A version of Caligula was shown in Cannes after a new editor was handed 96 hours of footage. Helen Mirren, who appeared in numerous sex scenes in the infamous X-rated film, attended the screening. She said that the experience of being in the film was like “showing up in a nudist camp every day.”
The genesis of the project was the ambition of Penthouse magazine’s Bob Guccione, who wanted to make his own Citizen Kane—a historical epic with a side of explicit decadence. The direction was handed to Italian Tinto Brass, known for his cult erotic movies—but Guccioni wanted more sex than Brass was willing to put in, and adult film actors were actually brought to the set at nights to shoot scenes which were then spliced into the original. Despite the revisions shown at Cannes, there were still “dozens” of walkouts.
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