Caligula:
The Ultimate Cut
(2022, 1979/Penthouse/Unobstructed View/Drafthouse Blu-ray
Set)/Cheeky!
4K
(1999 aka Transgressions/MVD/Cult
Epics 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B-/B Sound: B- Extras: B-
Films: C+/B-
Now
for two more films that Director Tinto Brass became famous for, even
if the most well-known of them all had him expelled before it became
a disaster. Lucky him...
Caligula:
The Ultimate Cut
(2022, 1979)
features tow more versions of the infamous Penthouse Magazine feature
film production gone bonkers. Before the magazine's founder/owner
Bob Guccione added new, explicit sexual material to 'sex up' a film
that had more sex in it than I expected to begin with, these are the
two versions (R-rated and X/NC-17 uncensored versions) that have been
in circulation since its official theatrical, wide release on
Blu-ray:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8109/Caligula+%E2%80%93+The+Imperial+Edition+(Im
That
also includes a link to my extensive DVD review of the same material,
so that frees me to address new items here.
Though
there is a 4K set and some sets with more extras, those versions on
not on the new set issued by Drafthouse and Unobscured View. Some
may consider these the pre-censored versions, as the new
reconstruction of earlier takes of the entire film with better acting
when Tinto Brass was still on the film (he gets credit for early
camerawork, but only so much of his personal look survived on this
film, even this earliest version reconstructed) and gives us a rough
idea of a more ambitious attempt to do an uncensored, brutal
companion to the likes of the British TV classic I,
Claudius
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) minus the innovations and that much
great acting.
Like
Richard Donner's version of Superman
II,
the Brass version of Caligula
is just to gone and the makers of this new 'more respectable' cut
could only recapture so much, when you consider footage permanently
lost, too wasted to use and footage even never shot before Brass was
canned by Guccione. With that said, I was shocked at how graphic,
suggestive and even brutal this version was, proof that writer Gore
Vidal was serious about being honest about the madness.
However,
I then noticed between versions (without getting into graphic detail,
you can compare for yourself) that changes Guccione made included
being more Penthouse-graphic to appeal to magazine readers and lovers
of actual XXX films to sell this one. I can also say some changes
show he felt some of the sexual and sexual-abuse moments might were
'too homosexual' for Guccione, so he changed them in some
'fascinating' ways.
Again,
the later version did business upon release despite the bad to
spiteful reviews, but took a while to be profitable because it cost
so much. Whether the earlier Brass version closer to Vidal's version
would have been more critically or commercially successful is hard to
tell, but maybe a little more of the former if nothing else. All
versions I have seen then and now have the same problem of going on
and on and on and on, wallowing in its events. The actors are
trying, but Guccione said he wanted to change movie viewing and
viewers forever.
Instead,
it became a one-off, any innovations commercially or artistically
were made by other films as this was being produced and though Helen
Mirren always liked the film and Malcolm McDowell is happy a more
serious, mature (by comparison) as intended version has been cobbled
together, Guccione, Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud and many others never
lived to see this cut.
Because
of unfinished visual effects, unfinished sets and film flaws, digital
work (ala Star
Trek: The Motion Picture
and the 1980 Flash
Gordon)
were finished very belatedly for the restoration the the liberties
taken here are not awful, but odder since the film is not in as good
a shape as those space films. I also thought the new animated
digital credits that open and close the new cut were not awful, but
they are way too contemporary and I would have tried for something
that looked the age and style of the film. The magazine had
co-produced Roman Polanski's brilliant Chinatown
(1974) with Paramount Pictures, so that all-time classic is the
biggest reason (and NOT the magazine itself) that so many talents
signed on in good faith.
Seeing
this reconstruction, I can see some of that intent, but it did not
add up or work out, which is why Guccione took over and went bonkers
in the process. With movies like Ridley Scott's Gladiator
sequel and his recent, underrated Napoleon
film, plus a cycle of hit TV series like Game
Of Thrones,
Vikings
and its continuations, you can see why there would be interest in
this cut. Sadly, the result is just different, not better.
Here's
what you get in this double set:
Disc
1: The Ultimate Cut
Caligula:
The Ultimate Cut
Cannes 2023 Teaser
English Closed
Captions
French Canadian Subtitles
Feature Length Audio
Commentary with editor Aaron Shaps and producer and reconstructionist
Thomas Negovan
and Feature Length Audio Commentary with author
Grant Morrison and producer and reconstructionist Thomas Negovan.
Disc
2: 1980 Theatrical Version
Caligula:
Restored Original 1980 Theatrical Version (compared this version to
the unrated/uncut version not in this set)
and a Restored Original
Theatrical Trailer.
These
are really well done extras and worth going through after seeing the
films here. That also means a ton of extra on the older set is also
absent here, so you need to have both sets to be a completist, though
the 4-disc version of this new set with 4K discs is the best one to
get if you can get it and want this film. Others may settle for this
two-disc set or a three-disc version. The second disc has what they
have dubbed the Massachusetts version because it is the version shown
there before Guccione pulled it and added his XXX footage. They're
lucky they found it and it is in some rough shape.
One
last note. In the comparison clip in Blu-ray 2, you can see not only
how much more explicit the film got after 1980, but despite the
distressed look all four cuts can have at various times, you also get
two only semi-compatible looks: Tinto Brass warmth and style versus
Penthouse slightly colder signature magazine clarity. Guccione may
have realized this somehow, but he either did not think it was
something worth trying to bridge, just did not care and/or thought
Brass' work was just not clear enough to show sex the exoticism, so
he both shot with less style and more explicitness.
So
that leaves one more thing. After seeing these four version and
hearing more about the film, it is fair to say what many will not.
If Guccione had more ambition, cinematic talent and/or was smart
enough to hire a different director who could handle both substance
and eroticism with ease, a final version of this film that did make
explicit eroticism meld with a substantial narrative could have been
possible, no matter the real life story this was based on. That
would have been groundbreaking and filmmaking might have been changed
for the better on some level.
Instead,
we got all of this, so like Cimino's ambitious Heaven's
Gate,
the silliness of Can't
Stop The Music,
the problematic final version of Freidkin's Cruising,
other ambitious films by major directors that (from 1977 to the early
1980s) bombed, no matter how good they were or might have been
(Scorsese's New
York New York,
Friedkin's Sorcerer,
Altman's highly commercial Popeye,
Coppola's One
From The Heart,
Spielberg's 1941,
Lumet's The
Wiz,
Schlesinger's Honky
Tonk Freeway,
Schaffner's Sphinx,
Parker's Shoot
The Moon,
Ashby's Second-Hand
Hearts,
Forman's Hair,
Frankenheimer's Prophecy)
and others where the final cut by the director became a war and
struggle with the studio became the end of the last golden age of
filmmaking. Even four mixed, problematic Caligula
cuts are daring enough to be on that list.
Tinto
Brass' Cheeky!
4K
(1999 aka Transgressions)
is more like it, one of his best films which I reviewed with other
films of his at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12630/Black+Angel+(2002/aka+Senso+'45/Cult+Epics+D
As
I said in that review: 'the
very sexy Carla (Yuliya Mayarchuk) trying to find an apartment in
London for her boyfriend, but finding all kinds of other men who are
more interested in her, plus a few women. Brass manages to bring his
1970s style into the modern time without loosing any of its classical
sense or look, which is not easy to do: he throws away his usual
pretenses.'
Its
worth seeing again and plays as well here as it ever did.
Extras
include a NEW Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani & Nathaniel
Thompson
New
Interview with cinematographer Massimo Di Venanzo (2024)
New
Isolated Score by Pino Donaggio
Backstage
with Tinto Brass (2000)
Theatrical
Trailers
Photo
Gallery
Double-sided
sleeve with original uncensored Italian poster art
20-Page
illustrated booklet with liner notes by Eugenio Ercolani and
Domenico Monetti
and
a Slipcase.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.66 X 1, HDR (10+;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Cheeky!
4K is
really nice and even a bit better than the import Blu-ray we covered
a few years ago that I liked, so they might have some slight color
differences, but warmth and flesh tones outdo the import Blu-ray (now
out of print) and that is a plus, while the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo
lossless mixes do as much as they can with the original Italian audio
and lesser English dubs. I prefer the Italian and the 5.1 and 2.0
Stereo despite some flaws and limits off of its original theatrical
sound that is very slightly better than the import Blu-ray. Combined
with the 4K image, it plays nicely. A 1080p version is also included
with the same soundtracks and it is good for the format, but the 4K
is preferred.
The
1080p 2.00 X 1 digital High Definition image 2002 Caligula
is not bad for the age of the elements used, though as noted, some
contemporary opening and closing animated credits, plus some digital
work has been done, so it does not look 100% authentic and probably
could not since the original cut was never finished. The 1080p 1.78
X 1 digital High Definition image transfer of the 1980 Massachusetts
version has some rough patches, but between the four cuts on the two
Blu-ray sets, its hard to say what is definitive and not just because
we have not seen the reconstruction in 4K yet. It is also missing
image on the sides a little, but that's the print. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the reconstructed
version and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix on the
Massachusetts have been worked on enough and sound fine for what they
are, but the former can sound more processed than one might like,
though that again might not be out of choice. The latter shows its
age, but has been cleaned up the best they could. Though many will
obviously be a little more interested in the visuals, the sound has
its limits at least as much, like the older Blu-ray release of the
sleazier, later version, so you know what you are getting.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
