Caligula (1979) (The Imperial Edition)

[Walter Kafka]

Imagine the gimmicks of William Castle's Caligula

[Surge92]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

It was co-funded by Bob Guccione.

That would give Polanski the distinction of directing movies funded by both Playboy and Penthouse.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by Walter Kafka

Imagine the gimmicks of William Castle's Caligula

"The chairs are built to simulate the experience of being fisted!"

Originally Posted by Surge92

That would give Polanski the distinction of directing movies funded by both Playboy and Penthouse.

Ha, I totally forgot about Playboy's involvement in Macbeth.

[Metro1962]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

Never seen it but my understanding is that it cuts out more than just the hardcore scenes.

Mark Kermode in the intro before the screening on Film4 said they took out the H/C scenes and just zoomed in or reframed on certain scenes.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by Nightman04

Decided to pick up the Spanish release, and it’s a pressed disk, for those interested.

I picked this up as a cheap stop gap, but it's 156 mins stuffed on a single layer disc, with Mill Creek levels of compression unfortunately. It's also the old transfer kicking around on older releases.

[Surge92]

Originally Posted by drush9999

I picked this up as a cheap stop gap, but it's 156 mins stuffed on a single layer disc, with Mill Creek levels of compression unfortunately. It's also the old transfer kicking around on older releases.

I've been looking for the French release with the new transfer myself, but I haven't been able to find it.

[dallywhitty]

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut (formerly titled Caligula MMXX) will make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Caligula at CANNES | Century Guild Salon - YouTube

[PowellPressburger]

wow ... they have no partner yet for a physical media release .. but of course it will be streaming* soon after a fall theatrical release in the US.

Sounds like waiting for a BLU or a 4K UHD will be early to mid 2024 lol

*Streaming ruins everything


stopped watching after that comment haha


Anyone else ever notice that so many films that show at Cannes (Minus Hollywood blockbusters) usually take till end of year to get theatrical runs and then Blu-ray nearly a full year later.

[Infallible Presence]

We all know some companies are more excited then we are that this monument to the film industry is getting closer to being released.

[Protozoid]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut (formerly titled Caligula MMXX) will make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.



Caligula at CANNES | Century Guild Salon - YouTube

After that video, I must take back everything I said. It cleared up all of my concerns and has me very interested to see the Ultimate Edition. Hopefully we get some reviews from Cannes.

[IdeaOfEvil]

Since I still have never seen the original Caligula movie (any of the edits), I wonder if I should skip this entirely until I do? Or could this be a train wreck that would make me appreciate the originals more, like watching Lucas' Star Wars edits before watching the untouched cuts?

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by IdeaOfEvil

Since I still have never seen the original Caligula movie (any of the edits), I wonder if I should skip this entirely until I do? Or could this be a train wreck that would make me appreciate the originals more, like watching Lucas' Star Wars edits before watching the untouched cuts?

I love the 1979 original for all its nightmarish weirdness, but I'm under no delusions that it's a perfect film. The editing is all over the place, and it's very much the work of the producer versus the director, with important character-focused scenes being dropped in favour of hardcore reshoots. So yeah, it's nothing at all like the Star Wars SEs, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if The Ultimate Cut was considered the superior version

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by IdeaOfEvil

Since I still have never seen the original Caligula movie (any of the edits), I wonder if I should skip this entirely until I do? Or could this be a train wreck that would make me appreciate the originals more, like watching Lucas' Star Wars edits before watching the untouched cuts?

Caligula has been around for 44 years. It's time to give it a viewing.

[whiteberry]

From Cannes Classics press release:

Caligula – The Ultimate Cut
1976, 2h53, United States / Italy

Presented by Penthouse Films International. Restoration produced by Penthouse films International. The image and sound restoration work was done by Technorganica based on the original camera negatives and the original audio. This project was supervised by Thomas Negovan. French distributor: Bac Films. International seller: Goodfellas.

Screening in the presence of Helen Mirren and Thomas Negovan.

https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/p...la-plage-2023/

[dallywhitty]

Helen Mirren's gonna be present!? No way.

[nekromantik]

im shook after all this time there is no distributor for home video.
would have thought companies like Shout or Arrow etc would be chomping at bits

[Titan-of-Cult]

Originally Posted by nekromantik

im shook after all this time there is no distributor for home video.
would have thought companies like Shout or Arrow etc would be chomping at bits

Depends on how much they want for the rights. Someone will eventually release it

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

Helen Mirren's gonna be present!? No way.

John Gielgud would be there like a shot if he was still alive.

[nekromantik]

Originally Posted by Titan-of-Cult

Depends on how much they want for the rights. Someone will eventually release it

True but if Arrow still holds rights for UK for example then I cant see the people who made the ultimate cut asking for more then that. As it was not made by the studio.

[agenda]

My respect for those guys (and every one involve with the project) grows day by day! I mean Jesus Christ... I think people are only now just about waking up for realizing how BIG this is going to be for the film, culturally, to the actors, fans of the movie, etc. etc. etc.....

That kind of commitment is rare these days. I can't wait to that "we have distributor for the physical media release" announcement. I still can't believe that this is really happening and with that SCALE!! Takes my breath away.