| gag | 10th March 2018 07:53 AM |
Looks like at some point going to be a new release of Caligula in a alternative version . https://m.facebook.com/notes/mondo-d...3748585971322/
A Sneak Peek at MISSION: CALIGULA
This isn’t a traditional review since there isn’t a physical media or streaming option out there yet, but of more than passing interest to Mondo Digital is the recent debut of Mission: Caligula, a 39-minute documentary that just unveiled at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival. Created by Alexander Tuschinski, one of the globe’s preeminent Caligula enthusiasts, it’s a brisk guide to the daunting task of assembling the closest possible director’s cut for this legendary production (partially financed and released in America by Penthouse) mounted by legendary cult director Tinto Brass, a figure known for both his avant garde films and playful softcore classics. Unfortunately Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione wasn’t pleased with the way Brass was using (or mostly not) the magazine’s Pets and had Brass removed from the project before a first edited workprint could be created, and hardcore scenes were secretly shot at night to be spliced in (without the principal cast including Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O’Toole, John Gielgud, and a slew of Eurocult actors like John Steiner and Mirella D’Angelo). The resulting film is a fascinating and odd beast for decades, mixing extreme violence, theatrical performances, and explicit sex against some of the wildest sets this side of a Fellini film.
What you’ll find in Mission: Caligula is a bounty of interview footage with Tuschinski and current Penthouse owner Kelly Holland, and Brass’s son Bonifacio explaining how exploring the 400 boxes of material on the film (which was almost obliterated due to the previous management failing to pay storage fees) has brought us closer than ever to putting the film back to the Brass’s original intentions, with an entirely different editing scene and sensibility than the version we all know and... love? Some never-before-seen workprint excerpts give an idea of how radical the changes were to what Brass intended, and you also get a peek at the Hollywood facility where this has all laid dormant for years. Yours truly was at Image Entertainment 11 years ago working on the deluxe “Imperial Edition” of the film, which took over a year to complete and featured extensive bonus features and rarities explaining how this singularly bizarre production came into existence, and it’s gratifying to see efforts being made now to take the time, passion, and energy to put Brass’s original vision on the screen for the first time | 