The Caiman (2006)
(Il Caimano)
Country: IT/FR
Technical: col 113m
Director: Nanni Moretti
Cast: Silvio Orlando, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca, Michele Placido, Jerzy Stuhr
Synopsis:
A tenth-rate producer of schlock movies who has not worked for years is offered a screenplay by a young mother which turns out to be about the rise and rise of Silvio Berlusconi, culminating with his ambiguous conviction on charges of political corruption. The film focuses, however, on the unravelling of the main character's life, his political naïveté and his refusal to acknowledge the breakup of his marriage, at the same time as his old-school professional, Broadway Danny Rose-style, heart.
Review:
Alongside a few adroitly chosen and soberly realised snippets from his subject's career, Moretti appears to be saying that the very fact that it is down to Bruno to make this film speaks volumes about Italy's state of media-fashioned unconsciousness; deserted by his associates he is bailed out by Moretti himself in the curious Costa-Gavras-style ending. Elsewhere there are reminiscences of Otto e mezzo, though Moretti has done this kind of thing before in Aprile. Here he invests himself more fully in the characters, as he did in The Son's Room, and the results are strangely uneven with comedy suddenly toppling into poignancy and the broader visual flourishes sitting uneasily alongside the political exposé. 'Everyone knows all about Berlusconi already', Moretti's character says at one point, 'so what is the point in making a film?' His own answer is this meditation on the futility of such a venture in a country overtaken by indifference.
(Il Caimano)
Country: IT/FR
Technical: col 113m
Director: Nanni Moretti
Cast: Silvio Orlando, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca, Michele Placido, Jerzy Stuhr
Synopsis:
A tenth-rate producer of schlock movies who has not worked for years is offered a screenplay by a young mother which turns out to be about the rise and rise of Silvio Berlusconi, culminating with his ambiguous conviction on charges of political corruption. The film focuses, however, on the unravelling of the main character's life, his political naïveté and his refusal to acknowledge the breakup of his marriage, at the same time as his old-school professional, Broadway Danny Rose-style, heart.
Review:
Alongside a few adroitly chosen and soberly realised snippets from his subject's career, Moretti appears to be saying that the very fact that it is down to Bruno to make this film speaks volumes about Italy's state of media-fashioned unconsciousness; deserted by his associates he is bailed out by Moretti himself in the curious Costa-Gavras-style ending. Elsewhere there are reminiscences of Otto e mezzo, though Moretti has done this kind of thing before in Aprile. Here he invests himself more fully in the characters, as he did in The Son's Room, and the results are strangely uneven with comedy suddenly toppling into poignancy and the broader visual flourishes sitting uneasily alongside the political exposé. 'Everyone knows all about Berlusconi already', Moretti's character says at one point, 'so what is the point in making a film?' His own answer is this meditation on the futility of such a venture in a country overtaken by indifference.
(Il Caimano)
Country: IT/FR
Technical: col 113m
Director: Nanni Moretti
Cast: Silvio Orlando, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca, Michele Placido, Jerzy Stuhr
Synopsis:
A tenth-rate producer of schlock movies who has not worked for years is offered a screenplay by a young mother which turns out to be about the rise and rise of Silvio Berlusconi, culminating with his ambiguous conviction on charges of political corruption. The film focuses, however, on the unravelling of the main character's life, his political naïveté and his refusal to acknowledge the breakup of his marriage, at the same time as his old-school professional, Broadway Danny Rose-style, heart.
Review:
Alongside a few adroitly chosen and soberly realised snippets from his subject's career, Moretti appears to be saying that the very fact that it is down to Bruno to make this film speaks volumes about Italy's state of media-fashioned unconsciousness; deserted by his associates he is bailed out by Moretti himself in the curious Costa-Gavras-style ending. Elsewhere there are reminiscences of Otto e mezzo, though Moretti has done this kind of thing before in Aprile. Here he invests himself more fully in the characters, as he did in The Son's Room, and the results are strangely uneven with comedy suddenly toppling into poignancy and the broader visual flourishes sitting uneasily alongside the political exposé. 'Everyone knows all about Berlusconi already', Moretti's character says at one point, 'so what is the point in making a film?' His own answer is this meditation on the futility of such a venture in a country overtaken by indifference.