Neon
It was almost the year of movie star Josh O’Connor. In one of the most devastating delays as a result of the SAG strike, his highly anticipated tennis film, Challengers, was pushed from its original fall release date to April 2024. (Eight whole months until we see those pro-athlete abs!) He also has a supporting role in the World War II drama Lee, which completely flew under the radar at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Then there’s the Italian film La Chimera, which received a warm reception at Cannes and was picked up by Neon. Still, presumably because of the strike, it has yet to be given a release date in the U.S.
Nevertheless, Alice Rohrwacher’s latest feature, where O’Connor plays a grieving tomb raider, has continued to make its way through the festival circuit. Whether any stateside moviegoers, save for critics and festival attendees, will be able to check out the Italian filmmaker’s latest feature before the year’s end is anyone’s guess. But just like the ancient Etrurcan sculptures unearthed in this film, La Chimera will still be just as marvelous when it is more widely released, however many months from now.
It feels appropriate that Rohrwacher would eventually make a film about archaeology, as her stories are either located in the past or play with time. From her semi-biographical film The Wonders about a family of beekeepers who reject modern living, to the time-jumping fable Happy as Lazzaro, which begins in mid-’70s with an isolated village of sharecroppers, to her Oscar-nominated short Le Pupille set during World War II, she’s able to bring a comforting dose of warmness and whimsy to bygone eras and her own Tuscan memories without ignoring the complex political and personal realties for her protagonists.