“The Chimera”, “The Boy of God” and five other films from today in cinemas

Seven will be shown from today (28.03.2024) at the start of the new program of the week. “The Chimera” and “The Boy of God”, are the two who have stood out while the “Fights for Glory: Audi vs Lancia” and “Gojila x Kong: The New Empire” is addressed to their own public. Premiere make today, Thursday, seven new films with three of them being Italian. “The Chimera” by Alice Rorvacher and “The Boy of God” by veteran Marco Belocio, have moved more interest. The film “Dresde dolls” of Greek-German production will also premiere on the big screen while the cinema halls will be filled by a fan of the films “Game for Glory: Audi vs Lancia” and “Gojilla x Kong: The New Empire”, for obvious reasons. Chimera Dramatic comedy of 2023, directed by Alice Rorvacher, with Josh O’Connor, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato, Isabella Rosellini etc. Reiterating her favorite thematic on the melancholic depiction of the province’s stalemates and faithfully following the style she displayed in the films “The Wonders” and “Happy Lazarus”, Alice Rorvacher, if anything, succeeds in making an atmospheric film, where realism highlights the magic of the Italian South. And this does so with minor twists during the storytelling—interferences from carnival events, feasts and music—and an interesting story with familiar characters. In the 1980 ’ s in the Italian South, where he was plagued by the ancient cave, an alfroiskioti and impoverished young Englishman, along with a group of lovelies of the region, seek and dig up antiquities, wanting to trade their country’s glorious past, to get rich quickly and easily. However, the concern of the young tortured Englishman is the search for beauty and love in the face of a girl, the afterlife and death, a dream memory, in the shadow of a Chimera. The film is haunted by the past, by the mother figure of the unrecognizable but imposing— Isabella Rossellini, who waits in vain for her missing daughter in her fallen mansion, even the skeletons – and allegorically – waiting for the young grave robbers to be revealed. It is no coincidence that the film is filmed on 35mm film and 16th for the dream scenes, highlighting a retro mood. Rorvacher, discreetly comments on relations, money, the pursuit of unrealized dreams, beauty, love and death, with cultural elements of the past, the living language and the decisive contribution of traditional music. And standing reverentially, one would say, in carefree life, naivety, exploitation of archaeological treasures, but also consciousness for their protection. Convincing the interpretations, although the original figures of the Sicilian countryside win the impressions, marking the aesthetics of the film, which participated in the competition section of the Cannes Festival. A few words… In a small city of Italy that is in ruins, for the “tombaroli” – the ancient cavemen – Chimera means redemption from work and dreams of easy wealth. For Arthur Chimera looks like the woman she lost, Beniamina. To find her, it causes the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth seeking the door to the afterlife that myths speak of. The Boy of God (Rapito) Historical drama of the era, Italian production of 2023, directed by Marco Belocio, with Fausto Russo Alesi, Paolo Pierobon, Anea Sala, Barbara Ronki, Filippo Timi, Leonardo Maltese etc. Veteran Marco Belocio, having behind him an important route to political Italian cinema, continues to oppose power and above all – once again – the Roman Catholic Church. In this I see the heavy, baroque drama of the time, will take us to the mid-19th century, inspired by true events, as recorded in Daniele Skalise’s book “Il Caso Mortara”, to highlight the timeless mechanisms of the Roman Catholic Church and its incurable faith in its power and expansive disposition. The story today seems incredible and this immediately reveals the goals of atheist Belocio, who may have “softened” politically, but is always ready to flex for the higher and of course upper steps of the Catholic Church. Belocio and Susanna Maciareli’s script takes us to Bologna in 1858 and to a middle-class Jewish family, from which their six-year-old child Edgardo is violently abducted by the local inquisitor, on the grounds that one of their maids, who saw the children’s parents praying above him piously with the Jewish ritual, wanted to “save him”, baptizing him secretly “delivering him” to the Roman Catholic doctrine. The little boy is transferred to Rome, away from all religious parents, to be literate with Roman Catholic authorities, to a special papal boarding school, while his desperate parents are in vain trying to bring it to them in every way. The issue will take dimensions, and the all-powerful and influential pope Pius IX will want to take advantage of the story, ” hugging” the child, who has now begun to doubt his roots and his own and begins to succumb to brainwashing. Beloccio, who is not in the same form as he was in his four-year-old gangster drama “The Traitor”, will not focus, both on family drama and emotional transitions from the psychological oppression suffered by the child, which we will see ten years older, without knowing what has happened in these years exactly. Of course, the Italian director indirectly has shown – almost ejected – the attempt to exploit history from the leadership of the local Jewish community, in an attempt to save whatever rights it has in Italy, without being really interested in saving the child. An indifference also observed by the social circle, Justice or even among the rebels against Papal power. The Italian director, almost obsessively, will target the Catholic Church, the authority of the sadist pope. For Belocius there are no responsibilities or at least one reason for sympathy or understanding for the lower clergy or some Catholics who did not embrace the religious fundamentalism of the papacy. In this outburst, against the Roman Catholic Church, Belocchio creates an evocative atmosphere, with baroque aesthetics, lighting that follow the visual style of the era—the school of Bologna, with the intense caaroscuro, rendering the grim element of the sterile Catholic Church and the labyrinths of its power. There, however, where Belocio is not doing so well, he is in the narrative, as he sometimes shows fragmentary, as if he is losing the sense of his thoughts, elsewhere he is lengthening for no particular reason and elsewhere he is strongly elliptical, while he is not so convinced when the hour of the dream scene comes, Crucified in the eyes of little Engardo. Belocio, attempts to offer a robust historical drama, for the Roman Catholic Church and its violent behavior and tactics, the drowning of every different voice, its extreme sectarianism, its expansionist mechanisms and its incredible hypocrisy. The problem is that without being in the spirit of a Buniel, Belocio gives a picture of the ridicule of the Church, but it is not certain that he has planned it and this is sometimes a problem that undermines the film. The interpretations with their ups and downs, with Paolo Pierobone, in the role of the Pope, not to be too convincing, unlike the little Onea Sala, who enslaves you with his melancholy and full of question marks, for a world he cannot understand. 1858, in the Jewish district of Bologna. The pope’s soldiers suddenly invade the house of the Mortara family by order of the cardinal to take Edgardo, the seven-year-old son of the Mortaras. The reason? A testimony that the child had been baptized as a Christian secretly by a servant when he was a baby, a treaty for which the papal law is vertical: the child must be removed from his other religious family and raised with universal education. Race for Glory: Audi vs Lancia (Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia) Dramatic adventure, Italian and international co-production of 2023, directed by Stefano Mordini, with Ricardo Skamarcho, Daniel Brulle, Haley Bennett, Folker Bruch etc. No, his film, unknown in Greece, Stefano Mordini is not about the legendary Lancia Delta Intergrale, but the original model 037, the last rear race car to win the rally championship. And together, you would say, an indirect answer from the Italians to “Contra in Everything”, with Christian Bale, Matt Damon, about the Ford-Ferrari dispute we saw about five years ago. The film, which could be described as an “economic” version in front of the Hollywood beasts (last year we also had the film “Ferrari”, by the hand Michael Mann), will certainly be enjoyed by the enthusiasts of rally, sports cars and especially the lovers of the Italian firm, with the scenes of racing, engine melodies, crazy gas. However, for the rest of the film is of limited interest, as, in addition to some mocking “tips” for the Germans of Audi and a subsidiary of Volkswagen’s huge group, it brings to mind more like a carefully designed telefilm. The story concerns the 1983 rally championship, when Lancia (FIAT’s group) wants to challenge Audi’s dominance, which has already applied the quadricycle with Quattro, giving wings to her cars and especially to the dirt roads, where most of the races are held. Lancia’s racing director Cesare Fiorio, without having the funding of the Germans and the time to move the four moves on his cars, will do anything to win the league, exploiting his powerful engines, the light body, Italian “holds”, to “work” not a few times on his opponents and to trust his wonderful drivers. The film loosely records the real story and focuses almost entirely on Firio’s personality. The opposite side, that of Audi’s team and Walter Rell’s rival, yet another great figure of rally racing, will have the role of additional, as the director fully ignores their own anxieties, their operating mechanisms, their potential intrigues. So, beyond adrenaline and a not-so-enlightening approach to Firio’s personality, there are few thrills offered by Mordini’s film, unlike those that generously give a rally championship. Just satisfying the sympathetic Skamarcho, who seems to have not had time to work on the character of Firio, while the other interpretations were almost indifferent. A few words… The 1983 World rally championship will not be the same as everything else. And that’s because Lancia wants to challenge Audi’s dominance, even with movement only on two wheels, in an unlikely race of speed and nerve strength reminiscent of David and Goliath. Dramatic film, Greek-German production of 2023, directed by Alexis Tsafas, with Christina Sotiri, Alexia Beziki, George Glastra, Sotiris Psaltidis, Akyla Karazis etc. After eight years of absence, Alexis Tsafas returns to the film scene, with a film about women’s rights, choosing an activist film approach. The director of interest “Mindello – Behind the Horizon”, raises such timeless issues as those of the struggle for the liberation of the female body and self-determination, but also the topical issue of adoption by same-sex couples. Two women, Anna, an unconventional journalist who lives in Thessaloniki and Lofilia, a pioneering artist from Dresden, who causes noise with every presentation of her works, come close after a random encounter. Their passionate love relationship will find them at a defining moment in their lives. Trying to find true happiness will reflect on their history, part of a larger picture, involving many women. Chafas will also be able to make a film about memory, with his history going through art and life, composing the staff with the collective, entering the streets that remind us of the long course of women’s oppression and even more of the persecutions of same-sex couples, from the time of Nazism, to reach today and the psychoism of his heroines. Despite his good intentions, the director will fall into the trap of pompous writing, while the film begins to murmur and narratively, especially when the indestructible chatter about art appears. If we add to them the lack of dramatic climax, which would convey the basic emotion, but also the at least pale interpretations, we easily understand that yet another effort, starting with the best of intentions, is undermined by the well-known pathogenies of Greek cinema. A few words… Anna is a new unconventional journalist who lives in Thessaloniki. The one born in Dresden Lofilia is a painter who with her heretical lifestyle and art impresses and provokes. The random encounter of the two women will soon develop into a deep romantic relationship with the prospect of family creation. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) A spectacle of the spectacle, at a monstrous summit meeting, where the almighty King Kong joins forces with the horrifying Godzilla, against an unexplored colossal threat, which endangers their existence, but also the whole world. Adventure of fiction, American production 2024, directed by Adam Wingard, who had also filmed the previous film, “Gojila VS Kong”, which was only aired through a well-known platform. This is the 38th film appearance for Godzilla and 13th for King Kong, and mainly fifth chapter of Monster Verse. A film, which is certainly fun through its exaggerations, but nothing more. Brian Tyree Henry, Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens etc. Baghead: The Witch of the Dead (Baghead) Particularly dark horror film, German and British production 2023, in Alberto Coredor’s directorial debut. Filmed for most of its famous and state-of-the-art Babelsber studios, the film features some suggestive scenes, a good initial idea, but also all the familiar features of the genre, which may satisfy the multiplex audience. After her father’s death, Iris learns that she has inherited a ruined old pub. She travels to Berlin, accepts her legacy and binds inextricably to an unspeakable entity, residing in the pub basement, Baghead – a creature that changes shape and can be transformed into a dead one. With Freya Alan, Jeremy Irvin, Ruby Parker, etc. Elina Psykou’s widely discussed documentary, which explores physical autonomy, in a Europe that is allowed to travel, work and consume freely, but not live or die as you wish, tests its fate to the wider public. Robin’s pregnant, but she doesn’t want to be a mother. Katerina wants to, but she can’t. Kiki just wants to die with dignity. But abortion, in vitro fertilization and euthanasia are not legal in their countries. Three different women’s stories, seen with humor, but also harsh realism, that break stereotypes and cause fruitful discussions, as the director hopes.