La Chimera

Prolific writer/director, Alice Rohrwacher brings us this 1980s-set tale of a gang of Tombaroli, petty crims who steal artefacts from Etruscan tombs to sell on the black market. Their nominal leader, Arthur, returns to his shack, barnacled onto the side of an imposing castle city somewhere Tuscany. He has been 'away' and clearly has the major hump, if his reactions to his old crew have any bearing. The one person he wants to see is Flora, the mother of his absent girlfriend. It's in this run-down mansion that we meet, Italia, a slightly hesitant, slightly careless music student of Flora. So far, so good, but after this promising start, the films sadly peters out a bit.

Josh O'Connor plays Arthur, an Englishman with a talent for dowsing archaeological sites, and he's asked to pull miserable for most of the journey. There's not much else to him and this lack of range doesn't help the film as a whole, unfortunately. Isabella Rossellini, on the other hand is fantastic in a small role, whether it's mothering Arthur or throwing a glass of water in one of her daughter's faces. When she's off screen (and it's most of the runtime) the film suffers for it. Carol Duarte is fine as Italia, though I reckon she deserved better treatment from the script - she's painted as a bit of a schemer and is certainly sidelined as the film plods on.

The film, in its focus on the theft of riches made to be seen by nobody, is really all about greed and the resulting, eventual guilt. The plot, when it ultimately gets going, sees our motley crew stumbling on 'the big find', only to be thwarted by a more serious, and possibly more dangerous, competitor. The ending is a bit of a maudlin downer, albeit, one that fits the story.

This had many elements in its favour - beautiful Tuscan vistas, oddball supporting cast, unusual topic (not many Etruscan grave robber films about), hints at peril - but the tone and pace are a bit askew, for me anyway. It's not a bad film, I just thought it wasn't quite calibrated correctly.

La Chimera is screening at UWA Somerville from Feb 26 - Mar 3 as part of the Perth Festival.

See also:

Leaving aside the obvious (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tomb Raider) there's an Italian film from 1986 called La Ragazza dei Lillá (or The Lilac Girl), directed by Flavio Mogherini, that seems thematically very close to La Chimera. I've not seen this, though, so can't recommend. On a wildly tangential tack, Romancing the Stone (1984), directed by Robert Zemeckis, was great fun and was all about the treasure.