SOME YEARS back, Nanni Moretti, the distinguished Italian director of The Son's Room and Dear Diary, publicly chastised left-wing politicians for failing to mount a satisfactory opposition to the Machiavellian hyper-Haughey that is Silvio Berlusconi. The Caiman, released in Italy right before the 2006 general election, could be seen as his own contribution to the good fight.
Well, this exquisitely well-made picture is blessed with Moretti's characteristically sophisticated blend of light comedy and high drama. It abounds with ideas. But, until it reaches a powerful and worrying denouement, it seems somewhat obscure in its purpose. There are certainly parallels between the personal and the political stories, but neither satisfactorily illuminates the other.
Bruno Bonomo (Silvio Orlando), a producer of low-grade schlock cinema, has fallen on hard times. He is breaking up with his wife and is finding it increasingly difficult to secure financing for his films. In a particularly hassled moment, he remembers The Caiman, a script handed to him by a young woman after a screening of one of his films.
It is only after he secures financing that he realises his speed-reading of the screenplay has given him (and the financiers) entirely the wrong impression. Rather than a big dumb thriller, The Caiman is a broad satire on the career of Berlusconi. The money vanishes, but, energised by the premier's increasingly messianic performances on television, Bruno decides to persevere with the production.
Bruno's film shows itself to us in three guises: one playing in his head as he reads the script, another starring a vain actor who subsequently quits and, finally, a taut, pared-down incarnation featuring Moretti himself.
That final manifestation, which addresses the dangerous power of Berlusconi's rhetoric, provides the film with a startling climax, but, like the other versions, never properly meshes with Bruno's tale of decline and rebirth.
Worse, unlike the alligator that gives the picture its title, both Caimans - the one within and the one without - lack real teeth.
