1 00:00:17,020 --> 00:00:23,620 Memo to the chief of studio security from head of production of Gore Vidal's 2 00:00:23,620 --> 00:00:24,620 Caligula. 3 00:00:26,540 --> 00:00:32,980 No journalist, photographers, friends, or even family of those involved on the 4 00:00:32,980 --> 00:00:35,140 production will be allowed on the set. 5 00:00:36,060 --> 00:00:42,980 Everyone, repeat everyone, will carry at all times an identity card producible on 6 00:00:42,980 --> 00:00:43,980 demand. 7 00:00:46,030 --> 00:00:49,310 These instructions must be adhered to. 8 00:01:17,770 --> 00:01:22,990 I'm Gore Vidal, and I've written a screenplay about one of the most 9 00:01:22,990 --> 00:01:26,750 extraordinary, some think one of the most wicked young men that ever lived, 10 00:01:26,970 --> 00:01:29,150 the Roman Emperor Caligula. 11 00:01:29,830 --> 00:01:31,810 Rome's really buzzing about the film. 12 00:01:32,150 --> 00:01:35,270 They're a little shocked, maybe, that something like that is going on right 13 00:01:35,270 --> 00:01:36,270 outside the city. 14 00:01:36,750 --> 00:01:38,730 There are many rumors around town. 15 00:01:40,830 --> 00:01:45,470 I don't think I can refer what I've heard now here. 16 00:01:47,590 --> 00:01:51,330 Everything one has heard about Caligula is pure fantasy. 17 00:01:51,590 --> 00:01:55,150 That's probably because no one's been allowed on the set of the film. 18 00:01:56,370 --> 00:02:02,030 Many of the terrible things that we are going to show in this movie are indeed 19 00:02:02,030 --> 00:02:06,930 from history, are indeed from the only two sources that we have, Suetonius and 20 00:02:06,930 --> 00:02:07,930 Tacitus. 21 00:02:08,470 --> 00:02:13,310 And they may be true or they may not be true, but whatever they are, they are 22 00:02:13,310 --> 00:02:15,010 representative of something that... 23 00:02:15,790 --> 00:02:20,990 Those who are interested in history have known for 2,000 years and which until 24 00:02:20,990 --> 00:02:27,270 now have never been, how shall I say, divulged to the general public. 25 00:02:30,890 --> 00:02:37,790 What you are about to see is a documentary on the making of Gore 26 00:02:37,790 --> 00:02:39,330 Vidal's Caligula. 27 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:45,960 Hello, are you running? 28 00:02:46,300 --> 00:02:51,800 This is Malcolm McDowell speaking from the set of Gore Vidal's Caligula. 29 00:02:53,740 --> 00:02:58,300 And we're now at the end of the film, very nearly. We have another three days 30 00:02:58,300 --> 00:02:59,300 to go. 31 00:02:59,640 --> 00:03:02,060 It's very nearly Christmas and we're all freezing. 32 00:03:03,900 --> 00:03:08,160 The last shot was actually filmed on New Year's Eve. 33 00:03:15,660 --> 00:03:22,320 It was very cold and here in Rome an incredible motion picture saga was 34 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:23,500 drawing to a close. 35 00:03:30,100 --> 00:03:36,940 The brief tragic story of a young man to whom the inexplicable vagaries 36 00:03:36,940 --> 00:03:42,380 of human history had decreed an empire had been told. 37 00:03:48,750 --> 00:03:52,230 I have existed from the morning of the world, and I shall exist until the last 38 00:03:52,230 --> 00:03:53,870 star falls from the night. 39 00:03:54,230 --> 00:03:59,130 Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man, 40 00:03:59,310 --> 00:04:03,790 and therefore I am... a god. 41 00:04:13,630 --> 00:04:15,550 What's it like with your husband? 42 00:04:15,950 --> 00:04:16,990 What's what like? 43 00:04:18,100 --> 00:04:21,399 He's so fat. He's disgusting. 44 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:28,780 He's not. He's just loud. But tiny where it counts. 45 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:30,160 How do you know? 46 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:32,760 I saw him at the bars. 47 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:39,840 The rumors, speculation, and controversy generated by Gore Vidal's Caligula 48 00:04:39,840 --> 00:04:42,800 still continue to this day. 49 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:45,840 Malcolm McDowell. 50 00:04:46,170 --> 00:04:50,010 The young British actor who achieved international stardom in Stanley 51 00:04:50,010 --> 00:04:55,690 Kubrick's Clockwork Orange plays the very demanding role of Caligula. What's 52 00:04:55,690 --> 00:04:56,690 happening to you now? 53 00:04:57,490 --> 00:05:03,790 Nothing. His 77-year-old grandfather and predecessor, Tiberius Caesar, is played 54 00:05:03,790 --> 00:05:05,030 by Peter O'Toole. 55 00:05:05,850 --> 00:05:11,570 Sir John Gielgud plays Nerva, senator, friend of Tiberius. 56 00:05:12,690 --> 00:05:15,470 Teresa Ann Savoy plays Drusilla. 57 00:05:16,010 --> 00:05:18,310 Caligula's sister and favorite lover. 58 00:05:18,950 --> 00:05:25,190 Helen Mirren, member of Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company, plays Saisonia, his 59 00:05:25,190 --> 00:05:26,190 wife. 60 00:05:27,010 --> 00:05:33,290 The film was directed by Tinto Brass, with additional scenes 61 00:05:33,290 --> 00:05:40,270 directed and filmed by Bob Guccione and Giancarlo Lui. 62 00:05:56,430 --> 00:06:01,290 It was early in the Roman spring when construction began on the first of the 63 00:06:01,290 --> 00:06:08,230 64 huge and complex sets that alone distinguished this film from 64 00:06:08,230 --> 00:06:10,370 any of its epic predecessors. 65 00:06:11,130 --> 00:06:16,770 And work on a scale reminiscent of the late Cecil B. DeMille's more spectacular 66 00:06:16,770 --> 00:06:20,650 efforts continued for over a year. 67 00:06:22,390 --> 00:06:23,890 Hollywood on the Tiber. 68 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:27,220 had once more returned to Rome. 69 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:34,480 The reasons for filming this picture in Italy are fairly obvious. 70 00:06:36,380 --> 00:06:43,140 Firstly, it is the historic site of 71 00:06:43,140 --> 00:06:48,600 the Roman emperors. This is where Caligula lived, where he loved, and 72 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:49,600 where he died. 73 00:06:50,660 --> 00:06:51,940 And apart from that, 74 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:58,000 Making a film of this magnitude, particularly because we had to start 75 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,380 from scratch, that is to say, every single prop had to be manufactured, 76 00:07:01,700 --> 00:07:07,860 every bit of costuming, clothing, wigs, the architecture, it all had to be done 77 00:07:07,860 --> 00:07:08,679 over again. 78 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:13,200 There was no such thing as a prop house in Italy that was prepared, or anywhere 79 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:15,660 else in the world for that matter, that was prepared to supply the sort of 80 00:07:15,660 --> 00:07:16,660 things that we needed. 81 00:07:28,970 --> 00:07:32,290 And in fact, we needed hundreds of artisans, not just men who were 82 00:07:32,290 --> 00:07:38,770 particularly expert in the area of costuming, sandal making, 83 00:07:38,990 --> 00:07:44,550 propping, whatever description, but men who have a particular artisan, with a 84 00:07:44,550 --> 00:07:49,370 particular feeling for Italy, for Rome, the kind of architecture that we 85 00:07:49,370 --> 00:07:51,250 encounter on every single street corner. 86 00:07:58,060 --> 00:08:02,600 And there's no greater concentration of this sort of talent anywhere else in the 87 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,160 world. Italy is the best. 88 00:08:08,340 --> 00:08:13,160 And also because Italy is, and particularly Rome, is the home of Danilo 89 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:17,380 Donati, whom I personally feel, and I think a lot of critics will agree with 90 00:08:17,380 --> 00:08:22,360 me, is the very best art director that a film like this could have. 91 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:27,140 Danilo has won at least three or four Academy Awards. 92 00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:33,600 He's probably the finest costume and set designer in the world. 93 00:08:35,620 --> 00:08:39,880 And I wanted him. He was part of the package of excellence that we were 94 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:40,880 putting together. 95 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:44,360 And Danilo's a strange guy. It's very difficult to get him outside of Rome. 96 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:50,540 From bronze to clay to plaster. 97 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:54,790 This. is the god Jupiter. 98 00:08:56,490 --> 00:09:02,550 Sculpted and cast exactly as if the Romans themselves would have created the 99 00:09:02,550 --> 00:09:08,470 original. A mold is made, covered by various thin layers of plaster. 100 00:09:09,350 --> 00:09:15,130 Then a final thick layer is spread over all to form the outer shell. 101 00:09:15,530 --> 00:09:18,590 When it dries, it's chipped away. 102 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:23,280 to reveal the finished statue underneath. 103 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:48,900 Expert draftsmen, using photographs of the remains of many Roman vessels, 104 00:09:49,610 --> 00:09:55,210 together with other historic references, executed their most extraordinary work 105 00:09:55,210 --> 00:09:56,210 to date. 106 00:09:57,390 --> 00:10:03,330 It was to be the largest single prop ever designed for a motion picture. 107 00:10:04,830 --> 00:10:11,170 A Roman ship, which would never put to sea its 300-foot nautical brothel, 108 00:10:11,210 --> 00:10:14,470 was gold-leafed from stem to stern. 109 00:10:15,910 --> 00:10:19,810 and was decorated with hand-carved, larger-than-life statues. 110 00:10:21,750 --> 00:10:28,510 These sculpted figures and ore carvings were models based upon detailed 111 00:10:28,510 --> 00:10:35,310 research of actual Roman artifacts, which are like this material, hidden in 112 00:10:35,310 --> 00:10:39,870 the secret vaults of the Museum of Naples, and shown in this book, 113 00:10:40,030 --> 00:10:43,650 containing photographs of the ruins of Pompeii. 114 00:10:49,260 --> 00:10:55,240 As history teaches us, sex, as expressed in many of its forms, 115 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:58,400 was a way of life to the Romans. 116 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:15,080 When I heard from Franco Rossellini that Gore was going to do this 117 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:18,440 script, I was delighted. 118 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:24,580 I took the first opportunity to go to Italy, to Ravella, where he lived, and 119 00:11:24,580 --> 00:11:28,420 spend three or four days with him just discussing the script and some of the 120 00:11:28,420 --> 00:11:30,620 ideas that we had conceptually in the beginning. 121 00:11:32,500 --> 00:11:39,140 And I found him to be enormously well-informed, enormously himself 122 00:11:39,140 --> 00:11:41,080 excited by the project. 123 00:11:43,660 --> 00:11:48,960 And he had this great willingness to pour himself into it. 124 00:11:49,260 --> 00:11:53,000 Not just to sit down and write the script, but to go, to make a personal 125 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:58,780 pilgrimage to some of the historic sites that involved the life and death of 126 00:11:58,780 --> 00:11:59,780 Caligula. 127 00:12:02,940 --> 00:12:08,840 I knew that Gore would be as liberal and as liberated as I wanted him to be and 128 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:10,160 as I wanted the film to be. 129 00:12:14,560 --> 00:12:17,160 I've always been interested in the Roman Empire. 130 00:12:18,380 --> 00:12:23,820 Since, after all, like so many of us, I'm a child of the American Empire, and 131 00:12:23,820 --> 00:12:28,080 empires tend to be more like one another than different from one another. 132 00:12:32,620 --> 00:12:38,880 In a sense, we are looking in a mirror, and we are seeing not just an emperor 2 133 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:42,080 ,000 years dead, but we see ourselves. 134 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:45,420 It's odd to think that 135 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:53,600 18 years ago, almost exactly, I was here in Italy writing 136 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:58,760 a film called Ben-Hur. There's a photograph of the first day of shooting 137 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:02,380 with Charlton Heston, William Wyler, the director. 138 00:13:03,660 --> 00:13:10,660 And now, 18 years later, I'm back in Rome, and we are doing a movie 139 00:13:10,660 --> 00:13:13,380 called Gorby Dow's Caligula. 140 00:13:39,500 --> 00:13:42,660 History tends to be pretty much what we make. 141 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:47,260 Each generation has its own view of Roman emperors. 142 00:13:48,380 --> 00:13:55,260 It was a strange society that's not as corrupt as it is sometimes 143 00:13:55,260 --> 00:13:56,260 depicted. 144 00:14:01,060 --> 00:14:02,800 And, of course, there was slavery. 145 00:14:03,380 --> 00:14:05,560 You could own another person. 146 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:15,620 Caligula lived nearly 2,000 years ago. 147 00:14:16,260 --> 00:14:22,360 The question is, why do a story about a young man who was murdered 2,000 years 148 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:27,900 ago? He was an emperor of Rome. There's much written about. 149 00:14:28,260 --> 00:14:30,220 We don't know whether what we know is true or not. 150 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:32,580 We know that he did exist. 151 00:14:32,980 --> 00:14:34,800 He was regarded as a monster. 152 00:14:38,090 --> 00:14:43,490 And I think what attracted me to Caligula as a character is what happens 153 00:14:43,490 --> 00:14:48,730 if you take a normal young man, rather ordinary, 154 00:14:49,170 --> 00:14:55,550 and you give him absolute power of life and death over everybody in the world. 155 00:14:57,230 --> 00:15:03,410 And I think it's a fascinating study to watch as Caligula begins to regard 156 00:15:03,410 --> 00:15:05,310 people as things. 157 00:15:20,690 --> 00:15:27,570 In a sense, when you allow people the 158 00:15:27,570 --> 00:15:32,950 power to use other people as things, you begin to treat them 159 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:40,280 As toys and as children sooner or later break their toys, so Caligula began to 160 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:42,520 break people, to murder them. 161 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:57,060 I'm not particularly in love with blood and violence, but there is a degree of 162 00:15:57,060 --> 00:15:58,060 that. 163 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:08,600 When Caligula became emperor, I think he tried to be a good emperor. 164 00:16:08,860 --> 00:16:10,720 He tried to be popular. 165 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:14,180 In fact, he always was popular with the people until the end of his life. 166 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:20,140 Today, we begin a new era. 167 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:27,920 All those who have been exiled from Rome, I do now recall, I grant a 168 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:29,120 general amnesty. 169 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:48,160 I think the most interesting thing about him is his terrible family. 170 00:16:49,460 --> 00:16:54,580 His grandfather, by adoption, the Emperor Tiberius, in whose reign was 171 00:16:54,580 --> 00:16:55,640 born Jesus Christ. 172 00:16:56,820 --> 00:17:02,280 Tiberius managed to murder Khalil, his father, his brothers, put away most of 173 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:03,280 the family. 174 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:08,400 So as I begin the movie, the story... 175 00:17:09,609 --> 00:17:14,630 You see this young man terrified that this wicked old man, played by Peter 176 00:17:14,630 --> 00:17:16,470 O'Toole, is going to murder him. 177 00:17:19,770 --> 00:17:24,970 So in a sense, one has great sympathy for Caligula. It's not his fault that he 178 00:17:24,970 --> 00:17:29,330 was born into this family. And it's not his fault that his grandfather would 179 00:17:29,330 --> 00:17:30,330 like to murder him. 180 00:17:30,610 --> 00:17:33,290 So suddenly it's a case of who will murder whom. 181 00:17:36,140 --> 00:17:37,640 My colleague has survived. 182 00:17:38,060 --> 00:17:43,300 And I find that very terrible things were done by him. 183 00:17:44,020 --> 00:17:46,580 Some of these things we show in the film. 184 00:17:47,940 --> 00:17:49,380 Very slowly. 185 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:53,220 I want him to feel death. 186 00:17:53,460 --> 00:17:55,600 I want him to smell death. 187 00:18:15,210 --> 00:18:17,130 His wife's expecting her first child. 188 00:18:17,450 --> 00:18:21,390 We're not quite sure who the father is. Him or God. 189 00:18:45,550 --> 00:18:50,170 Soon. The great love of his life was his own sister, Drusilla, and I think that 190 00:18:50,170 --> 00:18:51,170 that has to be shown. 191 00:18:51,570 --> 00:18:53,250 And you will be my queen. 192 00:19:10,350 --> 00:19:11,810 You can't marry a sister. 193 00:19:12,790 --> 00:19:13,910 You can in Egypt. 194 00:19:14,700 --> 00:19:15,760 But we're in Rome. 195 00:19:17,100 --> 00:19:18,680 And you already promised. 196 00:19:21,780 --> 00:19:25,140 And when she died, I think he began to change. 197 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:34,640 And he picked as his enemy the ruling class of the country, which was the 198 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:35,640 Senate. 199 00:19:50,570 --> 00:19:53,430 Treasury, which was a considerable amount of money that Tiberius had 200 00:19:53,430 --> 00:19:56,670 amassed. He was giving it away to the people in order to be popular. 201 00:19:57,250 --> 00:20:01,050 Meanwhile, he was systematically killing off the members of the Senate. 202 00:20:02,950 --> 00:20:07,830 Systematically, he began to rape their sons, their daughters, their wives. 203 00:20:08,210 --> 00:20:10,390 He was fairly indiscriminate. 204 00:20:12,990 --> 00:20:16,610 And this, more than anything else, shocked Rome. 205 00:20:16,890 --> 00:20:18,970 It was a pretty unshockable society. 206 00:20:41,830 --> 00:20:44,550 And finally, at the end, they could take it no longer. 207 00:20:45,410 --> 00:20:48,010 So their dignity assaulted and affronted. 208 00:20:48,430 --> 00:20:50,170 They conspired to murder him. 209 00:20:57,930 --> 00:21:02,210 And then finally, at the age of 29, he was murdered. 210 00:21:03,150 --> 00:21:04,150 would be murdered. 211 00:21:04,650 --> 00:21:10,730 And in a sense, what is quite exciting in the character is he looks forward to 212 00:21:10,730 --> 00:21:17,330 it and he plunges into death, which for him is the last great trip. 213 00:22:52,910 --> 00:22:58,850 People think of him as a revolutionary or a figure of 214 00:22:58,850 --> 00:23:01,030 fun or a madman. 215 00:23:01,230 --> 00:23:05,110 There are so many aspects to him. We know very little really about him. 216 00:23:05,370 --> 00:23:09,950 Just the information that was given to us through a historian, a Roman 217 00:23:09,950 --> 00:23:11,270 historian called Suetonius. 218 00:23:11,730 --> 00:23:14,530 And he was from the other side of the family. 219 00:23:14,770 --> 00:23:18,410 So Suetonius paints Caligula as a very wicked madman. 220 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:24,460 That's the only reason that Suetonius can see why he did so many, on the face 221 00:23:24,460 --> 00:23:25,480 of it, crazy things. 222 00:23:26,260 --> 00:23:30,000 My interpretation of the character is not quite like that. 223 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:37,220 You think I'm a lunatic, don't you? 224 00:23:38,180 --> 00:23:40,080 You don't understand me. 225 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,220 We worked on the script, naturally. 226 00:23:45,420 --> 00:23:52,280 I wanted to work on my own character, my own part, and we wanted to take it a 227 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:58,820 few steps further and give Caligula a definite point of view and give a reason 228 00:23:58,820 --> 00:24:00,080 for this so-called madness. 229 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:13,259 Yes, Jupiter. 230 00:24:13,260 --> 00:24:14,260 What? 231 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:17,260 Yes, I hear you. 232 00:24:18,740 --> 00:24:19,740 What? 233 00:24:21,340 --> 00:24:22,340 Speak up! 234 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,060 He's very angry because I'm the king of the gods now. 235 00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:34,640 But he has to do what I tell him. 236 00:24:41,360 --> 00:24:42,360 Don't you, Jupiter! 237 00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:48,680 I suppose I see Caligula as, to put it in a nutshell, the ultimate anarchist. 238 00:24:50,460 --> 00:24:53,840 I, Caligula Caesar, command in the name of the Senate and the people of Rome. 239 00:24:55,980 --> 00:25:02,980 The Roman Empire, like any other empires, are made up 240 00:25:02,980 --> 00:25:08,200 purely of bureaucrats. The army and the priests and everything else, and he 241 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:09,800 systematically goes... 242 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:15,120 from one institution to the other, trying to provoke them and trying to get 243 00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:20,120 an action out of them. And this is why, in our view, the misconception is that 244 00:25:20,120 --> 00:25:21,540 Caligula was completely mad. 245 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:26,800 Things are going far too well, Longinus. Too well? 246 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:29,640 Yes. No wars, no catastrophes, nothing. 247 00:25:33,060 --> 00:25:34,060 Yes, Lord. 248 00:25:36,940 --> 00:25:39,320 Can't you ever say anything except, yes, Lord? 249 00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:41,860 No wonder life's so dull. 250 00:25:46,980 --> 00:25:53,980 Having no work 251 00:25:53,980 --> 00:25:54,980 to do? 252 00:25:55,660 --> 00:25:59,180 Anyway, he tries to destroy these institutions. 253 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:03,140 Of course, naturally, he never fails. I mean, he does fail. 254 00:26:03,740 --> 00:26:06,820 simply because it's impossible to destroy the bureaucracy. 255 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:11,420 And I think that that is a very relevant point for modern-day audiences. 256 00:26:15,120 --> 00:26:20,720 Tiberius's palace, once poised on the topmost point of the tiny jewel-like 257 00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:24,300 island of Capri, provides the setting for our story. 258 00:26:27,740 --> 00:26:30,220 Today, the ruins seem harmless. 259 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:35,600 But the legends passed down to us tell of terrible happenings. 260 00:26:36,100 --> 00:26:38,900 Here is where Tiberius used to walk. 261 00:26:39,900 --> 00:26:46,060 And up here is where he indulged in his favorite way of disposing of 262 00:26:46,060 --> 00:26:48,300 those who displeased him. 263 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,220 It is still called the 264 00:26:51,220 --> 00:26:56,180 Tiberius Jump. 265 00:26:59,150 --> 00:27:06,070 When Tiberius died on the island at the age of 78, Caligula inherited the city 266 00:27:06,070 --> 00:27:07,770 and an empire. 267 00:27:08,550 --> 00:27:11,110 Indeed, the world. 268 00:27:13,810 --> 00:27:19,330 The Rome of the first century AD was a city of enormous contrasts. 269 00:27:20,050 --> 00:27:24,410 On one hand, there was great poverty and squalor. 270 00:27:24,970 --> 00:27:29,390 And there were those whose life was a constant search for bread and a corner 271 00:27:29,390 --> 00:27:30,390 to sleep in. 272 00:27:33,950 --> 00:27:36,710 Human rights were unheard of. 273 00:27:37,450 --> 00:27:44,410 And whereas the terrible games at the Colosseum had not yet started, people 274 00:27:44,410 --> 00:27:46,870 were already being thrown to the lions. 275 00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:01,380 On the other hand, there were the privileged few who had much more than 276 00:28:01,380 --> 00:28:02,680 they could possibly need. 277 00:28:03,420 --> 00:28:10,360 And here, the film draws some succinct parallels with Western society as we 278 00:28:10,360 --> 00:28:11,360 know it today. 279 00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:18,320 Today, Caligula would be seen as a revolutionary, a dangerous radical. 280 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:24,040 Is it any wonder that the memory of this fledgling emperor 281 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:31,600 despite his three brief years on the throne, should survive these 2,000 282 00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:32,600 years. 283 00:29:05,810 --> 00:29:12,710 I think the only reason for dealing with a historical figure is if you 284 00:29:12,710 --> 00:29:18,630 have something to say about the way people are today, the way people have 285 00:29:18,630 --> 00:29:19,630 always been. 286 00:29:29,870 --> 00:29:36,330 be Gord Vidal as Caligula, but I myself, sitting there in the audience, would 287 00:29:36,330 --> 00:29:38,630 never do the dreadful things that Caligula did. 288 00:29:40,450 --> 00:29:44,530 Well, I think that there is a Caligula in everybody. 289 00:29:45,350 --> 00:29:50,690 This, after all, was a pretty normal, average young man put into an abnormal 290 00:29:50,690 --> 00:29:52,430 and extraordinary situation. 291 00:29:53,850 --> 00:29:58,630 And I think that if I can communicate to an audience 292 00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:05,580 That in this monster there is something that is in present in all of us 293 00:30:05,580 --> 00:30:11,060 But for one reason or another generally lack of opportunity 294 00:30:11,060 --> 00:30:17,840 Or some ethical sense that stops us therefore we are not in 295 00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:24,840 action Caligula But I'm trying to go to something much deeper Which is that 296 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:25,840 in our dreams? 297 00:30:26,620 --> 00:30:27,980 We are Caligula 298 00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:32,060 And what, after all, is a film? What is celluloid? 299 00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:37,520 But dreams made into a kind of shadow reality. 300 00:30:46,180 --> 00:30:53,020 I know that there is a terrible controversy between the 301 00:30:53,020 --> 00:30:54,420 director and the author, Gore Vidal. 302 00:30:56,670 --> 00:31:00,650 The director told me that the writer wanted to do a realistic film and had 303 00:31:00,650 --> 00:31:02,330 done an extensive amount of research. 304 00:31:03,430 --> 00:31:07,710 On the other hand, the director wanted to do something completely different and 305 00:31:07,710 --> 00:31:09,730 said Vidal had no understanding of history. 306 00:31:12,650 --> 00:31:16,930 By now, I think everybody in America is aware of the... Well, I think everybody 307 00:31:16,930 --> 00:31:22,970 in the Western world is aware of the problems between Gore Vidal and our 308 00:31:22,970 --> 00:31:23,990 director, Tinto Brass. 309 00:31:25,770 --> 00:31:32,230 Gore was struck by the fact that a great number of directors today take credit 310 00:31:32,230 --> 00:31:35,430 for the films that they produce. They're known as the authors of the films. 311 00:31:36,190 --> 00:31:43,170 And Gore felt that the true author of the film was in fact 312 00:31:43,170 --> 00:31:48,730 the man who wrote the screenplay, not the director. He said that 313 00:31:48,730 --> 00:31:54,990 directors were really parasites and that they lived off the backs of the authors. 314 00:31:56,200 --> 00:32:00,340 And that a director would be well advised to simply follow the directions 315 00:32:00,340 --> 00:32:03,420 as well as the dialogue of the script writer. 316 00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:11,540 Well, this is as unrealistic, in fact, as some of the subsequent antics of 317 00:32:11,540 --> 00:32:12,540 Tinto Brass. 318 00:32:12,860 --> 00:32:19,400 What Tinto Brass says is that he's trying to make a film on the 319 00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:20,780 effects of power. 320 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:25,400 I've heard about this film ever since they were trying to put it up. 321 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:30,780 in the house of Gore Vidal when he had finished writing the script. 322 00:32:31,180 --> 00:32:37,420 And he also asked, as a friend probably, my advice 323 00:32:37,420 --> 00:32:41,100 on who would have been the best director. 324 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:48,280 And I said, jokingly, that in order to make a film on a sexual maniac 325 00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:54,200 and a madman, you needed another sexual maniac and madman. 326 00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:57,260 And... The only answer was Finto Brass. 327 00:32:58,500 --> 00:33:01,280 Who is Caligula for me? 328 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:06,120 Surely I know exactly what he's not. 329 00:33:06,700 --> 00:33:09,820 He's not what he is for Gore Vidal, that's for sure. 330 00:33:10,140 --> 00:33:16,740 Anyway, from what comes out from Zvetonius, it seems that 331 00:33:16,740 --> 00:33:22,980 Caligula wanted the power just to use it in a 332 00:33:22,980 --> 00:33:24,820 positive way. 333 00:33:25,290 --> 00:33:31,670 even a moral way but that from a moment a certain moment on he started becoming 334 00:33:31,670 --> 00:33:38,230 he became crazy foolish and totally immoral so 335 00:33:38,230 --> 00:33:44,890 i did a how do you call it um spiritually 336 00:33:44,890 --> 00:33:50,590 spiritual meeting and i evolved the spirits of caligula and he told me that 337 00:33:50,590 --> 00:33:53,170 i was correct the 65 percent 338 00:33:53,980 --> 00:33:56,420 in the interpretation of his character. 339 00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:02,740 So, well, I am happy. The 65% is a good percentage. 340 00:34:05,780 --> 00:34:12,699 And now I hope to keep the 65% and, if possible, even to bring 341 00:34:12,699 --> 00:34:18,659 it to the 70, 80%. That would be really a good, good... 342 00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:23,800 percentage in front of such a big character as Caligula was. 343 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:38,100 I'm using sex, surely, because I believe deeply in sex as a medium of 344 00:34:38,100 --> 00:34:39,100 communication. 345 00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:43,340 I mean that everybody understands the language of sex. 346 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:48,280 Action! 347 00:34:58,250 --> 00:34:59,670 The Imperial Brothel. 348 00:35:02,970 --> 00:35:08,130 As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, we have gone to great expense to bring you 349 00:35:08,130 --> 00:35:10,470 the finest flesh in our empire. 350 00:36:31,580 --> 00:36:33,580 victims that power does. 351 00:36:36,380 --> 00:36:42,740 I'm deeply convinced that power is something that is absolutely 352 00:36:42,740 --> 00:36:43,740 immoral. 353 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,540 Morality of power is immorality. 354 00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:55,200 I must admit that power, I hate it deeply, but it also appealing to me 355 00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:56,200 deeply. 356 00:36:56,560 --> 00:37:01,840 There is such a big amount of energy, of vitality involved with power that it can 357 00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:02,840 be fascinating. 358 00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:10,600 But at the same time, I think that it is a duty of an artist to warn 359 00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:17,460 people about the dangers that are implicit in power and mainly in the 360 00:37:17,460 --> 00:37:18,460 men of power. 361 00:37:24,620 --> 00:37:29,560 If one takes into consideration that a film is really the work, it's probably 362 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:36,440 the only art form today that's made up of the collective 363 00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:38,780 efforts of a great number of people. 364 00:37:41,720 --> 00:37:47,460 And both Gore and Tinto really have to accept, not only in the practical 365 00:37:47,460 --> 00:37:53,860 sense, but in the philosophical sense, that neither one nor the other of them 366 00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:57,400 are all important. 367 00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:03,240 And that they are, together with everyone else, contributors. 368 00:38:05,500 --> 00:38:10,820 Contributors to a single final work of art. 369 00:38:12,540 --> 00:38:14,200 An enormous work of art. 370 00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:32,340 An enormous work that could never have been completed without all the efforts 371 00:38:32,340 --> 00:38:34,100 of all the people that were involved. 372 00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:39,800 Many, many talented and creative people. 373 00:38:44,140 --> 00:38:50,380 The rigid disciplines and pressures of filmmaking were felt by all. 374 00:38:50,940 --> 00:38:52,660 But there was no letting up. 375 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:54,320 And as time passed, 376 00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,620 Men and machines seem to contribute to a single goal. 377 00:39:00,420 --> 00:39:01,420 People. 378 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:03,920 Work. 379 00:39:04,700 --> 00:39:08,860 The days and the nights punctuated the continuous labor. 380 00:39:09,820 --> 00:39:11,420 The flow of time. 381 00:39:12,180 --> 00:39:13,280 Of life. 382 00:39:14,700 --> 00:39:19,040 Uniting the legends of yesterday with the work realities of today. 383 00:39:28,080 --> 00:39:29,480 Night became day. 384 00:39:32,260 --> 00:39:34,260 And day became night. 385 00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:40,580 And the strain of all those long hours began to make its present obvious. 386 00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:49,580 But in the end, as always, the show went on. 387 00:40:09,529 --> 00:40:11,650 The Emperor! 388 00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:03,880 Alice Caligula, came about as a result of the decision that we took in the very 389 00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:05,980 beginning, and that was to bar the press. 390 00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:11,760 This is the kind of decision that one doesn't take lightly because one wants 391 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:13,260 as much publicity as one can get. 392 00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:19,760 But because of the extraordinary nature of the film, 393 00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:24,080 even to the way in which it was being cast, 394 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:38,040 We didn't want people with the wrong idea to 395 00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:43,720 start talking about what they had seen and exactly what we were doing. 396 00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:55,480 So the result was that a considerable amount of rumor was bandied about and in 397 00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:57,180 fact picked up by the press all over the world. 398 00:41:58,780 --> 00:41:59,960 But it was always rumor. 399 00:42:23,340 --> 00:42:28,620 No one to this day to this very moment unless they've actually seen the film 400 00:42:28,620 --> 00:42:30,280 knows what's in it 401 00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:36,280 And it was important to, once we had begun, to maintain the secrecy of 402 00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:40,080 production. We had people who, cameramen who tried to break in. We had people who 403 00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:44,960 tried out for parts of the film who were in fact journalists rather than actors. 404 00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:50,880 And I'm happy to say that although a few pictures, a few still pictures were 405 00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:57,100 pirated and secreted out of the organization, out of the studio, out of 406 00:42:57,100 --> 00:42:59,820 the production, that... 407 00:43:01,580 --> 00:43:07,480 No one person or no one collection of photographs or no one 408 00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:14,360 grouping together of stories and rumors can tell exactly what happened, exactly 409 00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:20,080 what we did. That was and remained at all times an absolute secret. 410 00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:28,940 One by one I watched you murder your family, your friends. 411 00:43:30,110 --> 00:43:31,510 The best men in Rome. 412 00:43:33,790 --> 00:43:39,330 I went one day to the set and saw Sir John Gielgud and Peter O'Toole lounging 413 00:43:39,330 --> 00:43:43,430 around in the bathroom with lots of naked, pretty little boys. 414 00:43:44,150 --> 00:43:46,990 And I was impressed. 415 00:43:48,430 --> 00:43:49,430 Liar! 416 00:44:26,839 --> 00:44:33,480 This unusual secrecy surrounding the production, particularly because of the 417 00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:39,540 few selected exceptions to the rule and the planned leaks to the news media, 418 00:44:40,220 --> 00:44:43,980 created a great deal of interest and gossip around Groton. 419 00:44:45,060 --> 00:44:50,900 People in the media did guess that unusual things were indeed happening 420 00:44:50,900 --> 00:44:52,880 behind those closed doors. 421 00:44:53,580 --> 00:45:00,320 And some of them may even have deserved the rumors they themselves had 422 00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:01,320 generated. 423 00:45:06,940 --> 00:45:08,900 We've heard things about... 424 00:45:09,669 --> 00:45:13,170 really explicit and somewhat degenerate sex scenes. 425 00:45:13,610 --> 00:45:16,870 And the studio, of course, is encouraging all that, I think. 426 00:45:17,310 --> 00:45:19,810 They just keep saying, oh, well, you'll see, you'll see. 427 00:45:20,030 --> 00:45:21,650 And they've barred people from the set. 428 00:45:37,350 --> 00:45:38,370 We've heard a lot of 429 00:45:39,730 --> 00:45:42,310 News. Malcolm McDowell in bed with his horse. 430 00:45:43,110 --> 00:45:44,110 News. 431 00:45:45,690 --> 00:45:47,750 Malcolm McDowell going to bed with his sister. 432 00:45:48,210 --> 00:45:51,110 Those kinds of things. They got people a little bit excited. 433 00:45:52,570 --> 00:45:59,090 Incest and homosexuality shown rather explicitly, but nobody knows what 434 00:45:59,090 --> 00:46:02,470 kind of aversion we'll get here in Italy. I don't know. I'd like to see the 435 00:46:02,470 --> 00:46:05,190 original, if it is as bad as they say. 436 00:46:13,300 --> 00:46:17,140 We have lots of sex in the film. 437 00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:23,720 I think in Rome of that time, the decadent period of Rome, that sex was 438 00:46:23,720 --> 00:46:30,120 used as a pleasurable exercise and not frowned upon. It was only when the 439 00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:36,920 Christian ethic came into being that the famous Roman orgy 440 00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:37,920 was frowned upon. 441 00:46:38,100 --> 00:46:41,720 But we treat it as part of everyday life and therefore... 442 00:46:42,750 --> 00:46:43,750 People enjoy it. 443 00:46:55,490 --> 00:47:00,930 I never thought I would find myself in a real live orgy. 444 00:47:02,090 --> 00:47:06,770 It was exciting. It was tormenting. 445 00:47:09,570 --> 00:47:10,890 I love sex. 446 00:47:12,750 --> 00:47:13,950 It comes very naturally to me. 447 00:47:15,570 --> 00:47:20,870 It's the embodiment, if you like, of all the good qualities of life. 448 00:47:21,370 --> 00:47:23,490 You can feel happy. You can feel sad. 449 00:47:23,990 --> 00:47:26,510 It can bring out all kinds of emotions in you. 450 00:47:28,030 --> 00:47:29,070 It's fun. 451 00:47:31,130 --> 00:47:32,029 It's people. 452 00:47:32,030 --> 00:47:33,070 It's togetherness. 453 00:47:34,010 --> 00:47:35,170 It's great. 454 00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:45,600 Quite an experience. I got a chance to watch and to look around at everybody 455 00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:49,580 else. In fact, most people looked like they were enjoying it. 456 00:47:53,820 --> 00:47:58,320 I suppose when I was looking at the other girls doing their thing, I was 457 00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:00,980 wondering what they were thinking. 458 00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:08,000 It was a real orgy. People were actually doing it. 459 00:48:08,300 --> 00:48:14,940 and I was not in the least inhibited. I did not feel shy or that 460 00:48:14,940 --> 00:48:16,520 I was doing something bad. 461 00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:23,160 I wasn't ashamed of anything that I did in the film because it's something that 462 00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:24,580 everyone does all the time. 463 00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:29,980 The Romans admitted it, but we don't. We have hang-ups about it. 464 00:48:39,820 --> 00:48:43,540 And the film is explicit, sexually explicit, there's no question about it. 465 00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,180 Now, nowhere do we make any apologies for this. 466 00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:53,220 Nor do I wish now to provide any kind of exceptional rationale or apology. 467 00:48:54,560 --> 00:49:00,620 Suffice it to say that in order to make this film historically accurate, and it 468 00:49:00,620 --> 00:49:07,120 was an important part of the original concept, we decided to show life in Rome 469 00:49:07,120 --> 00:49:08,720 exactly as it was. 470 00:49:10,540 --> 00:49:15,080 And that meant taking into consideration a new kind of morality, a kind of 471 00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:19,680 morality that was peculiar to Roman culture, the Roman mores. 472 00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:31,720 I've always had fantasies of being in something like that, performing sex on 473 00:49:31,720 --> 00:49:32,720 film. 474 00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:38,000 I was excited, anxious, and... 475 00:49:38,540 --> 00:49:45,520 They told me the movie would be strong sexually, but I didn't know specifically 476 00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:48,100 what I would do, what I was going to do. 477 00:49:48,620 --> 00:49:55,200 But at the time, I became very close with Annika DiLorenzo, 478 00:49:55,340 --> 00:49:56,680 who was the pet of the year. 479 00:49:57,340 --> 00:50:04,320 And we preferred to do something very sexual in Caligula 480 00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:07,460 with one another, knowing we could trust each other. 481 00:50:07,820 --> 00:50:14,820 knowing that we were beautiful together, knowing we could imagine that 482 00:50:14,820 --> 00:50:16,420 and that we could act it out. 483 00:50:18,020 --> 00:50:19,080 It was spontaneous. 484 00:50:20,260 --> 00:50:22,160 We didn't pre-plan it. 485 00:50:22,820 --> 00:50:24,100 We made love together. 486 00:50:24,580 --> 00:50:27,000 There was no jealousy. We related to each other. 487 00:50:29,660 --> 00:50:30,740 So we did it. 488 00:50:50,320 --> 00:50:57,140 indicates nothing more than the fact that we see Rome as 489 00:50:57,140 --> 00:51:01,460 accurately as possible in the historic sense. 490 00:51:03,020 --> 00:51:07,080 And we think this is absolutely vital to the success of the film. 491 00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:14,560 The reason why we decided to make Caligula in the first place was to 492 00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:19,220 bring together two diametrically opposed 493 00:51:21,890 --> 00:51:22,990 Aspects of the film industry. 494 00:51:23,950 --> 00:51:27,810 The traditional overground establishment side. 495 00:51:29,870 --> 00:51:31,490 And the underground side. 496 00:51:31,750 --> 00:51:33,190 The X-rated side. 497 00:51:34,570 --> 00:51:40,130 Because X-rated films, for better or worse, have become an industry. They are 498 00:51:40,130 --> 00:51:42,250 a force that has to be dealt with in our society. 499 00:51:43,370 --> 00:51:47,770 And I felt that the fastest and best way, the most meaningful way to deal 500 00:51:47,770 --> 00:51:51,010 with this kind of a force was to bring it right up. 501 00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:57,080 to date and make it acceptable, make it part of the establishment aspect of 502 00:51:57,080 --> 00:51:58,080 filmmaking. 503 00:51:59,620 --> 00:52:05,600 And Gore Vidal's Caligula offered an opportunity to do this in a way that I 504 00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:06,600 hadn't imagined before. 505 00:52:07,240 --> 00:52:11,820 Hence the use of people like Malcolm McDowell and Peter O'Toole's John 506 00:52:11,820 --> 00:52:16,640 Gildgood and Helen Mirren, members of the Old Vic, the Royal Shakespearean 507 00:52:16,640 --> 00:52:19,940 Company, to give it the kind of acting guts. 508 00:52:20,430 --> 00:52:23,110 the kind of quality that are really needed. 509 00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:17,740 There are scenes in Caligula that will shock, surprise, and no doubt offend a 510 00:53:17,740 --> 00:53:18,740 great number of people. 511 00:53:21,180 --> 00:53:25,620 But if I can just use the word rationale for a second, the rationale for this is, 512 00:53:25,800 --> 00:53:29,280 this is not pornography, this is paganography. 513 00:53:31,820 --> 00:53:38,160 This is the morality of pagan Rome, pre-Christian Rome, where one can see 514 00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:39,880 the liaison, the relationship. 515 00:53:40,510 --> 00:53:45,550 The profound love that existed between Caligula and his sister. 516 00:53:47,310 --> 00:53:50,950 That we can show this love affair in all of its beauty. 517 00:53:54,190 --> 00:53:55,870 And indeed in all of its tragedy. 518 00:53:58,310 --> 00:54:02,010 Because that's the way it was and that's the way it was accepted. 519 00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:34,280 Another particularly good reason for doing this film was because it gave us 520 00:54:34,280 --> 00:54:37,360 as a company a terrific advantage. 521 00:54:38,780 --> 00:54:42,340 And that was of using the beautiful girls that we portray in the magazine, 522 00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:43,560 the Penthouse Pets. 523 00:54:44,500 --> 00:54:48,620 And indeed, I brought 13 of them to Italy with me. 524 00:54:49,100 --> 00:54:53,860 13 gorgeous girls, two of whom were Pets of the Year. 525 00:54:55,320 --> 00:54:56,680 And because of the... 526 00:54:57,680 --> 00:55:03,640 extravagant use of female beauty in any film dealing with the 527 00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:05,880 court of the Roman Caesars. 528 00:55:07,300 --> 00:55:13,060 This gave us, I think, an advantage over almost anybody else who would be making 529 00:55:13,060 --> 00:55:14,060 that kind of a film. 530 00:55:19,820 --> 00:55:24,820 One, two, three, four. All right. Now move a little bit to the right. 531 00:55:25,800 --> 00:55:26,800 All right. 532 00:55:26,840 --> 00:55:28,740 Ellen, let's do the other step. Now. 533 00:55:30,340 --> 00:55:37,060 Good. There followed many rehearsals, many trials, and 534 00:55:37,060 --> 00:55:43,720 some errors before the actresses were ready to become priestesses and enter 535 00:55:43,720 --> 00:55:46,980 the pool of the sacred goddess Isis. 536 00:55:48,680 --> 00:55:49,700 Go ahead. 537 00:56:09,550 --> 00:56:16,170 Two thousand years ago, the poet Ovid demonstrated in verse that he too 538 00:56:16,170 --> 00:56:18,910 had a keen eye for the feminine form. 539 00:56:22,710 --> 00:56:29,570 I admire a girl in makeup for what 540 00:56:29,570 --> 00:56:33,670 she is, and a girl without for what she could be. 541 00:56:34,370 --> 00:56:37,710 I love the pale, and I love the golden. 542 00:56:38,700 --> 00:56:40,620 The swarthy are lovely too. 543 00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:47,660 Black hair on snow-white shoulders reminds me of Leda's raven locks. 544 00:56:48,480 --> 00:56:53,740 A platinum blonde of flaxen-haired aurora love, I find, 545 00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:56,080 pathologizes life. 546 00:56:57,940 --> 00:57:04,060 I fall for the young and feel for the not-so-young. One has the looks, the 547 00:57:04,060 --> 00:57:05,700 other... The experience. 548 00:57:06,780 --> 00:57:08,340 Put it like this. 549 00:57:08,980 --> 00:57:10,760 There's beauty in Rome. 550 00:57:11,100 --> 00:57:15,620 To please all tastes and mind are all embracing. 551 00:57:28,940 --> 00:57:35,860 I know that this film about Caligula is going to be very 552 00:57:35,860 --> 00:57:40,880 expensive because in Italy they used to make historical Greek and Roman films. 553 00:57:41,380 --> 00:57:42,420 That is this one. 554 00:57:54,370 --> 00:57:58,930 There was one scene in particular shot in the Roman Senate which had been 555 00:57:58,930 --> 00:57:59,930 rebuilt. 556 00:58:02,450 --> 00:58:06,230 There were more than a hundred senators and a large number of extras. 557 00:58:17,890 --> 00:58:19,310 I've seen certain scenes 558 00:58:21,360 --> 00:58:22,420 which were very impressive, 559 00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:28,760 and I've seen several scenes which were being shot, and it was clear that the 560 00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:31,120 style of the actors was very original and intense. 561 00:58:33,900 --> 00:58:37,320 This is certainly not going to be a conventional historical film. 562 00:58:39,640 --> 00:58:46,060 It doesn't matter. 563 00:58:46,560 --> 00:58:48,600 It's all right. It's only a show. 564 00:58:49,150 --> 00:58:54,290 I would say that Caligula is probably a film about power, about the structure of 565 00:58:54,290 --> 00:58:59,690 power in old Rome, but a film that would also tell about how power is exercised 566 00:58:59,690 --> 00:59:01,670 nowadays and how power is abused. 567 00:59:02,090 --> 00:59:06,690 It has an irresistible mixture of art and genitals in it. 568 00:59:08,570 --> 00:59:10,430 It's an adult film. 569 00:59:11,290 --> 00:59:14,870 I really think the film is going to be an enormous success. It has to be. 570 00:59:16,490 --> 00:59:19,490 It has things in it that no one has ever seen before in a motion picture. And I'm 571 00:59:19,490 --> 00:59:21,350 not just talking about the X-rated aspects of it. 572 00:59:21,850 --> 00:59:25,030 It's the kind of film that, no matter what the critics say, you're going to 573 00:59:25,030 --> 00:59:26,030 have to see it. 574 00:59:26,050 --> 00:59:32,750 My lords, I am now to be married to Sisonia, the mother of my 575 00:59:32,750 --> 00:59:35,830 son, Caligula Germanicus. 576 00:59:37,090 --> 00:59:40,110 People are going to have to go and see this film, whatever. 577 00:59:40,770 --> 00:59:43,690 Because it is so richly embroidered with life. 578 00:59:47,790 --> 00:59:50,050 We're happening with a whole human drama. 579 00:59:55,750 --> 01:00:01,290 You are now mother, wife, and son-in-law. 580 01:00:03,650 --> 01:00:10,510 But you cannot possibly absorb all that there is in this film with one viewing. 581 01:00:31,370 --> 01:00:35,310 It's going to make a tremendous splash wherever it's shown. 582 01:00:35,850 --> 01:00:42,710 In fact, I defy a normal, healthy, young American male or woman 583 01:00:42,710 --> 01:00:45,810 to not go and see Gore Vidal's Caligula. 584 01:00:46,170 --> 01:00:48,010 I think the film is going to be something. 585 01:00:48,310 --> 01:00:52,330 I think it is a film that will be widely discussed around the world. 586 01:00:52,850 --> 01:00:55,370 And everybody's dying to see it. 587 01:00:55,650 --> 01:01:00,430 Simply because I think it is a very entertaining picture, and I think... 588 01:01:01,290 --> 01:01:03,170 That, in the end, is what people want to see. 589 01:01:04,430 --> 01:01:10,670 Whatever Gauvidal's curricula may be, one thing is certain, 590 01:01:10,830 --> 01:01:17,810 it will, without question, be the most widely seen and talked about film of 591 01:01:17,810 --> 01:01:18,810 our time.