Directors: Tinto Brass/Bob Guccione, 18, 1979 Stars: Malcolm McDowell, John Gielgud, Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren Retail DVD Shocking, grotesque, stomach-turning - and that’s just the acting. Yeah, um, no. I can't say Caligula really embodies any of the things you mention. In fact, in most every aspect of filmmaking, it's pretty much a train wreck. It's also not to be missed. Because it just has this suicidal brilliance to it.

Caligula: The Imperial Edition CALIGULA: THE IMPERIAL EDITION (1980) Directors: Tinto Brass/Bob Guccione Penthouse Films/Image In all honesty, CALIGULA has never been one of my favorite movies. As a young cinephile with a penchant for horror and other cult offerings, CALIGULA was one of those “holy grail” films: a movie so disgusting and perverted it demanded to be seen.

Even with the inclusion of such distinguished London stage luminaries as Helen Mirren (THE QUEEN) and Sir John Gielgud (ARTHUR), as well as British cinema stalwarts Peter O’Toole (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA) and Malcolm McDowell (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), my young mind envisioned a madhouse of ultra-violent sexual depravity. But with the passage of time and the advent of the VCR giving me easier access to more vile and sadistic works, by the time I’d caught up with CALIGULA, I considered the film an enormous letdown. Purportedly based on actual events that transpired in Pagan Rome from 37 to 41 A.D., the film encapsulates the rise and eventual assassination of Gaius Julius Caeser Augustus Germanicus, more commonly know by his childhood nickname Caligula (Latin for “little boots”).

Ilayaraja melody songs tamil download. Starting with his carefree days as a prince, the story follows Caligula (McDowell) as his thirst for power grows, culminating in the assassination of his syphilitic grandfather, Emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero (O’Toole) at the hands of Praetorian Guard prefect Macro (Guido Mannari, Pasolini’s DECAMERON), which allowed Little Boots to assume the throne. Caligula starts out as a beloved emperor, but following his recovery from an illness, he becomes increasingly unstable and more depraved than usual, engaging in such debauchery as rape and bestiality, as well as wanton murder.

In the finale of the film, Caligula meets the same fate as his grandfather and is assassinated for the general good of Rome. Being the invention of overly pretentious writer/historian Gore Vidal (MYRA BRECKENRIDGE), legendary porn mogul Bob Guccione (founder of Penthouse Magazine) and directed by Italian art trash specialist Tinto Brass (SALON KITTY), CALIGULA focuses primarily on the sexual sadism reported by Rome’s philosophers. Being that this is a Penthouse International Film, I surely didn’t expect a history lesson, but as a sidebar, Caligula did try to accomplish things in his life such as Western expansion and major construction. Since short shrift is given to few actual accomplishments within the film, one may leave the movie thinking Caligula was just an immoral pervert from the word go, whose days consisted of figuring out who to castrate and deciding whether he’d rather forcefully fist the groom at a wedding or make love to his own sister (Teresa Ann Savoy, also of SALON KITTY). The film itself has always been a lightning rod for controversy. From the staggering budget for what is basically a porno film, the insistence of the name actors that they had no prior knowledge of the hardcore scenes, and the irreconcilable differences between Vidal, Guccione and Brass, the end result foisted onto the public was, and still is, a hell of a mess. Aside from Academy Award-winning art director Danilo Donati’s fascinating production design and the powerful and haunting score by Italian genre conductor and orchestrator Bruno Nicolai (credited on the film as Paul Clemente), CALIGULA is inconsistent in its technical tone, occasionally suffering from poor lighting, sub-par direction, obvious overacting and even a fair share of underacting.