Ade Miller

I'm looking for a fully fledged uncut (ie not the official 'uncut' release which is NOT uncut). I have a reasonable copy if anyone is desperate but would like a really good quality print onto DVD. Let me know, thanks

batman

A full uncut version of this dreadful film will be released on R1 dvd next month.


Amazon.com: Caligula (Three-Disc Imperial Edition): DVD: Malcolm McDowell,Helen Mirren,Peter O'Toole

Bats.

I wish I had claws.

Modular

This isn't the first true 'uncut' release of Caligula onto DVD by any means.

There has however been a number of releases which claim to be uncut, but as Ade mentions, there's uncut, and then there's 'uncut'.

This time around, it looks as if they've sourced a much better set of prints than for the previous release(s).

Cheeky Bob

The film was so messed around with (not least by its producer) that it's semantic quibbling trying to establish what's "uncut" and what isn't.

For starters, all the hardcore porn footage is arguably extraneous, since it was added by Bob Guccione without the consent of either director Tinto Brass or writer Gore Vidal - but when people talk about the "uncut version", they normally mean "the version with the hardcore scenes".

As they say on the other side of the pond, go figure.

(Incidentally, a word of warning - I suspect the version Ade means by "uncut" features material that potentially breaches the 1978 Protection of Children Act, which is missing from the current US DVD release. As the recent example of Chris Langham illustrates only too clearly, mere possession of this sort of thing is a criminal offence in Britain, so tread carefully.)

Moor Larkin

In 1980 I was alone in Paris. I think it was in September. It was getting late and bloomin' freezing cold; so I joined a cinema queue for Caligula. It was quite famous at the time for being a tad naughty, so I figured if I couldn't understand anything they said, I could still enjoy the spectacle and get warm. The cinema was some sort of modern multiplex-type of place, not a classic cinema building. It was quite full. To my delight the film was sub-titled rather than dubbed so I was able to watch it as if I were back in Blighty!

Apart from the occasonal phlash, which I don't think I would have got to see in the UK, I don't recall anything especially 'awful' about it. Would I have seen a cut version? I always flattered myself that, being in Gay Paree, I had watched an unexpurgated version...........

DocRobertPepper

Theres a 4 disc set being released in the US and its £20 from PlayUSA.com
on the 2nd October

Cheeky Bob

It's three discs - the fourth disc was dropped at the last minute after they turned out not to have the soundtrack CD rights, but some retailers clearly haven't been told yet. But you're still getting all the planned video content.

The "uncut" version has brief but nonetheless unmistakable close-up hardcore sex inserts (as it were), particularly in the absurdly prolonged lesbian scene (my nomination for the most pointlessly gratuitous Guccione addition) and the orgy on the boat. Presumably you'd have remembered those?

wearysloth

I've been debating whether to add Caligula to my Best British Films list. I've been trying to work out whether Penthouse Films is (or rather was) a US or UK based company. As to the film's merits, well it is certainly unforgettable. I've always thought Tinto Brass was a kind of grubby Fellini.

Modular

No, there's nothing in the 'hardcore' bits that would come close to being in breach of the 1978 Act you mention.

Modular

I agree. It sounds like one of the softer versions he viewed.

Here's a useful list of the different cuts the film has had over the years:

Click!

Moor Larkin

No particular memory of a boat or lesbians I'm afraid. I remember some goings-on in the background of some scenes where it looked like somebody was getting a stiff talking-to. There was a lady with a pearl served up for dinner too I remember.

Other than these French fancies it seemed an average Roman romp to me, with unusually good production values. There was a singularly nasty head-lopping sequence that's stuck in my head, but that just seemed ludicrously overblown rather than anything else.

Malcolm Macdowell was far too good for it and I wouldn't have known Helen Mirren from any other smouldering empress-in-waiting to be honest. The 'sexiest' scenes were probably between those two.

Modular

Interestingly enough, I've just watched an interview with Malcolm from 1980 in which he talked about his role in the film.

He didn't for one minute regret doing it, and expressed pride in what he achieved in the role of Caligula. He did however feel betrayed by the Guccione 'additions' to the point that he didn't recommend people go and see the film at the cinema.

batman

McDowell and Mirren certainly gave the film whatever credibility it has, under the circumstances McDowell gave a pretty good performance. It was, though, to see Gielgud and O'Toole making fools of themselves. I just hope they got paid a lot.

I find it incredible that this film gets the 3 disc treatment, apart from all the other incarnations, while some really classic films don't even geta release!

Bats.

I wish I had claws.

Moor Larkin

It was a long time ago but I think he did well. He was perfect for that kind of role, but perhaps the story is just too well-known to be gripping, given the old-fashioned 'Spectacle' approach they took; the old Hollywod had been there, done that. Was the project inspired by the success of the TV production, I Claudius do you think?

Modular

It's possible.

Malcolm mentioned he wanted his character to be quite different from that in I Claudius.