Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:53 pm 
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ELIO DE CAPITANI IN THE CAYMAN/IL CAIMANO

Too many good things

The new movie by popular Italian leftist filmmaker Nanni Moretti (whose The Son's Room was much admired by US art house audiences) is new only to us. It opened over a year ago in Italy, and that long a lag is crucial in politics -- long enough for Romano Prodi to have replaced Silvio Berlusconi as Italy's prime minister. Il caimano is, however diffusely, a political satire, an "attack" on Berlusconi, notably providing an overview of his dubious practices -- the way he used to hide ownership of multiple companies, his gradual domination of Italian media long before he became president, his manipulation of the judiciary, and much more. What is a "caimano," a "cayman"? A kind of crocodile: a reptile, large and dangerous, with a long mouth full of teeth to devour its victims. A rapacious creature. Berlusconi is waiting in the wings to leap back into power if the center-left coalition fails, as it recently temporarily did. Hence though there have been big changes, Il caimano's theme is not stale.

In various forms, Berlusconi plays an important role in the movie -- and played a tremendous role in its promotion in Italy, as did studious secrecy about who would play him and what role Moretti himself would play. Not only does the film include footage of Berlusconi in person uttering some of his most flagrant public remarks, notably his likening European Parliament member Martin Schultz to a "Nazi kapo," but there are three actors portraying him. Perhaps to take the bulk of the flack, the final climactic Berlusconi-surrogate scenes star Nanni Moretti himself. In these, Berlusconi is sentenced to seven years in prison for various crimes but is cheered by the crowd coming out while the judges and prosecutors are jeered and attacked with fire bombs. But before that there are two other actors: one (Elio De Capitani) who looks indeed unmistakably like the billionaire politician; and another (Michele Placido) who looks more like a distinguished Italian movie actor.

But this being Moretti, Il caimano isn't so much about Berlusconi as about Moretti himself, or a surrogate, and above all about cinema. Il caimano has a distinctly autobiographical dimension and takes on germane topics -- filmmaking, the Italian taste in movies, and the fortunes of a central character who is a director with a marriage on the rocks.

Ultimately the film is a little soft on Berlusconi. As someone says when making a film to expose his main offenses is mentioned, "But everyone knows all that," and this must have been one of the obstacles Moretti faced. Moreover the reality is more extreme than any satire. The actions of America's current administration may seem over the top to opponents. But imagine a president who was the subject of criminal trials almost too numerous to mention, including bribing a judge, illegally financing a political party, embezzlement, perjury, tax fraud, false accounting; who has passed laws to exempt himself from charges; and who owns a majority of the private sector national media and during his tenure controlled a large segment of state television as well. It's another world over there, a world, from the Anglo-Saxon point of view, too surreal to satirize. It may also be said that, since Berlusconi's propaganda machine was active long before he took power and his television stations became the popular ones, Italy's problem is not Berlusconi but the world he has created.

But let's look more specifically at Moretti's movie. In it, Silvio Orlando plays Moretti's stand-in, Bruno Bonono. Once Bruno made popular action films but he has long been in difficulties. At the outset he considers making one about Christopher Columbus but is abandoned by his longtime producer and approached by a young woman at an awards show honoring earlier efforts, who gives him the scenario "Il caimano" skewering Berlusconi. The fledgling screenwriter, Teresa (Jasmine Trinca), is the essence of all that is wholesome, but later Bruno is shocked to be invited to her family gathering in the country and learn that she is a lesbian and she and her female partner are raising her baby. (No radical, he begs her not to tell him how the baby came into the world.)

Perhaps unaware that this scenario is a difficult project to complete (though Moretti himself would know), Bruno finds Polish billionaire Jerzy Sturovsky (Jerzy Stuhr) to finance it and, despite those interjected sequences we've been shown depicting both the real Berlusconi and the actor who closely resembles him, he instead persuades Marco Pulici (Michele Placido), a seasoned Italian film star with nice cheekbones and luxuriant white locks, to take on the role in order to give "The Cayman" a gravitas and sex appeal (and hence a kind of three-dimensionality) that in real life he lacks. This seems to be a bad choice, since Pulci withdraws and Jerzy pulls his funding.

But Bruno's main problem is at home. He is sleeping at work, but trying to be a good dad by telling bedtime stories based on one of his most outrageous movies, Cataratta (Cataract), to his two boys, Andrea (Daniele Rampello) and Giacamo (Giacamo Pasarelli), and he hopes to make peace with his estranged wife Paula (Margherita Buy) who once starred in that actioner.

Il caimano is tumultuous, funny, and winning. Silvio Orlando, Moretti's regular alter ego, is appealing and multidimensional. The trouble with the film is that it tries to do too much and, because of its inability wholly to meld together the various plot lines, at times seems thrown together even as its sequences are often impressive and always well photographed, well acted, and technically polished. Moretti is multitalented. Perhaps here too many of the talents are on display at once. The reason why The Son's Room, despite occasional comic moments, is so moving and dramatically effective, is that it chooses to limit its focus to an intimate personal level. And there are conversely times when one wished that Moretti had had the imagination and ingenuity to make a film not about three topics -- filmmaking, marriage and the family, and a right-wing politician -- but on just one of those, whether it be the political, the personal, or the artistic and cinematic elements of Il caimano.

The Cayman/Il caimano, 112 mins., debuted at Cannes May 2006 after earlier Italian release. Peter Bradshaw wrote: "If only Nanni Moretti had the strength and clarity of purpose to make a film about Silvio Berlusconi. Instead, he has made a film about a film about Silvio Berlusconi." Also seven other fests including Toronto, and released in some countries, including France . Screened for this review as part of the May 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.


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