lighting effect on the title shot is dope haha

[@barbarawillis5187]

Very well done video essay of the story in the film La Chimera. Beautiful images of the past and present.

[@luciaalbanese3668]

beautiful and very well-made video. thank you!

[@LarisaLeng]

Great video essay with beautiful writing and editing. Amazing work you've done!

[@rorytorrens7043]

Amazing film

[@melissacarter334]

This was excellent as was La Chimera ❤❤❤❤❤

[@IvanaKalezic]

Very good !