The Caiman (2006) User Reviews

"Berlusconi has already won"...

[Asa_Nisi_Masa2 · 8/10 · 20 April 2006]

Il Caimano belongs to the Nanni Moretti style of film-making that I prefer, film-making with the imaginative uniqueness, delightfully neurotic smart-ass polemic and personal flair of Palombella Rossa, as opposed to the near-documentary style of the (albeit very pleasant, but a tad too autobiographical) Aprile, or the more traditional drama of La Stanza Del Figlio. Il Caimano opens with a sequence very reminiscent of Bianca: a grotesque Communist party gathering in what looks very much like a classroom from the "Marilyn Monroe" high school featured in that surreal 1983 movie. It's a scene from "Cataracts", a B-movie produced by Bruno Bonomo (played with gusto by Moretti regular, the Neapolitan actor Silvio Orlando), responsible also for such "gems" as "Assassin Mocassins", "Maciste against Freud" and "Susy the Misogynist". Bruno is a bumbling, likable fool of a producer on the brink of professional and marital failure (Margherita Buy, a delightful 40+ Italian actress perhaps best known outside of Italy for the female lead in Ozpetek's Le Fate Ignoranti, plays his estranged wife, Paola).

One night, while settling into the lonely, make-shift bed Bruno sets up for himself in his office in the first phase of his marital separation, he is deeply struck by a screenplay a young director, Teresa, has given him in the hope of funding her first full-length feature, Il Caimano... Absurdly, Bruno decides to produce it without having read the screenplay in its entirety and more importantly, before having realised that "the caiman" of the title was none other than Berlusconi! Though this may surprise some, as Moretti himself has famously said, this movie isn't really about Berlusconi. This said, the sequences in which Bruno imagines some scenes from Teresa's movie do indeed re-enact familiar episodes in the rise to wealth and power of Italy's richest citizen, most notably the court-room scenes (at one point the Berlusconi character is accused of "going into politics in order not to go to jail"). Not to mention some real footage including Berlusconi's "joke" regarding a German member of the European Parliament being "perfect" for the role of a Nazi guard in a film (as an Italian citizen re-watching such footage makes you want to be instantly swallowed by the depths of the earth, but it's actually worth staying on the surface just to study the look of stunned, mortified, murderous embarrassment spreading onto Fini, Italy's then-vice-PM's face as his "boss" cracks the infamous "joke"!). Nanni's (as opposed to Teresa's) Il Caimano is about the creative process of an artist. It's also a disillusioned comment on a certain kind of Italian left-wing citizen that has arisen from Berlusconi's Italy, whom Nanni's cameo character in the movie describes in less than flattering terms for their spinelessness and pettiness. Artistic integrity, the power of money (not just Berlusconi's, but what wealth stands for in the creative process), and last but not least, personal and artistic success and failure are also other important themes present in the movie. Some comments on this board also include homosexuality and gay parenting as a theme of the movie, but to me these two elements were included into the story in such a matter-of-fact way, that they were no more thematic than a Julia Roberts romantic comedy is about heterosexuality.

Moretti is in top form as far as visual humour is concerned: the sequence of a gigantic suit-case-full of Italian banknotes from the 1970s falling through the ceiling and crashing onto a desk in the middle of an office, amid the earnest question: "Where did all that money come from?!", is among the most memorable of the last five years that I've seen. There's much of the trademark Moretti photographic flair in Il Caimano: a child's feet treading a sea of gawdily colourful lego pieces strewn all over a floor as if he were a fakir walking on hot coals, a group of young men and women gently swaying to Rachid Taha's infectious North African rhythms while painting the walls of the film set representing key moments in Berlusconi's life, a nocturnal scene with a reconstruction of one of Christopher Columbus's caravels "sailing" down a Roman Avenue called Cristoforo Colombo (only a Roman would know this!)… there's even a nod to Fellini in the sequences of a historic movie being filmed on a beach just outside Rome, reminiscent of Lo Sceicco Bianco both in humour and visuals… Il Caimano boasts some noteworthy performances (though I found some of the minor players a bit wooden): Teresa is played by Jasmine Trinca, a bright young star of contemporary Italian cinema, first seen playing Nanni Moretti's daughter in La Stanza del Figlio and then, to great critical acclaim, the mentally disturbed Giorgia in La Meglio Gioventù (The Best of Youth). Michele Placido, a performer I have never considered a favourite, has a ball playing the comically repulsive actor who is first cast to play Berlusconi in Teresa's movie, and is very funny in the process. Polish star Jerzy Stuhr, known to international audiences for the lead roles in Kieslowski's Three Colours: White, and Dekalog 10, plays the rich Polish producer Sturavsky, a chorus-like character who provides the bemused "foreigner's" point of view on the absurd Italian situation (an essential Nanni ingredient – in Aprile, for instance, it was a French journalist who covered that role…)

For all its delightful humour Il Caimano is also (predictably) a bitter movie, and also a deeply allegorical one (see the final sequences for instance). On whether Berlusconi will win the next elections (meaning the ones that have just passed), Nanni Moretti's cameo character prophetically says: "He has already won" – according to this movie and Nanni Moretti himself, the caiman's steady, corrosive action onto Italian culture which has been dumbed down beyond recognition, the damage he has inflicted on all aspects of life that'll take decades to mend, the opportunistic cynicism he has left as a legacy to his citizens, are battles that he has steadily been winning for the last 20 years.

A sharp, tough look at today's Italy

[stefano1488 · 8/10 · 2 April 2006]

Those familiar with Nanni Moretti know that, even when Moretti tackles political issues, he does so in such a personal, unusual way. This film is a vehement pamphlet against Berlusconi. Without going at lengths to describe the various reasons why Berlusconi is, to put it in the words of "The Economist", "unfit to lead Italy", Moretti shows the peculiar mixture of demagoguery and cynical opportunism that in his opinion are Berlusconi's hallmarks as both a businessman (before he entered politics) and a politician. Moretti seems to interpret Berlusconi as a symptom of the undoing of Italian society, its values, its way of life, an involution that he traces back to the way television (and in particular the kind of TV programmes that have been the staple of Berlusconi's televisions) has moulded Italian society and the set of tastes and values that in his opinion now prevail in among Italians. The director seems to believe that, for the moment, only a sort of personal resistance is possibile against such a disruption; the court magistrate, to some extent the main character and especially the young, inexperienced and yet talented and quietly tenacious young director, with her trust in the quality and importance of her ideas, are symbols of this resistance. A tough, difficult, dry, and yet thought-provoking film that deserves to be seen by both Italians and foreigners wanting to understand today's Italy better.

Moretti more cynical than Berlusconi

[claudethechild · 8/10 · 26 March 2006]

In this movie Moretti tells only a part of Berlusconi's story but it's enough to frighten the audience. Very simple, clear, but so strong. The grand final with Moretti playing Berlusconi is freezing, because the director can be cynical and cruel more than the president, with his good fellow smile. The prime minister changed people's mind so much that they can throw a molotov bottle against a judge, imitating the stereotype of the violent communist described by Berlusconi in his propaganda. Awesome the character of Pulici (M. Placido), typical Italian, and the Silvio Orlando's act, but I didn't like Jasmine Trinca. To me is one of the best movies of Moretti.

Good movie on a slippery topic

[votepalantine-1 · 7/10 · 13 April 2006]

First, I enjoyed this movie a lot. I loved the whole lot of film quotes and cameos of directors, including a couple of Moretti trademark takes (like the painting of the scenes while dancing). Someone could say before seeing it "Hey, here's another Michael Moore trying to turn some votes from the conservatives..." but this is TOTALLY wrong. Moretti is above all a director, and you can like him or not, but his movie is something completely different. You will continue to enjoy this movie in 20 years, while apart from some history students, I foresee no such a future for Fahrenheit 9/11... Back to "The Caiman". This is the first movie ever on such a slippery topic like our beloved Prime Minister (oh, yes, FORMER Prime Minister now...). As many readers may know, he was by far the main actor of Italian politics for nearly 15 years now, and no one dared to take a picture of the Italian society, so widely influenced by him and his TVs (good or bad, doesn't matter here). Why, you may ask? Because it's too easy to flatter or offend such a controversial guy; Moretti managed to softly skim over the whole thing, trying to take a picture of Italy in these years... Silvio Orlando's character voted for him, and he never quite criticizes him; the scenes of the would-be movie are soft, never judging, in some cases even childish. As Moretti said, the aim of the movie is not to let the people know the facts about Berlusconi; they are widely known, even by his supporters. But then it comes to an end. And here is no more softness or light. Orlando manages to have the money to shoot only the end of the movie, here Nanni is the actor interpreting the Caiman. He is impressive, bitter, sharp and his grin is something hard to forget. But, still, he is Him; freed from the restraints of physical similarities, it is the same Moretti we've seen as Botero in "Il Portaborse", only Botero now is not so fictitious or unreal. Botero has become the Caiman.

Insalata Mista

[robert-temple-1 · 7/10 · 22 March 2008]

Well, what do you make of that? 'Il Caimano' is certainly different! It has a magnificent central performance by Silvio Orlando, who makes the whole film work. He plays a man who is trying to make a film about Berlusconi, and his performance is heart-breaking and poignant, funny, compassionate, sad, desperate, all of those things, as his life unravels around him but he keeps on smiling. It is rare that an actor gets such a chance, and Orlando delivers everything which could possibly have been expected of him, and far more besides. His estranged wife is played by Margherita Buy, with just the right level of exasperation. The film is also enlivened by the charm of Jasmine Trinca, a gamine creature like a sleek young cat, and the lanky figure of a boy, who looks wonderingly around her and seems to be seeing the world for the first time. There is much less about Berlusconi in this film than one might have expected. The film is really about the film-maker. Nanni Moretti, the director, has taken a rather eccentric mixed salad approach towards the story, throwing bits of lettuce and cucumber and tomato and slices of yellow pepper in, mixing it up with a very fine dressing, and has produced a delectable feast. It may be all mixed up, but we like it. Dino Risi's 90th birthday is mentioned (he is now 92). This film has the same carefree air of Risi's 1960s classic, 'Il Surpasso'. A fair amount of political satire appears in the film, and Berlusconi is shown both in genuine TV clips and in staged scenes, where he is played by three different actors, which has the eerie effect of reminding us that he would like to be 'all things to all men', and also be 'whatever or whoever you want'. Do not all politicians want to be whoever you want them to be? 'Just love me', or failing that, 'at least elect me, but whatever you do, don't reject me'. Somehow, the strange slapdash manner of Moretti's film suits the subject. After all, Italian politics is a hundred times more chaotic than even the most peculiar film about it could ever be.

Bravo!

[Forbes500 · 7/10 · 26 May 2006]

I'd been looking forward to seeing this movie for so long I was bound to be slightly disappointed. And indeed I was. But I loved parts of it all the same. Silvio Orlando's performance as a bankrupt producer, for one, was magnificent. I thought his three or four minutes in "Aprile" were the highlight of that movie, and in "The Son's Room" he practically stole the show. So I was delighted to see Moretti giving him a leading role. Throughout the movie, you can see on his face the effect of the blows and of the suffering that have been his lot, but despite it all he's good-hearted and optimistic and enthusiastic about his work. The depiction of his growing friendship with the young director played by Trinca is also moving and natural.

And while our Italian friends may be known worldwide for their cultivation of "il dolce farniente," "Il caimano" happens to be a celebration of the joys of work. Some of its finest scenes are simply depictions of Orlando's producer talking to the people he needs to talk to get his movie made. In "The Son's Room," too, some of the best scenes involved Moretti's therapist at work, talking to his patients (one of them played by Silvio Orlando, as it happens). And now that I think about it, some of the Italian books I've been reading lately (by Primo Levi and Laura Grimaldi) also celebrate work. Strange. And here I was thinking that the only people who loved work in Europe were the Germans ("Arbeit macht frei" and all that).

Mindful of the gruesome fate of the critic in the B-movie excerpt shown at the beginning of "The Crocodile," I'll remain silent, for the most part, about the things I didn't like as much. But I still can't help wondering why our Italian friends throw such hissy fits about this former prime minister of theirs. Did his companies launder millions in ill-gotten gains? Did he corrupt the judiciary and the police and muzzle his critics? Did he make a whole generation of Italians cynics? Who cares! That's what politicians are supposed to do, isn't it? At least his government had the guts to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, and for that alone he can steal all the millions he wants!

A film about a film about Berlusconi

[maateo · 10/10 · 29 March 2006]

Shot with very sharp and uncommon intelligence, Il Caimano mixes surreal fancy together with raw and firm realism. A film that marvels for its equilibrium, that moves you and makes you think. A fearless, experimental, very personal work that potentially might be vastly criticized, far beyond the standards of the average Italian film production in terms of quality, sometimes also very funny, full of quotations by Tarantino or by earlier Italian b-movies, maybe stating that this kind of Italy itself looks like a very ugly b-movie. I'd like that Italian critics would acclaim this great movie, but I doubt it will be like this: most probably, it will be fully appreciated abroad. It might be Nanni Moretti's masterpiece. And Silvio Orlando's acting is great. Thank you, Nanni.

Self-indulgent Italian mess

[vostf · 3/10 · 27 January 2007]

I had never seen a Nanni Moretti movie previously and I was pretty curious since he is the kind of "respected author" among the European critics. Actually a bit more than respected and quite frankly a critics' darling. Knowing this I could fear a self-indulgent movie with little creativity and a bunch of private jokes for the gallery, but I was open minded and ready to be charmed by the story of a delightful raconteur.

Unfortunately this movie is a mess, depicting a bland movie producer at a loss with his professional and private life. This alone could have been the subject of a good, even very good movie (Fellini could have shot this with gusto and the necessary grandeur to make us love a pitiful character) but Moretti, maybe feeling he is on a mission to tilt on the intellectual/political side of Italian cinema, wanted to add an inconsistent background story about the project of a Berlusconi biopic.

This background - which is supposed to be the main focus of the story - never blends in with the personal story of the main character. Is there a parallel between the mid-life crisis of Bruno Bonomo and the political vacuum that brought Berlusconi to power in Italy? Nope, we never feel something of that kind. Bruno Bonomo is at a loss, maybe he wants to assert himself and then the Berlusconi biopic project lands in his life where it doesn't belong but it is very difficult to understand why he would be interested at first since he doesn't realize what the project is about. Then he is stuck with it and won't back away which only further isolates this weakened character.

With this big mess of a plot you've got long minutes to get bored, waiting for the movie to get set on a precise track. And beyond this chore trouble Moretti's directing is not worth more than a TV-stint, his vignettes about Bonomo's Z-movies are painfully ridiculous: self-indulgent, have nothing to do there except reassure Moretti that he does shoot A-movies. Almodovar did this kind of Z-movie jokes decades ago because he started his career shooting those cheap yet energetic movies on his way to polishing his skills as a wonderful director with lovely stories to tell. Almodovar doesn't even need to be branded an author, he proves it every time, even when his movies are not on a par with his best works.

I don't know what is supposed to be Moretti's best work but with what he failed to prove here I'm not too eager to get my eyes on it.

PS about Berlusconi: maybe I was expecting more of a fierce political story and it's a shame that, while bragging it is one, Il Caimano's back-story could have been about the private affairs of some Italian soccer star without changing the main story. Moretti could have been brave and have shot a movie about Berlusconi when he was elected head of the Italian government years before. Or even ten years ago when he was already Il Cavaliere riding through Italy the way he liked. Now this movie is not convincing at discussing the difficulties to make a movie about Berlusconi, let alone being a movie that deals with Berlusconi's obscure connections or about his rise to power as a demagogue opportunist.

excellent

[danielasegreto · 9/10 · 3 April 2006]

Dante Alighieri,in the thirteen century, spoke of Italy as if it were a woman. This is what he wrote: " Italia,not a provincial woman, rather a brothel". And yet so many beautiful masterpieces have been created in this shamble of a country. The problem lies in the sad awareness that over the last 50 years nothing special has been created whereas so much has been destroyed. Moretti talks of a generation, strongly influenced by Berlusconi, that has been brainwashed into stupidity, greatly via the media, owned by the above mentioned, that is not capable of seeing the reality for what it is, but only for how it is represented, by only a selection of TV channels. Any one who dares speaking differently from him or his subjects is quickly displaced and removed. Not much of a democracy, Italy has become.. No wonder Nanni Moretti doesn't seem too happy; who, in his right mind would? thank god he is only 50 and not 80. We will hopefully see more good things from him for a while.

OK comedy with surprisingly little politics

[SnorriGodhi · 4/10 · 28 October 2006]

This movie is a bit like "Aprile", except that it's not autobiographical. It is about a small-time producer, battling against personal and financial problems, who tries to make a movie about Mr.B (as I shall call Berlusconi). The idea has potential, and for about the first half, the movie is fairly entertaining, but it goes downhill from there. In the end, the personal problems of the producer degenerate into the pointless psychological sado-masochism that Woody Allen has recently inflicted upon us, and Mr.B becomes increasingly peripheral to the plot.

People hoping to learn about Italian politics from this movie will be disappointed, but it is still possible to gain a few insights. One insight I had, is that the most interesting thing about Italian political cinema is which movies are never made: Mr.B. has vastly greater resources, but he doesn't bother to make movies or documentaries critical of his opponents. He probably thinks that it would not be worth his time and money. Soon after the Left lost the 2001 elections, Moretti himself said that, with the leaders it's got, the Left is never going to win -- and he got a standing ovation at a rally (of the Left). He was too pessimistic, but at least he is a man who says out loud what he thinks.

For the record, I believe both sides of Italian politics to be about equally bad (at the time of writing), for very different reasons; but, contrary to Moretti, I don't think that Italian politics is worse that that of some other European countries. Anyway, I'll volunteer a piece of advice to the Italian Left: if you want to criticize Mr.B, make a documentary: some of the best scenes in this movie were archive footage of the real Mr.B.

By comparison to that footage, the final scene looks like a lame coda: whatever its artistic merits, this scene did not grip my attention because there is no build-up to it. Also, I believe that the end of this scene grossly overstates the effect of Mr.B's propaganda on the Italian public.

In conclusion: coming from the director of "Caro Diario", this movie is a disappointment; but it might still be worth seeing, at least the first half.

A movie on....

[giorgiogiordano · 8/10 · 25 March 2006]

A movie on (or against) Berlusconi, the media tycoon which is presently also prime minister of Italy? This is the "leit motive" in these days, at two weeks distance from the general elections. And the movie was released just yesterday... Is the movie a political propaganda one? Nanni Moretti in an interview broadcast on the same date asserts that he had no intention to make politics. Maybe! Anyhow the scene of Berlusconi at the European Congress in Brussels when he shouted "kapò" to a German delegate and refused to excuse himself or the sequence at the Criminal Court of Milano during a process for mafia connections speak for themselves. Apart from politics, the movie is on the tradition of the Moretti ones, "Caro Diario" and "La Stanza del Figlio" in particular and it is worth to be seen.

bad

[aculuspopulus · 1/10 · 21 June 2008]

*** may contain spoilers ***

In my opinion this was the worst Italian movie I ever saw in my life. The actors were not that good besides Nanni Moretti himself, the worst was Jasmine Trinca, not emotional at all and she have probably some speech disorder too. The stories about Berlusconi, maybe true or not, were in the end the main content of the movie and the main purpose of Nanni Moretti was to scratch the image of this personage. I guess to do effectively so, it's better to make a documentary about him but not a movie. The plot was boring, cursory and sometimes really dumb. I would like to see the movie of Nanni Moretti in the old style and with a better cast, there are plenty of good actors in Italy and everywhere so it is not a problem to find the right one. I saw some low budget movie too and there were by far not that bad as "Caimano" so please Nanni...you can do better...please do better.

The producer

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 4 April 2008]

Nanni Moretti, the director of "Il Caimano", is one of the most important directors working in the Italian cinema today. We have admired his previous work a lot and it was a complete surprise when this movie showed up on cable recently. The film owes much of its success to Silvio Orlando, an actor who has worked with Mr. Moretti before and is, without a doubt, one of the most accomplished actor on the scene today, as he has demonstrated in past collaboration with Mr. Moretti.

"Il Caimano" is a fine film in which one can see the talented Mr. Moretti doing impressive work. It is in a way, a tribute to the Italian cinema, past, and present and clearly demonstrates the quality behind the people that were involved in the project.

The film starts with a retrospective of the work of Bruno Bonomo, a producer of exploitation films. As he is leaving the auditorium, a young woman, holding a child, approaches him with the manuscript of a film she has written. Bruno's own life is unraveling at this point; he and his wife Paola are going through a nasty divorce. It's clear Bruno loves her and he adores his young boys.

Bruno, after reading the manuscript, decides to sell the idea for a feature film and starts assembling a production team to work on it. What starts as a product of love, ends up in being a disaster production, where everything seems to fall apart. Only at the end, when he decides to begin shooting the movie, the mood changes and we are taken to a quite different film being made with political undertones based on recent events in Italy.

Silvio Orlando is amazing as Bruno. He gives an excellent performance as the troubled producer whose life has unraveled against his best wishes. Mr. Orlando is the best excuse to watch the movie. Margherita Buy is seen in the double role of Paola, the estranged wife, and the heroine of Bruno's own action movies. They are joined by a wonderful cast, and even Mr. Moretti, who appears in the last segment of the film.

This film which hasn't been shown commercially in this country, as far as we are concerned, is worth a look because of the winning team of the director and the leading man.

Not the Moretti you'd expect

[massimobrambilla · 5/10 · 22 May 2006]

Two fore-wording items, before my comments on the movie are in order: 1) I am a liberal, left-wing, politically involved citizen, or better, what in Berlusconi's wonderland was actively defined as a "dangerous communist", a term used for everyone more progressive than Maggie Thatcher and less anti-communist than Augusto Pinochet ; also I loved Moretti's production since "Io" "sono" "un" "autarchico" and do believe that his SacherFilm is one of the few pillars sustaining high-quality cinema in Italy. 2) When this movie appeared, close to the election period, it raised a hot argument among the opponents for its alleged political content. Pointless. Oh, but we Italians cannot live without good, pointless polemics, or a juicy scandal, or some gruesome crime, possibly involving a minor and weeping relatives thereof. Here I think we're talking about a movie -like- raising hell on science research vs. animal rights because the main characters have a cute Guinea pig pet... This said, the documental and fictional content on Mr.Berlusconi is correctly defined by Moretti'character (he plays himself) in the movie as something that no one in Italy who wanted to know, does not know. Anyone who is motivated enough to read one in the plethora of books on the history and deeds of our Man of Destiny knows that even darker, more upsetting and obnoxious relations/facts sparsely punctuate his ascension to the financial and political scene; anyone who is otherwise oriented to believe his journalists and TVs will find in this movie the standard attack to the can-do, self-made, "defensor" "fidei" which can be dismissed with the usual reference to orchestrated, iconoclastic, communist hatred. I must say that the "J'accuse" against Berlusconi and the ethical degeneration of our poor Country is weak and "deja vu". From the man who managed, in just two lines, to represent the ineptitude of a political class and the discouragement of a generation ("D'Alema, dì qualcosa di sinistra... D'Alema, dì qualcosa....". Sorry, this can be understood just by Italians, I am afraid it'd take half a page to explain it to someone who didn't have the mishap to live in Italy in the 90s) I was expecting much much more... The movie is the story of a declining producer whose last chance to avoid existential and professional bankruptcy comes as the script of a movie on the Premier. Then there comes the well-known plot-over-plot concerning the making of the movie. There are a few hints on the scare that the proposal of this movie scatters on the characters coming in touch with it, but not half as effective as what "Viva Zapatero!" was able to do. The story of the producer is alas the standard "Nuovo Cinema Italiano" cliché: the marriage and existential crisis, the worries for the children, the problems on the job, the irruption of a fresh, lively, challenging feminine character (with the pale touch of lesbianism, here)... nothing that could not be found in "La "finestra di "fronte" or "Ricordati di me" or "Cuore" "sacro" (see my comments on those). Luckily we are spared the relations with the parents... Sorry Nanni, you have been dealing with much higher profiles on some of these items in "La stanza del" "figlio" and other former movies... Some of the developments are "phoned" (italian term for dead giveaway) such as the betrayal of the main actor (Placido) or the wink to the unending closeness among Orlando and Buy in the final scenes. I could not believe this from Moretti... The final scene is didascalic and ineffectively exaggerated, seems that the audience at the premiere was upset by it, but its content is not that devastating... a reference to true facts - e.g. the covered masonic "Loggia P2" to which our former premier was affiliated n.1816- would have been IMHO more to the point. I read on the TV teletext that a selectionner for the Cannes Festival stated that this movie overthrows "Fahrenheit 9/11" by Moore and will be a rage in Cannes... now, GIMME A BREAK... easy now, madam... On exiting the cinema, both sad and depressed, my companion overheard a housewife (sorry for the politically incorrect reference) asking her pal "Hey, was this movie against the Left or against the Right ?".

A machine gun movie

[fbartolom · 10/10 · 31 March 2006]

I watched the movie soon after it came out and was delighted to notice the soft touch the director succeeded in applying to so many heavy subjects: family, homosexuality, Italian current feeling, politics, balance between different powers. It seemed like the movie moved a machine gun over those different subjects without really wanting to hurt anyone, or not quite the most obvious targets. In fact women are showed as strong and hard but also a bit able to take life with a certain ease, Berlusconi itself seems like a way to attack a certain right wing politic and a way of life at all different of the one Berlusconi itself embodies.

Tha group that seems to come out without any excuse is the one of the political judges that are really left without any hope in the wonderful final sequence.

ludicrous low-flying propaganda

[matteo-cortigiani · 1/10 · 6 April 2006]

I have not seen a movie, I have seen a poisoned bulk of very low-level propaganda. Yeah, just like "Aleksandr Nevskiy" or "War and Peace" somebody could say, but Moretti is neither Sergei Eisenstein nor Sergei Bondarchuk. The film fits the slot of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine: shouting to politicians. How interesting. The actors' play is very bad, but it's a constant feature of Moretti movies. If you are not a left-winged Italianman looking for politically engaged movies, don't watch it. If you are, watch Roberto Benigni, a real artist. If you simply are a guy other than Italian, looking for Italian Movies, look elsewhere.

Sweeter, darker and more personal than it might first appear

[MOscarbradley · 8/10 · 8 April 2007]

Much touted as Moretti's 'Berlusconi' movie, (and it does end, somewhat chillingly, on the trial when the 'film-within-the-film' has taken over completely), "Il Caimano" is a sweeter, darker, more personal film than the Berlusconi tag might suggest. Indeed the infamous PM isn't really a character at all, or rather that is all he is, a character in a film script. Instead, it's all about Bruno, a director of very cheesy exploitation pictures who hasn't had a hit in years and whose marriage has also gone down the tubes who suddenly finds himself energized again when a radical young lesbian presents him with a script which turns out to be a searing indictment of Berlusconi, (well, maybe not that searing). The film is about Bruno's efforts to get the bloody thing made in a conservative Italian film industry scared of its own shadow.

It's at its best in the domestic scenes and not in the film-making parodies, (which already have been done to death), and Moretti shows a real empathy for all concerned. Bruno, in particular, is beautifully played by Silvio Orlando as a basically sad, fat, unattractive little man bemoaning his lot yet finding a kind of redemption by making the one 'serious' film of his career. When finally he is able to finance a punchy film centering on the end of the trial the film-within-the-film shifts up a gear leaving us in no doubt where Moretti's sympathies lie.

Marvellous

[greenylennon · 10/10 · 6 September 2006]

I've seen Il caimano with a group of spinsters politically dogged. It was my first Nanni Moretti film, and I fell in love with him and his cinema. Il caimano is a marvellous film, talking about a family and a dream in the Berlusconi era. Bruno Bonomo is a producer of B-movies. He's stubborn and dreamer, and one night he receives a screenplay from a girl during a film festival. This girl wants at all costs realize a film about Berlusconi, called Il caimano. Bruno doesn't understand the main character is just Berlusconi, and so he decides to please the girl preparing this film. All happens while the Bonomo family falls to pieces. Bruno Bonomo is played by Silvio Orlando, an actor present in a lot of Moretti's films, who gives a splendid performance. His wife Paola is played by Margherita Buy, the best contemporary Italian actress according to me (I'd drool for seeing her in the whole B-movie at the beginning, Cataratte), and the young director, Teresa, is played by Jasmine Trinca, a nice and quite good promise of Italian cinema, together with Silvio Muccino, Cristiana Capotondi and Riccardo Scamarcio. To complete the cast, there are Michele Placido, Jerzy Stuhr, Anna Bonaiuto, a lot of directors and he, Nanni Moretti. A marvellous film: who wants to study the Berlusconian Italy, well, he (or she) has to watch it.

Oddball Italian cinema author Nanni Moretti directs a brilliant political satire about equally eccentric Italian clod Silvio Berlusconi.

[Film_critic_Lalit_Rao · 10/10 · 30 April 2010]

A fictional film within a real film is the nicest way of finding out more about actors and directors as it demonstrates mechanisms which viewers can use to ascertain what goes into a director's mind.Although set in the milieu of show business and Machiavelian world of Italian judicial system,it is heartening to note that Italian film "Il Caimano" does not eschew an honest portrayal of family life.It is different in content and style from American/British films as not many films have made in Italy which have lampooned famous Italian political figures.This is the reason why American films about American presidents are appreciated not only in USA but all over the world."Il Caimano" also works as an effective satire and a good work of entertainment.This is why it has been labeled as one of the most accessible Nanni Moretti films both by critics as well as by cinema audiences.This is a film which reinforces audiences' belief in what a good cinema should aspire to be.This is one of the main reasons why it has to be branded as one of the most influential films made by eccentric Italian actor/director Nanni Moretti.Il Caimano is not a political film per Se but a modest film about a famous Italian political figure whose unethical decisions and bizarre behavior has brought a lot of disrepute to Italian people. Nanni Moretti succeeds nicely in retaining film d'auteur status for this film.Nanni Moretti as an actor is equally effective as he does appropriate justice to his role.Il Caimano is a great film which gives a clear idea of what has been happening in Italy to admirers of Italy wherever they might be.

Oddball Italian cinema author Nanni Moretti has directed a brilliant political satire about equally eccentric Italian clod Silvio Berlusconi.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 7 August 2014]

A fictional film within a real film is the nicest way of finding out more about actors and directors as it demonstrates mechanisms which viewers can use to ascertain what goes into a director's mind.Although set in the milieu of show business and Machiavelian world of Italian judicial system,it is heartening to note that Italian film "Il Caimano" does not eschew an honest portrayal of family life.It is different in content and style from American/British films as not many films have made in Italy which have lampooned famous Italian political figures.This is the reason why American films about American presidents are appreciated not only in USA but all over the world."Il Caimano" also works as an effective satire and a good work of entertainment.This is why it has been labeled as one of the most accessible Nanni Moretti films both by critics as well as by cinema audiences.This is a film which reinforces audiences' belief in what a good cinema should aspire to be.This is one of the main reasons why it has to be branded as one of the most influential films made by eccentric Italian actor/director Nanni Moretti.Il Caimano is not a political film per Se but a modest film about a famous Italian political figure whose unethical decisions and bizarre behavior has brought a lot of disrepute to Italian people. Nanni Moretti succeeds nicely in retaining film d'auteur status for this film.Nanni Moretti as an actor is equally effective as he does appropriate justice to his role.Il Caimano is a great film which gives a clear idea of what has been happening in Italy to admirers of Italy wherever they might be.

AMAZING TO PLAY TWO PARTS IN THIS MOVIE!!!

[pierluigipietroniro · 10/10 · 25 January 2020]

I was in this amazing movie as musician (violinist) for the Franco Piersanti's soundtracks and as actor: I was at my seat as I violin co-solist of the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra that play in the scene of the concert. It was amazing to be on the stage (where we play many and many times) that this time was the Moretti's set for "Il caimano".

Many layers, all handled wonderfully.

[andrea-prodan · 9/10 · 26 June 2021]

Funny when it has to be; bitter too. Even strangely touching (a trait not often seen in Moretti's work)...'Il Caimano' is to date maybe Nanni M's best film.

Who will take on a slippery, foxy and downright scary adversary of free-thinkers (and of The People!), a true 'wolf in sheep's clothing' like Silvio Berlusconi???

SUPERNANNI will!

How??

A Comedy? Too superficial.

A Tragedy? Too dense and unsavoury.

A Documentary? Watch out for reprisals legally!!!

So Moretti comes up with the brilliant ruse of a film within a film.... peppered with a bit of all three of the above.

And the Producer makes 'b' movies! ( A sly comment on Nanni M's behalf about the new, tacky, panorama that years of Berlusconi rule has inflicted on Italy).

So...is this a Political film?

It is much more. It's a film about courageous 'little' people too. Silvio Orlando's warm-hearted, stubborn, childlike Producer, Jasmine Trinka's fresh, idealist, dignified young writer-director; BOTH are parents....with complicated family situations to solve despite the all-absorbing tasks of Pre-Production of their film project.

If Truffaut gave us 'Day For Night', then Moretti gives us this gem, and throws in a sharp socio-political análisis of the Evils of Neo-Liberal politics. A place where....just like the Caiman (Crocodile) of the title, we are invited to meet the Devil himself. A beast with a 'gift for the gab', and Crocodile tears, albeit smiling all along. Silvio Berlusconi... played by three very different actors.

Chilling.

Brilliant.

Wow

[gianmarcoronconi · 9/10 · 18 September 2023]

This is not a real review, it should be taken more as a collection of impressions on the film.

This film is beautiful and it's not even really a film about Berlusconi, it's a film about people who want to make a film about him and all their private and public adventures told in a perfect way. The film is very entertaining both thanks to the story of Berlusconi's life, a story done in bits and pieces and which tells little about his life, and for the much better story of the life of the producer of the film about him. The film is also dotted with beautiful performances by the actors which greatly enrich this already beautiful film.