[MaNA At first notice, a movie about the…]

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MaNA At first notice, a movie about the rise and fall of Caligula Caesar starring John Gielgud, Peter O Toole, Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren and with a screenplay based on an original by Gore Vidal sounds very impressive.

One might expect it to be a brilliantly acted, if classical, look at the forces working in the Roman Empire to support, sustain and eventually discard one of the most unpleasant despots of even those harsh times.

It might even have risen to the heights of another attempt to film Robert Graves' fascinating book "I Claudius" . At worst it could have been an epic of the "Ben-Hur" variety.

Unfortunately, even my worst expectations were exceeded. astounding achievements of both degrading everyone in it and flagrantly ignoring the historical and political context of the times it seeks to portray.

Scene upon scene of sexual activity is followed or associated with those of the most barbaric violence.

The two are always intimateIv connected in this film. These scenes are only ever used to titillate, to horrify and to pander to the most oppressive and reactionary sexual attitudes.

One gets no feel for the forces at work in the Roman Empire that led to Gaius Caligula attaining power, nor ultimately why he was deposed. The ending is as arbitrary as it is abrupt.

The kev to the reason for this mess lies in that the other pursuit of its producer, Bob Guccione, is to emulate Hugh Hefner's Playboy' magazine with his own tawdry version, 'Penthouse'.

"Caligula' seems to be an attempt to bring to the screen the sort of world that exists between the pages of these magazines.

Since the film's release Gore Vidal has dissociated himself from the screenplay and several of the actors want no artistic (sic) association with the final version.

Misunderstood

Moreover, Guccione doesn't want reviewers to see the film as he feels they won't understand it.

There is a suggestion that some particularly obnoxious scenes were inserted after the principals had acted their parts and left the production.

. But once these scenes are removed there is virtually nothing left of the film. British audiences will be especially bewildered because although it ARE has been showing uncut for some time in Paris and the USA the version shown here will have cuts that will destroy whatever perverted sense there was in these foreign versions.

Just what sort of film did these stars think that they were to appear in? Didn't they read a screenplay?

One can only conclude that large sums of money were paid to secure the services 'reputable' stars to give credibility to this noxious venture.

Only John Gielgud maintains a vestige of integrity.

Early in the film, weary of death, intrigue and perversion, he climbs into a hot bath with his wrists slit in order to commit suicide.

Malcolm McDowell, Caligula, asks him what it is like to die, but gets no reply from Gielgud.

The rest of the movie is a sort of answer to this question.

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