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| The Caiman | |
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| Directed by | Nanni Moretti |
| Written by | Nanni Moretti Heindrun Schleef Federica Pontremoli Francesco Piccolo |
| Produced by | Angelo Barbagallo |
| Starring | Silvio Orlando Margherita Buy Jasmine Trinca Michele Placido Giuliano Montaldo Nanni Moretti |
| Cinematography | Arnaldo Catinari |
| Music by | Franco Piersanti |
| Distributed by | Sacher Film |
Release date |
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Running time | 112 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
| Box office | $10,369,396[1] |
The Caiman (Italian:Il caimano, referring to thecaiman) is a 2006 Italiansatiricalcomedy-drama film directed byNanni Moretti and starringSilvio Orlando andMargherita Buy. Focusing onSilvio Berlusconi's vicissitudes, it was released just before the beginning of the2006 elections, in which Berlusconi lost. It was one of the most successful films of 2006 in Italy. It was entered into the2006 Cannes Film Festival.[2]
Opening with a wedding between two young Communists, officiated by a CP functionary, under the poster of Mao-Tse Tung, the bride suddenly spears the man and escapes, chased by the police. This is the end of 'Cataratte'/'Cataracts', a 10-year-old action B-movie projected in an open-air cinema in honor of Bruno Bonomo (Silvio Orlando), a cockeyed film producer, who did some trash movies starring his wife Paola (Margherita Buy) in the 1970s. He also has two young sons loved by him and his wife. During this homage, a young woman presents him the script of a movie she wants to direct with his help.
Slated to start on a project celebrating the return voyage of Columbus just after his discovery of America, Bruno is stunned when his director, Franco Caspio, quits because of the low budget. Suddenly Bruno has no projects, no financing and no leverage.
Added to his many troubles, Bruno's wife asks for a separation even though they have two sons. She wants to pursue her artistic options.
Bruno reads the offered script and realizes that it's a thinly disguised account of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian media magnate who promoted his political career through his TV stations. Knowing this could draw political and legal heat, not to mention difficulty for finding funding; but the young woman convinces Bruno to start production onThe Caiman. The film shows how secret money, slush funds and Swiss bank accounts start Il Caimano's career as a big building developer. She hopes that the film will influence voters in the elections slated for 2006.
Musing a love relationship with the writer, Bruno meets her lesbian partner and her 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 ofThe Caiman also deals with the domestic issues between Bonomo and Paola until their final separation, with the compromises made for their two sons.
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 byNanni Moretti himself) enters the tribunal room to hear the ruling against him (seeLegal 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 aMolotov 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 controversial past.
Numerous Italian film makers play minor parts in the film. These includePaolo Sorrentino,Giuliano Montaldo,Carlo Mazzacurati,Tatti Sanguinetti,Paolo Virzì andAntonello Grimaldi while actor and directorMichele Placido is one of the main characters.
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