Just an addendum to my post of a few days ago about Caligula. It seems that (some) critics have spoken and the consensus is leaning positive.
Jason Gorber: In his original review, Roger Ebert held little back. He found it “sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash,” and “If it is not the worst film I have ever seen, that makes it all the more shameful: People with talent allowed themselves to participate in this travesty.” He even admitted to walking out two hours into what was then a 170-minute film. I’m positively evangelical that one needs to finish the film before writing a word, no matter how egregious the experience. Still, I do understand the rhetorical benefit that added for his vintage take. Having not seen the version that Ebert described as being “not good art … not good cinema, and … not good porn,” I have to admit that I’ve seen far more egregious examples of cinema than this almost charmingly carnal version. That’s not to say that this is a good film, by any means, but it's at least pretty good thanks to the decades that have transpired and the new restoration. Charles Bramesco: Creative jack-of-all-trades Thomas Negovan’s herculean efforts, a three-year process during which he sifted through 96 hours of preserved footage from the notorious original shoot, have elevated the carnal carnival to its originally intended glory. The initially enlisted screenwriter Gore Vidal envisioned a profane political satire on the speed and intensity with which unchecked power corrupts, a decadent sin-a-palooza addressing an America at the tail end of the indulgent, onanistic “Me Decade.” As explained by a series of title cards tacked onto the new-and-drastically-improved edit, producer and Penthouse founder Bob Guccione ran roughshod over Vidal’s script, just the beginning of a shitshow production that saw all major creative personnel either quit, get fired, or be physically barred from entering the set. Concerned about earning potential, Guccione shot and inserted additional passages of hardcore penetration not fully excised by Negovan, but scaled back to make room for the substance of the story. As masturbation fodder, it’s not very good, the wide-shot cinematography and noxious lecher vibes both killing any sense of intimacy, passion, or even simple pleasure. As cinema, however, there’s plenty to be said for the motion picture once declared a “moral holocaust” in the pages of Variety. Catherine Bray: Caligula’s strengths – the elaborate sets (particularly the head-chopping machine), the OTT costumes, the beautiful way that it is lit – are still present and correct. As are the multiple orgies, the infamous fisting scene, the copious nudity and the genuine shock of some of the violence. At the Cannes premiere of the new version, there were some walkouts following the scene where Caligula rapes both bride and bridegroom at a wedding; anyone expecting a purely silly cult movie may be surprised at how dark and upsetting some of it is – and always has been. Meanwhile, Josh Karp (author of Orson Welles's Last Movie) has a piece on the making of the movie.
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AuthorNathanael T. Booth. All views are my own. Archives
April 2024
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