Oscar winner Helen Mirren described Caligula as “an irresistible mix of art and genitalia.”
But Roman Romp, published 45 years ago this month, caused widespread outrage and was immediately banned in most countries.
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Caligula, starring Helen Mirren and Malcolm McDowell, stunned the world when it was releasedCredit: Alamy
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Helen Mirren said people who turned up on set fully clothed felt embarrassedCredit: Alamy
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The film had several scenes in which the actors would participate in large orgies Credit: Alamy
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Malcolm McDowell was involved in most of the shocking scenes in the film Credit: Alamy
Full of nudity, gruesome sexual violence, necrophilia and steamy orgy scenes, the film is enjoying a new audience after it was re-released this week with never-before-seen footage.
Dame Helen, 79, who plays the emperor’s notoriously promiscuous wife Caesonia, dismissed the controversy but admits “everyone was naked” on set.
But the Penthouse models later claimed that their sleazy boss, who produced the film, forced them to perform real sex acts in the orgy scenes.
Even now, it remains mired in controversy.
Graphic content
American historian Thomas Negovan, who unearthed more than 90 hours of never-before-seen footage of the notoriously chaotic filming in Rome, has repurposed it and created a new version.
He chose different angles to make the shots look less exploitative, and some of the hardcore sex was removed.
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, clocking in at over three hours, it may be less gruesome than the original, but there’s still plenty of sexual violence in the film, which also stars Malcolm McDowell and Sir John Gielgud.
In one particularly shocking scene, Caligula rapes both the bride and groom at their wedding.
He visits a brothel in Rome, where women experiencing lasting orgasms frolic in the pool while they wait for Caesar to pick them out for “robbing.”
In other raunchy scenes, Caligula sexually abuses a male courtier and has sex with his dead sister.
Inside the dark filming of banned classic Caligula dubbed ‘an irresistible mix of art and genitalia’ – from teenage Penthouse models forced into orgies to secret porn scenes
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The film contained a scene depicting necrophiliaCredit: Alamy
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There was so much nudity that it caused outrageCredit: Alamy
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The film shocked the world audience with its obscene contentCredit: Alamy
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Helen Mirren said people who turned up on set fully clothed felt embarrassedCredit: Alamy
He sends handsome men to their deaths while ordering beautiful women to strip naked and submit to his urges.
At least the gruesome castration scene was, ahem, cut.
In real life, the emperor was so depraved that he slept with all three of his sisters, wanted to marry his horse, and was so sensitive about his bald spot that he sentenced anyone caught looking down on her to death.
In the film, Mirren’s character is born spread-eagled and hanged in front of the Imperial Palace.
She said: “I’ve been doing nude scenes since the moment I started doing films.
“I never wanted to show a lot of boobs, but I thought, ‘Does it really matter?’ There didn’t seem to be anything that could get your panties in a twist.”
She added: “Everyone was naked in it. It was like showing up at a nudist camp every day. You felt embarrassed if you had your clothes on in that movie.”
In a career spanning six decades, she stripped in films ranging from 1969’s Age of Consent to 2003’s Calendar Girls.
And striking scenes in cult films such as Excalibur and Cal cemented her position as a sex symbol.
But the star admits that times have changed: “When I did Caligula, it was ‘shock, horror, XX.’ Only in porn movies.
“But now, with Game of Thrones, it starts at 8 p.m. and everything is a sex scene.”
“Everyone was naked in that. It was like showing up at a nudist camp every day. You felt embarrassed if you wore your clothes in that movie.”
Helen Mirren
She only appeared for nine minutes in the original film, but is in the new version for over an hour.
‘Absolutely terrifying’
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Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse Film International, was the mastermind behind the film Credit: Getty – Associate
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Bon Guccione was looking for models willing to shoot additional scenes for the film Credit: Alamy
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The screenwriter of the film, Gore Vidal, was not informed that additional porn scenes would be filmed Credit: Getty
Caligula was the first production of Penthouse Films International, part of the erotic magazine empire owned by infamous porn baron Bob Guccione.
At the time he was at war with Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, their rivalry became known as the Pubic Wars.
Hefner failed in the movie business, so Guccione, determined to break new ground, insisted on copious nudity from the start.
At the time, it was the most expensive film ever made – with 3,592 costumes and 2,000 wigs, along with a 175-foot-long Roman galleon. Unfortunately, it leaked.
Mirren was paid £40,000 which she spent on her first house and acres of woodland in Scotland.
His co-star Sir John Gielgud, whose character Nerva kills himself twenty minutes into the film, was delighted to be surrounded by dozens of naked men on set.
He later said, “The moment the lunch bell rang, everyone put their hands in front of their genitalia and ran off to get pizza with their families.”
Even after filming ended in Rome in 1976, Guccione secretly shot additional pornographic scenes – and spliced the hardcore material into the final cut.
He didn’t tell writer Gore Vidal or director and “erotic genre” expert Tinto Brass, who were horrified by Guccione’s post-production betrayal.
They claimed that the scenes were added just for excitement.
In an interview with Conan O’Brien, Malcolm talked about how the porn scenes shot after the film didn’t match what was initially caught on camera.
“It didn’t even match because the photo was all grainy – a completely different photo,” he said. “You could see it didn’t match.
“Nothing matched. But it didn’t matter. He still made over $100 million, they say. I’m still waiting for my check, Bob.”
He also talked about how John Gielgud was in awe of his frontal nudity in the film.
“I told him how come Sir John, the knight of the kingdom, is in a porn movie. [He said] “Oh, I wouldn’t say. It’s a pretty good movie, isn’t it? I just came from the set. Did you see all that s***? I’ve never seen so much f*** in my life.'”
A ‘real’ orgy
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Jane Hargrave was one of the models hired to act in additional scenes of Credit: Penthouse
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She said she felt taken advantage of and forced to watch bestial pornographyCredit: A&E
British model Jane Hargrave was one of the girls hired by Guccione for extra scenes in ‘Imperial Borthel Workers’.
She became a Penthouse ‘Pet’ after applying to an advert she read while doing her A Levels at a Catholic school – and met Bob Guccione.
“He was quite present. He had great power and that very deep voice of God,” she says.
“He said he had to look at me. I have to go upstairs to the bathroom, undress, and he’s sitting in the bedroom.
“I stood there naked. I just had to overcome my shyness.”
But two weeks later, Jane flew to New York, then to a private island near Honduras for a shoot, where she and Guccione “developed a friendship.”
She added: “He asked me if I would mind if he trimmed my pubic hair.”
At the time, the millionaire was living in a 42-room townhouse in New York with his new partner, Kathy Keeton, a company executive.
Jane moved into the couple’s dressing room – connected to their bedroom through an adjoining shower – and Guccione would come into her bed while Kathy slept in the next room.
It emerged he recruited dozens of models, known as Pets, who were coaxed into orgies, fed birth control pills to enlarge their breasts and forced to watch videos of bestiality.
“When Kathy was away, he invited me into the master bedroom,” Jane said.
“He had a video of women having sex with animals. A girl with a pig. I think he wanted to shock me.”
But she finally realized just how exploitative he was after he persuaded the Pets to appear in the film, with Jane playing the priestess of Isis.
They were expected to engage in real sexual relations.
“He wanted us all to participate in orgies. I was literally still a teenager,” she said, adding that before meeting Guccione, she had not even been intimate with a man.
She realized “how unimportant I was to a man we should trust” and left.
Guccione’s daughter Nina also recalled being forced to go to a screening of Caligula at the age of 18 and finding it “absolutely terrifying”.
He had a video of women having sex with animals. A girl with a pig. I think he wanted to shock me.
Jane Hargrave
“I’ve never seen a movie about sex. I’m speechless and very upset,” she said.
“No good parent should subject their child to that. But because he was a narcissist, he had no empathy.”
The Caligula Controversy
Caligula was released in 1979, and original screenwriter Gore Vidal and film director Tinto Brass petitioned to have their names removed from the credits after more extreme material was added.
Producer Bob Guccione, the founder of Penthouse magazine, hired Giancarlo Lui to film post-production scenes depicting hot sex, without Brass’s consent.
Originally released in Italian cinemas and then in America the following year, Caligula faced legal problems and controversy over its violent and sexual content and was banned in numerous countries, but has since become a cult classic.
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is now in select theaters.
But the film flopped and was panned by critics, costing Guccione millions. Leading man Malcolm McDowell was so embarrassed that he emigrated.
“It wasn’t supposed to be a porn film,” says Negovan. “You think Helen Mirren and John Gielgud took a job in a porn movie without a plot?
“No, that’s the point. It’s like he has a script. It had incredible sets, incredible costumes. And people really sweated to make this movie.”
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Other scenes featured extremely graphic violence Credit: Alamy
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Many of the most explicit scenes in the film were shot after the end of production Credit: Alamy
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The classic film also starred Peter O’TooleCredit: Alamy
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Source: HIS Education