Caligula is a 1979 Italian/American adult biographical film directed by Tinto Brass, with extra scenes filmed by Giancarlo Lui and Penthouse founder Bob Guccione. The film concerns the rise and fall of Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar Germanicus, more good known as Caligula. Caligula was written by Gore Vidal and co-financed by Penthouse magazine, and produced by Guccione and Franco Rossellini. It stars Malcolm McDowell as the Emperor. Caligula was the 1st major motion picture to feature eminent film actors (John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole, Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren) in a film with explicit sex scenes.
Vidal developed a Caligula screenplay from Roberto Rossellini's unproduced television mini-series. Franco Rossellini, of Roberto, and Vidal's original intent was to create a modestly budgeted historical drama. When the couple could not obtain financing, Vidal contacted media mogul and Penthouse founder and publisher Bob Guccione. Guccione acquiesced to finance the project on 2 conditions: that the film would be transformed into a flamboyant, luxurious spectacle akin to Hollywood's sword and sandal epics of the 1950s and 1960s, and that supplementary sex and nudity would be added to the script in order to promote Guccione's magazine. Vidal and Rossellini acquiesced and the project was launched.
Federico Fellini's art director, Danilo Donati, was hired to build the expensive and complex sets and costumes. Renowned acting talent, including Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole and Sir John Gielgud were cast. Maria Schneider was originally cast as Caligula's doomed Drusilla, but later dropped out and was replaced by Teresa Ann Savoy. After Guccione was unable to come to an agreement with greater quantity established directors John Huston and Lina Wertmuller, Tinto Brass, a youthful Italian director, was selected by Guccione to direct the film. Guccione was impressed by Brass' previous work, the 1976 controversial film Salon Kitty, which fused explicit sex with a large budget historical drama. Caligula production was housed in Dear Studios, Rome, where the infamous Cleopatra was filmed thirteen years earlier. Shooting commenced in September 1976, with plans for a 1977 />
Directors: Tinto Brass, Bob Guccione
Writer: Gore Vidal
Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Peter O'Toole and Helen Mirren
Media Info:
Format: AVI
Duration: 2h 35mn
Overall bit rate: 2 931 Kbps
Writing application: Lavf51.12.1
Video
Format: MPEG-4 Visual
Format settings, Matrix: Default (H.263)
Codec ID/Hint: DivX 5
Bit rate: 2 600 Kbps
Width: 720 pixels
Height: 540 pixels
Display aspect ratio: 4:3
Frame rate: 23.976 fps
Writing library: Lavc51.40.4
Audio
Format: MPEG Audio
Format profile: Layer 3
Mode: Joint stereo
Codec ID/Hint: MP3
Bit rate: 320 Kbps
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Writing library: LAMEU
File size: 3.2 GB
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