‘La Chimera’ Review: Josh O’Connor Digs Into Italy’s Past In Alice Rohrwacher’s Splendid And Mysterious New Drama – Cannes Film Festival

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor In NewsNation, New York City isn’t the de facto location for a morning-news program. On Monday, the Nexstar Media-backed cable-news outlet expands its Chicago-based “Morning in America” to four hours and adds Markie Martin, formerly the network’s Dallas correspondent, as a co-anchor alongside Adrienne Bankert. There is some precedent for such a format. Robin Meade succeeded at it for 20 years by holding forth from Atlanta on behalf of HLN. Her program, “Morning Express,” was canceled earlier this year by Warner Bros. Discovery in a cost-cutting maneuver. “I grew up in small-town Oklahoma, and often felt that national news networks catered more toward big-city lives,” says Martin in a recent interview. “I think our content lines up with what every American cares about on a daily basis.” Martin arrived in the Windy City for her new assignment just about a week ago, and was in need of furniture for her new apartment.

Curzon CEO Philip Knatchbull today said that he plans to leave the company after 17 years in post. He will remain in the role until November when a new CEO is expected to be in place.

Jenna Ortega joined some of this year’s most influential comedic actresses. Alongside Elle Fanning, Natasha Lyonne, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Ayo Edebiri and Devery Jacobs, Ortega sat at The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Comedy Actress Emmy Roundtable.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera,” in which “The Crown” star Josh O’Connor plays a British archeologist named Arthur who gets involved in an international network of stolen Etruscan artifacts during the 1980s, has sold worldwide after premiering positively in Cannes. The Match Factory has inked deals for the film in the U.K. and Ireland (Curzon); Australia and New Zealand (Palace Entertainement); Benelux (September Film); Germany (Piffl Medien); Hong Kong (Edko);  Spain (Elastica); South Korea (M&M International); China (Jetsen); Japan (Bitters End); Taiwan (Swallow Wings); Austria (Stadtkino); Baltics (A-One); Bulgaria (Art Fest); CIS (Mauris Film); Czech Republic & Slovakia (Aerofilms); Finland (B-Film); Denmark (Filmbazar); Former Yugoslavia (MCF): Greece (Cinobo); Hungary (Cirko); Middle East and North Africa (Moving Turtle); Poland (Aurora Films); Portugal (Midas); Romania (Independenta); Singapore (Anticipate Pictures); Thailand (Documentary Club); and Ukraine (Arthouse Traffic). 

Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s latest pic La Chimera has inked a series of international deals for The Match Factory following its well-received debut at last month’s Cannes Film Festival.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix has announced production of “Rhythm + Flow Italy” following the launches of the hip hop music competition in the U.S. and France. The groundbreaking talent show that follows and nurtures aspiring rappers will be produced in Italy by Fremantle and feature Italian rappers Fabri Fibra, Geolier and Rose Villain in search of local artists that will make their mark on the Italian rap scene.  “Rhythm + Flow Italy” – which stands as testament to how Italy’s hip hop producers and artists have been pushing the boundaries of the genre and made Italy one of Europe’s largest hip hop markets – will be an 8-episode series available on Netflix in 2024.

Netflix has announced the release date of Black Mirror season six, including the titles of five new episodes.

Love Island's Ella Thomas, a striking model from Glasgow, has unveiled a surprising connection to a prominent Hollywood star and high-profile rap artists. At just 23 years old, Ella has already amassed accolades for her successful modelling career and is well-versed in strutting down the catwalk.

A Castle Douglas technology charity is eyeing up expansion plans after experiencing high demand for a new service.

Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera” flits between languages (English, Italian, French, German) as fluidly as it does mediums (35mm, Super16mm, and 16mm cinematography) and styles (jerkily sped up Chaplin-esque scenes, clinical CCTV footage, audacious 180-degree camera flips). Rohrwacher uses this mosaic of disparate approaches to hone in on other kinds of incongruous and unpredictable interplay: modern Italy and its ancient past, heartbreak and new love, and the real world and its spiritual mirror realm.

Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera absolutely charmed the Cannes Film Festival audience at its world premiere in competition this afternoon, receiving a 9-minute standing ovation inside the Palais’ Lumière theater. For those keeping score, that ties for the longest of this year’s event with Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon which played out of competition.

Guy Lodge Film Critic In “La Chimera,” the ancient past nestles mere inches below the surface of the present, eventually breaking above ground and disrupting, if not the space-time continuum, the more mundane order of things. The borders between life and death feel similarly frictious and permeable, as if we could merely visit one from the other, as easily as sleeping and waking. Arthur (Josh O’Connor), the wandering Brit at the center of Alice Rohrwacher’s marvelously supple and sinuous new film, is accustomed to such limbo states. So are admirers of Rohrwacher’s filmmaking, which, in this eccentric, romantic tale of competing grave-robbers in Central Italy, touches the transcendental without diving into the outright fabulism of 2018’s “Happy as Lazzaro.”

In less than 10 years, Alice Rohrwacher has carved out a formidable reputation for herself, notably by gatecrashing the boys’ club that is traditionally the Cannes competition, and the fact that she did so in 2014 with only her second film, The Wonders, is further proof of a distinctive talent. One competition slot doesn’t guarantee another, yet Rohrwacher was back in 2018 with the follow-up, Happy as Lazzaro. Both films won prizes — Grand Prix and Best Screenplay, respectively — which means that expectations are high for the Oscar-nominated 41-year-old Italian, whose new film, La chimera, makes it three in a row.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s RAI Cinema, which has four titles in this year’s Cannes selection, has closed a deal on Ron Howard’s next movie “Origin of Species,” a hot project at the Cannes market starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Ana de Armas, Jude Law and Alicia Vikander. RAI Cinema chief Paolo Del Brocco said the company – which is the film arm of Italian state broadcaster RAI – has teamed up with Rome-based Lucisano Media Group to acquire Italian rights from CAA Media Finance on Howard’s survival thriller penned by Noah Pink (“Tetris”) about a a group of eclectics who turn their backs on civilization and head to the Galapagos. In Cannes, RAI Cinema also picked up Italian rights from Gaumont on family movie “Moon The Panda,” by French humans and animals adventures specialist Gilles de Maistre, known for “Mia and the White Lion”and “The Wolf and the Lion.” De Maistre’s latest, about the friendship between a boy and a panda, is set to shoot later this month in China’s Sichuan mountains.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “Euphoria” actor Jacob Elordi and Zachary Quinto star in “He Went That Way,” a film based on the wacky true story of a celebrity animal trainer (Quinto) and his TV chimp Spanky, who spent three days with a serial killer (Elordi) in 1964. While some press reports have described the film as a queer project, Quinto tells me we won’t be seeing him and Elordi steam up the screen: “I wouldn’t say it’s an overtly queer story, but I will say that there are undertones of both emotional and physical tension between these two characters.” The actors became close during filming. “We talked a lot about his desire to do theater,” Quinto recalls. “I was like, ‘Go do a play in London. Go do a play in New York. That’s where you really cut your teeth.’ I’m sure we’ll see him onstage at some point.”

Hand in hand! Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes continued to fuel reconciliation speculation with an outing in New York City.

Fresh off the debut of “Firebrand,” it appears that acclaimed filmmaker Karim Aïnouz has already lined up his next film, “Rosebushpruning.” And as you might expect, he’s already landed an incredible cast to lead the feature. According to The Match Factory and MUBI, Karim Aïnouz’s next film will be titled “Rosebushpruning,” and it will be a remake of the classic Italian film, “Fists in the Pocket.” Exact details about the plot are unknown, but if it follows ‘Fists,’ which was directed by Marco Bellocchio, the film will tell the story of a family dealing with various medical conditions and the effect it has on their relationships.

Kristen Stewart, Josh O’Connor and Elle Fanning are to lead The Match Factory and Mubi’s Rosebushpruning from Firebrand director Karim Aïnouz.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Lovers of ’80s music in the synth-pop and post-punk genres rejoiced Saturday as a stuffed roster including Iggy Pop, Gang of Four, Love and Rockets, Echo and the Bunnymen and the Human League performed at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena. The festival had an unexpected second evening of performances on Sunday after lightning cut short Saturday night’s show before Siouxsie was able to play. It’s not an easy job to give the faithful fans what they want while avoiding sounding like a Totally ’80s greatest hits sampler. Most of the attendees had four decades of hearing these bands under their studded belts, recognizing many of the songs from the very first jangly chord. Though many of the acts have released new music in the ensuing 40 or so years, the audience wasn’t really there to make new discoveries, and the bands obliged with tight sets heavy on MTV staples.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Alice Rohrwacher is in the Cannes competition for the third time with “La Chimera,” in which “The Crown” star Josh O’Connor plays a young British archeologist named Arthur who gets involved in an international network of stolen Etruscan artifacts during the 1980s. For Rohrwacher, the film is connected to growing up in Umbria, once the center of the Etruscan civilization. But it’s also the final piece of a triptych on a territory that she started with her previous Cannes entries: “The Wonders” and “Happy as Lazzaro.” Three works that, as she has put it, pose a central question: “What to do with the past?”