‘Caligula’: The controversial “epic porn movie” Helen Mirren could never be ashamed of
Helen Mirren is a name known across television, film, and theatre. This award-winning actor started her career at 19 in theatre and spent most of her early career there with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Four years later, she was cast as Cora in Michael Powell’s Age of Consent, kickstarting a career most could only ever dream of. Over the last 60 years, she has starred in over 67 feature films and has claimed numerous accolades, including the coveted Academy Award.
Of course, Mirren is best known for her roles in The Queen and The Long Good Friday. With a career as long and illustrious as hers, it’s only natural that some films have received mixed reviews. One such effort is Caligula, originally directed by Tinto Brass and written by Gore Vidal. The story follows the rise and fall of the Roman tyrant Caligula. The film’s financier, Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse magazine, controversially fired Brass and introduced explicit pornographic material into the production, which significantly altered the film’s original vision.
Malcolm McDowell, who played the titular role in Caligula, expressed feelings of betrayal when the film was released four years after filming. In an interview with The Guardian, McDowell stated that he was misled about the project, believing he was signing on for something entirely different. Reflecting on the experience, he bluntly remarked, “I didn’t do that pile of crap.”
Mirren, who played Caesonia, had a different take on the situation. She explained that even though the film ended up being an “epic porn movie”, she was always proud of it and that McDowell should not be ashamed of it as he was “wonderful in it”. Mirren said that despite the changes made by Guccione, they stuck to Vidal’s original script and that “within its form, there’s a really great movie about Rome in there”.
She added, “It’s two different movies: there’s the version we shot, then there’s a great deal of hardcore sex footage that Guccione put in later. It didn’t need it because what we had was quite enough!”
The film was re-edited and premiered in 2023 at the Cannes Classics. This version, known as Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, was put together by writer, musician, and art historian Tom Negovan. The 1979 Caligula production is most popularly known as ‘disastrous’, with even the original screenwriter Vidal describing it as “easily one of the worst films ever made”.
McDowell, feeling a little more relaxed after the revisit, said about the re-edit, “Negovan’s Caligula is very much the movie I thought I was making with Tinto Brass”.
McDowell and Mirren went away from the films with entirely different takeaways; Mirren described the film as an “irresistible mix of art and genitals”. Both actors delivered excellent performances in the film, and the movie’s ambition is commendable. Speaking to Eye for Film, Nevogan mentioned that McDowell seemed to be trying to “save the film from itself”, which made him a bigger fan of the actor. He also felt determined to rescue McDowell’s formidable performance that the world never saw. Although controversial, the film clearly had excellent aspects worthy of saving.
Negovan is currently working on a documentary about what happened behind the scenes during the 1979 production to provide more context for the restoration.
