TOTAL FILM RETROSPECTIVE
ade in the late 1970s, the film Caligula became a byword for notoriety. Detailing the life of the titular Roman emperor, it began with a script by esteemed author Gore Vidal before Italian director Tinto Brass (1976’s Salon Kitty) was brought in to direct it. Then came the fallout as Bob Guccione, publisher of erotic magazine Penthouse and the man bankrolling the project, stormed in and filmed soft-core material that made the final cut at the expense of much original material. Suddenly, a film that featured Helen Mirren, John Gielgud and Peter O’Toole was a laughing stock. Or as Time magazine put it, the film enjoyed ‘all the success of an open-air orgy in Antarctica’.
‘I’ve never liked it,’ reflects Malcolm McDowell, the British actor cast as Caligula. ‘And I advise people never to see it. It is a terrible film, and it’s exploitative and pornographic. For no reason. Except that it’s to exploit. And that’s what he [Guccione] did. And he really could not care less - or we fail.” That was ringing in my ears as I started this long journey.’
