ITALY
THE CAIMAN
2006 - 35mm - c - 112’
Direction: Nanni Moretti
Screenplay: Nanni Moretti, Francesco Piccolo, Federica Pontremoli
Cinematography: Arnaldo Catinari
Editing: Esmeralda Calabria
Set design: Giancarlo Basili
Music: Franco Piersanti
Cast: Silvio Orlando, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca, Nanni Moretti, Giuliano Montaldo, Michele Placido, Cecilia Dazzi, Toni Bertorelli, Antonello Grimaldi, Luisa De Santis, Valerio Mastandrea
Producers: Nanni Moretti, Angelo Barbagallo
Production: Sacher Film, Bac Films, Stephan Films, France 3 Cinema, Wild Bunch, Canal +, Cinecinema
Distribuzione: Sacher Distribuzione
SYNOPSIS
A producer of trash films is on conjugal and financial crisis. He is looking for a film to save his society from bankruptcy. Almost by chance he bumps into the screenplay of the film ‘Il Caimano’ on the story of Berlusconi’s ascent. The author is the young director Teresa. After many failed attempts he founds a financer, he finds also the right actor for the role and starts imagining the development of the story. All goes well till when the chosen actor gives up, followed soon after by the financer. The producer has the money to shoot only the final scene of the film, set in the court in Milan.
CRITICAL NOTE
The efficacious cine-narrative mechanism of the ‘film in the film’ and the pressing contents, the careful, sharp Moretti’s writing, the huge skill of the leading actors (tragic-comical as ever) and the pursuing rhythm with which we pass through three different temporal dimensions to end in a burning epilogue, succeed in giving life to something pleasantly hybrid, something to which – as Italians – we are not used. We can feel more than see Moretti; he succeds in keeping untouched a rare quality: coherence.
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
2006 Festival dE Cannes: in competition
2006 David di Donatello: Best Film, Direction, Production, Actor (Silvio Orlando), Music, Sound (Alessandro Zanon)
2007 Silver ribbon to Margherita Buy and Silvio Orlando as Best Actors
