Cinema surveillance images are loading at the bottom of the page

The caiman (Il caimano) - Silvio Orlando, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca, Nanni Moretti

Threat advisory: Guarded - General risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

The caiman (Il caimano) is the story of a young director who aspires to make a film about Silvio Berlusconi (former political leader of Italy). She appeals to a Z-grade movie producer, who is going under in his personal and professional life, to help her fund her project and together they try to find an actor to take on the role.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film drama Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Italian biography filmmaking corruption movie producer divorce

Persons of interest

Silvio Orlando .... Paolo Bonomo
Margherita Buy .... Paola Bonomo, Aidra
Jasmine Trinca .... Teresa
Michele Placido .... Marco Pulici, Silvio Berlusconi
Giuliano Montaldo .... Franco Caspio
Antonio Luigi Grimaldi .... Direttore di Produzione
Paolo Sorrentino .... Marito di Aidra
Elio De Capitani .... Silvio Berlusconi
Tatti Sanguinetti .... Beppe Savonese
Jerzy Stuhr .... Jerzy Sturovsky
Toni Bertorelli .... Indro Montanelli
Silvio Berlusconi .... Himself
Cecilia Dazzi .... Luisa
Renato De Maria .... Padre di Teresa
Luisa De Santis .... Marisa
Paolo De Vita .... Autista
Martina Iero .... Margherita
Mimmo Mancini .... Allenatore
Valerio Mastandrea .... Cesari
Carlo Mazzacurati .... Cameriere
Fabrizio Morandi .... Notaio
Nanni Moretti .... Himself
Nanni Moretti .... Silvio Berlusconi
Giacomo Passarelli .... Giacomo
Antonio Petrocelli .... Avvocato
Daniele Rampello .... Andrea
Stefano Rulli .... Giudice
Francesco Piccolo .... Screenwriter
Federica Pontremoli .... Screenwriter
Nanni Moretti .... Screenwriter
Nanni Moretti .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

The caiman (Il caimano) official movie site
The caiman (Il caimano) film production notes
The caiman (Il caimano) QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

Australian Italian Film Festival 2006: Screening
Cannes Film Festival 2006: Won: Award of the City of Rome (Nanni Moretti); Nominated: Golden Palm (Nanni Moretti)
David di Donatello Film Festival 2006: Won: Best Actor (Silvio Orlando), Best Director (Nanni Moretti), Best Film (Angelo Barbagallo, Nanni Moretti), Best Music (Franco Piersanti), Best Producer (Angelo Barbagallo, Nanni Moretti), Best Sound (Alessandro Zanon); Nominated: Critics Award (Nanni Moretti), Best Actress (Margherita Buy), Best Cinematography (Arnaldo Catinari), Best Costume Design (Lina Nerli Taviani), Best Production Design (Giancarlo Basili), Best Screenplay (Nanni Moretti, Francesco Piccolo, Federica Pontremoli), Best Supporting Actor (Nanni Moretti), Best Supporting Actress (Jasmine Trinca)
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2006: Horizons
London Film Festival 2006: Film on the Square

NB: Italian language dialogue with English language subtitles
Studios and distributors:

Palace Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

You don't have to be a wog to watch The caiman (Il caimano) but it helps. It really helps.

Now, there are four stories in this film:

A loser dad loses his family
A loser B-movie producer loses his studio
An ingénue makes her first movie
A criminal becomes Prime Minister.

Any one of these stories should be enough for a film, but Nanni Moretti, Francesco Piccolo and Federica Pontremoli have been greedy and tried to weave them all together to make the film more interesting. Unfortunately, watching the result is like trying to eat spaghetti with a chop stick.

On top of that, unless you know a bit of recent Italian political history then you'd never believe that the criminal politician is real and that everything he did is real. We won't even mention the Mafia connections. (Berlusconi makes George Bush - either of them - look honest and that's saying something!)

There are some moments of humour and some of pathos but I couldn't get into this film; I was continually waiting for something to happen but nothing did; I think that everyone could have done better but "if only" doesn't count when assessing the threat of entertainment.

The drama, Italy movie The caiman (Il caimano) is directed by Nanni Moretti and stars Silvio Orlando, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca.