La chimera, which, as in English, means something like ‘the unrealisable dream’, is the latest film from Italian writer/director Alice Rohrwacher (The Wonders, Happy as Lazzaro). Her films are arthouse, in the sense that if you’re in the mood for someone blowing stuff up and escaping by speedboat while enjoying flirtatious repartee with a sexy lady, this probably won’t cut it. But if you’re in the mood for something original and woozy and riotous and wonderfully special, you will be able to fill your boots.
Arthur has a kind of superpower that enables him to locate buried loot just by coming over funny
It is set in Italy in the 1980s and stars Josh O’Connor as Arthur. Arthur is a tombarolo. That is, someone who loots ancient graves for treasures that are then sold – illegally – to the art market. (Apparently, this was a big problem in Italy in the 1980s.) He is a tall Englishman in a cream linen suit who, when we first encounter him, is dozing on a train as the glorious Tuscan landscape whizzes past. He is dreaming of a beautiful woman in a knitted halter-neck dress. Woken by the ticket collector, and indifferent to the giggling girls in his carriage, his demeanour is morose, withdrawn, with an edge of anger. What is going on with Arthur? (Or ‘Ar-Too’, as the Italians seem to pronounce it.)
He disembarks in the small town where he lives and where his fellow tombaroli – some of whom are played not by actors but by locals – greet him enthusiastically. ‘Ar-Too, Ar-Too!’ they call. Arthur has a kind of superpower that enables him to locate buried loot with a tree branch held like a water-divining tool, or just by coming over funny, so they are overjoyed to have him back. But he is not happy to see them.
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