Caligula
The childbirth scene where Caesonia (Helen Mirren) gives birth, was an actual childbirth, which was filmed in three takes using three different pregnant women extras and later edited together. Extras assisting the births were real doctors, who said they were indeed equipped with all the modern tools they would need to ensure safety for the women and babies despite in full ancient Roman clothing.,Caligula squeezes a lemon over a captured slave. Lemons did not reach Europe until the 2nd century, at least 100 years after Caligula's death.,[first lines]
Caligula: I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am a God.,Due to numerous pending lawsuits and settlements at the time of the film's release, no one is technically fully credited for writing and directing the finished film.,The censored version of this film has been released of a few occasions in Australia. In March 1981, a censored, R rated release to cinemas was made by Roadshow. Roadshow Home Video subsequently released the same film version to video in September 1984. This version ran for 146 minutes (PAL). It was again re-released by a 'no name' video label in the late 1990's. The censored DVD version appeared in December 2004, released by Warner Vision. The uncut version has been released in Australia, this was the fully uncut, X rated 156 minute PAL version. It was released in January 1985 by 'Palace X Video' - a version that is now an extremely rare collector's item. The uncut version has since been rated R18+ by the Australian classification board in 2021.,Edited into Video Macumba (1991),Spartacus
(uncredited)
Written by Aram Khachaturyan
Conducted by Bruno Nicolai,Let's not kid ourselves here, all ye art students, film-school nerds, and other self-loathing "cinema l'arte" snobs: had this exact same movie been released under the banner "directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini" you would have loved it - sorry: CLAIMED to have loved it - and praised it to high heaven, espousing its virtues in long essays, justifying its extreme sex and violence through some b.s. semantic pseudo-intellectual movie-critic-jargon mumbo-jumbo.

Go on, admit it. No-one will laugh. We promise.

This movie has been unanimously dismissed as exploitative trash and of no cinematic value by "notable" movie critics.

After having seen the full two-and-a-half hour version: a) I can certainly see why THEY would choose to view it that way b) I totally disagree The fact that "Caligula" was financed by Penthouse (gasp!) and directed by Tinto Brass (oh no!) is what this is all about.

An excellent cast includes McDowell (an ideal choice for Caligula - or any devious lunatic, for that matter) and Mirren (at the height of her enormous sex-appeal). There is terrific music from Khachaturian, an interesting story, some suspense, etc. A strong stomach is needed to watch this gore-fest, though.

A corny, historically inaccurate, fairy-tale-like piece of crap like "Gandhi" gets world-wide recognition, while a brutally realistic film about another historical figure gets the finger. Go figure.,