Jornal da Mostra
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Edição:
Renata de Almeida e Leon Cakoff
“Il Caimano”, the cinema that attacks the clinical era of the Berlusconi political multimedia
This is the second Italian film of the year that defies the multimedia political character, Silvio Berlusconi, (see Jornal da Mostra nº403) But, Nanni Moretti`s film does not take aim at the politician that for almost two decades spread his power over Italian minds and divided the country`s voters until recently, missing re-election by very few votes.
"Il Caimano" is also a film on the complicated whole-hearted devotion to making cinema. It begins focussed on personal problems for a film maker on a slim budget, ten years ago, with no work, in a marital crisis, but that never gives up. Not even to the point of abandoning his old studio with a plan to make a new film - nor the house, the wife, and two children.
The plot on the Berlusconi era falls to him by sheer chance, delivered by a fan that sees him in a session as a tribute to the director, hoisted to the category of cult. After all, he is the director of films such as "Killer Mocassin" and "Maciste vs. Freud", resounding box-office failures, worshipped by the few and far between. Berlusconi`s plot is met at the right moment - when the bank wants to take all he has through default and when he is experiencing difficulties in managing to produce a new epic film - "The Return of Christopher Columbus".
Worse for the Berlusconi project, that still frightens away producers, but
with the cynicism characteristic to Moretti, we gradually become aware of how
a film denouncing Berlusconi might be, just by the readings and rehearsals for
a film in the offing. The cayman in the title, is our yellow-bellied cayman
- a reptile the film suggests, is a being that insinuates itself into our minds
and, at the same time, wallows in mud. An essential politician with millionaire
campaigns, suspect real estate projects, fortunes with no known source, illegal
acquisition of communication vehicles, newspapers, radios and television broadcasters...
Have we seen this film before? Certainly not Nanni Moretti`s film, now on view
outside Italy. But the urgency to accomplish this within Nanni Moretti`s film
itself is imperative.
For further information:
www.festival-cannes.org
