La Chimera · reception & legacy
2023 · Alice Rohrwacher
How La Chimera has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
It left Cannes 2023 empty-handed in a jury decision critics immediately called a snub, then slow-burned through its 2024 US release into year-end top-tens and 'best of the decade so far' conversations.
What's debated
The perennial fan debate is whether it or Happy as Lazzarro is Rohrwacher's masterpiece — with a side dispute between those enchanted by its drifting, digressive rhythm and those who find it shapeless.
Its footprint
Josh O'Connor's increasingly filthy white linen suit became a Letterboxd and film-Twitter icon, and the film rode the 2024 'year of Josh O'Connor' wave alongside Challengers into far wider cult circulation than a typical arthouse release.
Where it stands
A Letterboxd darling and rapid canon climber — already treated as a 'you must see this' entry point to Rohrwacher and one of the 2020s' consensus arthouse touchstones.