Historicity is a strange meter to measure a movie by. Problem is, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, although a visually rich text itself, must be contrasted with the major studio interference of the theatrical cut, the bawdy sensationalism of the X-rated cut and the moderate restraint of the R-rated cut.
A cult object of fascination, Caligula’s an odd movie, still, a lavish presentation of history rendered like on stage. The film employed actors who could sell any stage to us: Malcom McDowell (Caligula); Helen Mirren (Caesonia); and Peter O’Toole (Tiberius).
The original release of Caligula was disowned by director Tinto Brass because Penthouse editor and producer of the film, Bob Guccione, had Final Cut and weighed his influence by incorporating copious amounts of pornographic material into the film.
This leads us to film historian Thomas Negovan, using almost 100 hours of the original camera negatives, has painstakingly rearranged a full film out of the materials. It’s an incredible undertaking for the sake of preservation alone, and in full-bodied restoration, the posthumous original vision for the film is now realized, or as close as we can get it.
Every frame, then, is a different take or a new addition. That makes it an entirely new and different movie. But, it’s built off the same stock, and so it must preserve in total, the same feeling of the film, but make it new.
Blown up in gorgeous modern resolution, Caligula is a rich tapestry of color and Roman Empire-inflected forms and shapes. It’s still about sex and bodies, because that’s what the story of Caligula is about, but now it has merit-worthy and thoroughly consistent stagey value.
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is a long watch but it’s a good watch. It’s rich in color and has some real theatrical acting in it. It feels like the soul of the movie that would have been has now been preserved and that there is at least an extension on Caligula’s history as a complicated subject of producer meddling and market-shocked censorship: now there’s also a formally very good movie to watch.