La Chimera - dowsing for treasure

[Grahame]

I don't think I'm likely to go and see this film, but if it happens to appear on telly at some point it might be worth a look:

Cannes 2023 Film Review: La Chimera
Arthur Harrison (Josh O’Connor) has a special gift. With a dowsing rod in hand, he can detect buried treasure. Living in Italy, though it’s never explained why, he and a band of grave-robbers dig up Etruscan artefacts and sell them on the black market to the highest bidder.

Arthur is also a rather sad guy. Pining for a lost love we presume has died at some point in the recent past, he walks around in dirty clothes, unkempt beard and looks almost destitute. Alice Rohrwacher’s latest is a rather mystifying work, with nothing to hold onto, offering up a vague story about a vague man with a vague life and vague friends. Mystery only works if it’s alluring and grips. Here, it does neither.

Nothing sticks, nothing grabs, La Chimera (2023) is dull as a muddy puddle, with uninvolving characters, a boring storyline with a protagonist exclusively moping about for over two hours. At least Rohrwacher hired Hélène Louvart to shoot her new film. La Chimera does at least look great in an understated way.

Read the rest of the review here.