Best Movies of 2007: No. 9 Il Caimano (Nanni Moretti, 2006)

Silvio Berlusconi has not only been the dominant figure in recent Italian politics but also an increasingly influential example for numerous other European politicians – Sarkozy, Putin and Aznar being merely the most prominent imitators. Caimano is several stories intimately tied together. An aging director from the heyday of Italian cinema tries to face the reality of the decline of Italian media (partially caused by Berlusconi, and partially by the mediocre efforts of the director himself). A young screenwriter struggles with the now-decrepit and trivial Italian film industry. A movie somehow gets made about the rise and rise of Berlusconi…….