How Grand Was My Guignol (2024)

How Grand Was My Guignol

by Travis Chittom

In the past, there have been many attempts to resurrect a lost film or reinsert scenes or stills to complete one. I myself have seen two restored versions of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis: one in New York where lost footage has been added as well as a print of that film found in Buenos Aires that was a bit longer than the others. I saw that one appropriately enough in Frankfurt, Germany. It is not so often that someone makes another film from an existing one. What’s Up, Tiger Lily? Comes to mind, but that was for comedic effect and the only things changed were the actors’ lines. What I am talking about here is something unique and far better than a second-rate chop suey movie spiced up with Jewish humor. I’ll explain. In 1980 Penthouse producer Bob Guccione had made an historical film about the 4^th Caesar, after Julius, to rule Rome. What he wanted, and what most others working on the film wanted were different things and in the end Mr. Guccione gooched everyone else and turned Caligula into a sort of p*rno spectacle for the 80s. The film made millions even though it was edited somewhat out of order had inserts of hardcore p*rnography added to spice up the action. It played in many countries which did not even allow p*rnography at the time, although in an edited version, and there have been persistent rumors about an even longer, dirtier version which only showed at the Cannes festival in 1979, which doesn’t exist. There are three main versions plus a 16 mm “smoker” which was sent to gentlemen’s clubs in 1984. The 80s were a lot of fun. The 1980 156-minute unrated version is the standard. Then there is the 105-minute R-rated version from 1981 made into a 5-reeler with a rating so it could have more showings per day. Also, a 1984 Italian version minus some graphic violence and p*rnography as well, but running at 124 minutes called, Io, Caligula. Now thanks to film historian Thomas Negovan and experimental filmmaker E. Elias Merhige there is another three-hour version, except that it is different from all the others. How different? Well, firstly it uses different footage exclusively. Negovan has said that “not one frame from the original is used in this version” which is titled Caligula MMXX. What this is, then, is a whole new movie, a movie which would have been made had its producer not locked its director out of the editing room by changing the locks. How was it possible to do this one might ask- without using the camera negative of the original or old prints of the movie? Sometime after Guccione’s death Penthouse was left with trying to figure out what to do with its p*rn extravaganza which would mean sorting through about 90 hours of mostly unused camera negatives from the movie. To help them do that, they needed film historians and film archivists to go over this footage after developing it so it could be labelled and archived and stored. At one point film student Alexander Tuschinski and Caligula expert R. J. Buffalo attempted a kind of restoration based on Tinto Brass’s vision. What came from that was a film thesis from Tuschinski and a headache for R.J. Buffalo, who has written a thousand page or so book on the making and unmaking of Caligula. It is still unpublished, but you see something of it plus other interesting things about the film and the emperor at his website Caligula.org. At a later date Penthouse new owners called Thomas Negovan of Century Guild to help with all the footage. He and colleague and editor Aaron Shaps went through the 90 plus hours of footage. Later, a new movie having little to do with the original, which follows the original shooting script was edited with a clearer soundtrack including one of the actresses’ voice restored to her- into a 3 hour 4k movie called Caligula MMXX, which is set to hit the festival circuit later this year. The trailer looks interesting, and the differences are clear. It should be a good movie at last. The original had some very interesting themes in it as well as some of the most bizarre sets, beautiful camera work, beautiful 70s era costumes and a dream-like quality. In a fangoria interview, Thomas Negovan said that the “original… had occupied a strange sci-fi version of Rome.” If he means the Star Trekesque red sky on Capri backlighting the Grotto of Monsters or the Dune-like visuals of the baths which serve as the scene of Nerva’s suicide or the three-story head-chopping machine or the “Moon Maiden” skimpy petticoats usually worn by a race of all female moon creatures in 1950s sci fi adventures then yes, that is true. It’s one of the thing that I like about the film too and I hope some of that will make it into the new movie. Either way I look forward to seeing the fruits of 3 years of a labor of love come to fruition on screen and on DVD.

Caligula (1980)

Starring

Malcolm McDowell

How Grand Was My Guignol (2024)

References