Il caimano (film)
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| Il caimano | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Nanni Moretti |
| Produced by | Angelo Barbagallo |
| Written by | Nanni Moretti, Heindrun Schleef, Federica Pontremoli, Francesco Piccolo |
| Starring | Silvio Orlando, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca, Michele Placido, Giuliano Montaldo, Nanni Moretti |
| Music by | Franco Piersanti |
| Distributed by | Sacher Film |
| Release date(s) | 2006 |
| Running time | 112 min. |
| Language | Italian |
| IMDb profile | |
Il Caimano (English: The Caiman, referring to the caiman) is an Italian comedy-drama movie released in 2006, directed by Nanni Moretti and featuring Silvio Orlando and Margherita Buy.
Focusing on Silvio Berlusconi's vicissitudes, it was released just before the beginning of the Italian general election, 2006, in which Berlusconi lost. It has been one of the most successful films of 2006 in Italy.
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[edit] Plot
All begins with a matrimony between two young communists, under the benediction of a politic functionary and the image of Mao-Tse Tung. The bride suddenly kills the man and run away, followed by the police. This is the end of 'Cataratte', a 10-year movie projected in a cinema in honour of Bruno Bonomo (Silvio Orlando) a cockeyed film producer, who did some trash movies with his wife Paola (Margherita Buy) in the 1970s. He has also two young sons loved by him and his wife. In that show he meets one young, fair, ambitious woman that gives him the plot of a movie she wants to direct with his help.
Bruno should work about a movie dedicated to the return of Cristoforo Colombo from America, but his movie director, Franco Caspio, protests vehemently for the lack of resources and leaves the production company. So Bruno has no projects to realize.
Bruno reads, among his many troubles, the script, and finally discovers that this is inspired in Silvio Berlusconi. After some other discussions and exitations, he decides to shoot this film about Silvio Berlusconi, namely Il Caimano. In the meanwhile, he almost falls in love with the writer, but bitterly discovers that she is a lesbian, with a son 'made' in a 'journey' to the Netherlands.
The production of the film is rife with problems, including the defection of the main actor Marco Pulici (Michele Placido), but the plot of Il caimano also deals with the domestic issues between Bonomo and Paola until their final separation, despite the attentions made for their children, that were saddened by this decision.
Despite growing evidence that his film will never be completed, Bonomo decides to shoot the last scene, which shows the political nucleus behind the film: in it, Silvio Berlusconi (played by Nanni Moretti himself) enters the tribunal room to hear the ruling against him (see Legal investigations of Berlusconi), which sentences him to seven years of jail. Notwithstanding the sentence, Berlusconi/Moretti exits the tribunal while a crowd throws debris at the judges, including a Molotov cocktail.
The whole, crude scene is not only an allusion to Berlusconi's judiciary controversies, but also to his powerful ability to communicate, which (in Moretti's view) led Italian people to support him anyway despite his troublesome past.
[edit] Comments
In Moretti's words, Il caimano is not only a political film. He stated that the film deals mainly with the cultural vices of Italian people, and also the story about the dissolution of a common family. Basically, this is a movie that talks about the making of a movie, between personal and economical troubles. This was already made by Nanni Moretti at least in Aprile, and by some other authors like Francois Truffaut.
Despite the movie is meant mainly to talk about Berlusconi, the first 17 minutes are devoted only to Bruno and his troubles. The first and more important scene about the 'real Caimano history'is the fall from 'the sky' (actually the office's roof) of a bag full of money, that starts the Caimano's fortunes (with a new building project, costing 500 millions lires/day). This refers to the money that Berlusconi received to start his career as builder.
Many scenes are even more explicite. When 'Il Caimano' (no name is given for this character) enters in his offices, one day, find Guardia di Finanza that asks for the money he used. Il Caimano soon corrupted the officier, Cesari, that began one of his more trusted men.
There were even scenes with the 'real' Berlusconi, namely when he took part on a trial talking about his presents and moreover, when he began the president of UE (for six months) in July 2003, suggesting to Martin Schultz a Kapò role, and calling the European Parliament to be 'Tourists of democracy' (45-47').
There are other explicit episodes about Berlusconi, as the discussions with Indro Montanelli, the enter in politic in 1993, the building of Milano 2, the Swiss black founds and many others.
Another theme is the general money scarcity in Italian cinematographic industry. When Bruno wanted to made Colombo movie, he wanted to use as ship a simply model made by Caspio's grandson. Another phrase was a comment like 'tell me, how frequent is in Italian movie to use an helicopter (referring to Caimano's one, that is show at 22th minute)'. Franco Caspio leaved Bruno company totally amused, M. Pulici (Michele Placido) initially wanted to perform the Caimano's role, but at one time quitted the idea. One night Bruno saw a truck with a full sized Caravella. Following it he found the set of Colombo movie, with F.Caspio as director and Pulici as Colombo. This movie, former idea of Bruno, had instead Aurelio De Laurentiis as productor (with wealthy budged, see the Caravella initial discussion).
Another theme is the 'modern relations style'. All the movie is literally filled with cell-phones talks, in no less than 18 times. Cell phones talkings played so an important role in this history. Another, totally different objects playing an important role are Lego bricks. This was an aggregation element for all the family, because the parents and their sons playing together to find the pieces and built the 'astroship', until the family broke due to the strong decision made by Bruno's wife (the astroship as well was broken by their son).
This was an aggregation element for all the family, because the parents and their sons playing together to find the pieces and built the 'astroship', until the family broke due to the strong decision made by Bruno's wife (the astroship as well was broken by their son).
[edit] Trivia
- Numerous Italian film makers play minor parts in the film. These include Paolo Sorrentino, Giuliano Montaldo, Carlo Mazzacurati, Tatti Sanguinetti, Paolo Virzì and Antonello Grimaldi while actor and director Michele Placido (very famous in Italy) is one of the main characters.
