LA CHIMERA
Scen.: Alice Rohrwacher. F.: Hélène Louvart. M.: Nelly Quettier. Scgf.: Emita Frigato. Int.: Josh O’Connor (Arthur), Carol Duarte (Italia), Vincenzo Nemolato (Pirro), Lou Roy Lecollinet (Melodie), Giuliano Mantovani (Jerry), Gian Piero Capretto (Mario), Melchiorre Pala (Melchiorre), Ramona Fiorini (Fabiana). Prod.: Carlo Cresto-Dina per Tempesta, Rai Cinema, Ad Vitam Production, Amka Films Productions, RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzzera, Arte France Cinéma. Col.
Film Notes
Arthur, an English scoundrel recently released from prison, returns to a rural Tuscan town in search of Etruscan relics and a lost love. Set in Tuscany in the 1980s (wonderfully photographed by Hélène Louvart), starring Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles in two seasons of The Crown) and enriched by the presence of Isabella Rossellini, Carol Duarte and Alba Rohrwacher, Alice Rohrwacher’s new film is an oneiric descent suspended between the worlds of wakefulness and dreams, eternally poised between the ancient and the modern. “We worked with three different film formats: 35mm, which lends itself to frescoes, iconography and the large illustrations that interrupt the pages of fairy tales; Super 16mm, which has an unparalleled narrative density and a synthetic capacity that is without equal, and which manages to place us directly into the heart of the action like some sort of magical scripture; and 16mm, stolen from a small amateur camera, like pencil notes on the borders of a book. I attempted to interweave a number of very different narrative threads, like an Oriental tapestry. I attempted to play with the material of the film, slowing down, accelerating, singing, declaring and listening. Because the most important thing is, as inside of a kaleidoscope, to be able to trace through the story of one man the story of mankind, and to gather together around a film to question ourselves on what an unfortunate and funny thing, what a touching and violent thing, humanity is.” (Alice Rohrwacher).