Vidal would eventually call Caligula “easily one of the worst films ever made”, which is quite the review to get from its screenwriter. What could possibly go wrong?Įverything, as it turned out, starting with a rocky development period during which Vidal fell out with everyone over changes to the script, and essentially disowned the film. Theoretically, these three brought to the table the unique combination of hedonism, intellect and wildcard creativity that the decadent, explicit, historical epic would need. With finance put together by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, a script by the leftwing intellectual Gore Vidal, and Tinto Brass, a cult Italian film-maker famed for his erotic movies, in the director’s chair, perhaps on paper the film had a certain sort of bold logic to it. The finished film itself was hardly less chaotic. Starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, John Gielgud and Peter O’Toole plus a busload of porn stars, the lurid epic about the life of the mad Roman emperor Caligula, was a noble attempt to create the most explicit prestige picture in the history of the moving image.Īn anonymous crew member described it as “not a shoot, it’s the Fourth Reich. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/AlamyĪ quick recap for the uninitiated: involving more drama than every season of Love Island combined, the 1979 swords-and-sandals shockfest Caligula has long been infamous as one of cinema’s most disastrous productions, its very title a byword for what can happen when a creative project spins out of control.
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