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Led by historian Thomas Negovan, an “Ultimate Cut” of the film was created
Scenario
Follow Caligula as he kills his dishonest adoptive grandfather and takes control of the decaying Roman Empire, descending into depravity, devastation, and madness. The film is a complete retelling of Caligula (1979), based on 96 hours of never-before-seen footage recovered many years after its release. Rather than expanding existing scenes with new footage, the entire film was edited from the ground up, creating a version that doesn’t contain a single frame from the theatrical cut. Visual effects were used to enhance scenes and replace cheap sets and backgrounds, and AI technology was used to restore previously unusable dialogue plagued by background noise.
Edited by Caligola (1979)
A new soundtrack was also composed, unlike the public domain ballet music. Originally planned for a limited theatrical release in late 2020, it was delayed due to legal difficulties, distribution issues, and the Covid-19 pandemic. This version eventually premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, receiving high reviews from actors Malcolm McDowell (who had previously been embarrassed by the film) and Dame Helen Mirren. This is truly a missed opportunity.
He and actor Malcolm McDowell reworked the script into something more akin to an art film
After an extensive search, a film scholar tracked down all of the original films of still-living director Tinto Brass and wanted to work with Brass to finally make a director’s cut. Penthouse, which owns the rights, changed management, and the new management instead handed the footage over to a couple of people who had absolutely no experience in film restoration. This new team said they wanted to restore the film to the intentions of Gore Vidal’s script. The main problem here is that Tinto Brass didn’t film Vidal’s script as it was written, as he found it awful.
Some individual scenes work significantly better in the original due to better editing
The result of this restoration is that the scenes are finally in the right order, but are put together without any sense of style or rhythm. Tinto Brass came up with a lot of close-ups and quick cuts, and finished about half the film this way. Instead, we get long takes that emphasize the elaborate settings and obscure what’s happening. It feels like a rough cut waiting for someone to add close-ups and speed up the pace.
On the plus side, all of the inappropriate hardcore scenes filmed by Penthouse boss Bob Guccione are gone
Another downside is the overly modern soundtrack, which doesn’t conform to the musical trends of the 1970s when the film was shot. There’s a more coherent performance from Malcolm McDowell, although some of the more manic shots could have worked better at times to highlight his deteriorating mental state.
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