A Mixture Of Art & Genitals!

Helen Mirren is one of my favourite British actresses. She just classified one of her films, 'Caligula' (not sure what the word means, do you? Might be the name of a character in the film) as 'A mixture of art and genitals'!

It was filmed 29 years ago, but it's only just now the British film censor board has given it the green light on the full and unedited version. In it she played Caesonia, wife of the emperor, played by Malcom McDowell. There were other well known names in the cast, like Peter O'Toole and Sir John Gielgud. It was based on the work 'Life of the twelve Caesar-S' of Suetonio, the script was written by the prestigious historian Gore Vidal. Directed by Tinto Brass.

The producer of the film was Bob Guccione - director of the 'Penthouse' magazine, added sex scenes to the film without consulting the director, because he considered the film too 'mild'. His idea was to reproduce the orgies and the decadence that Suetonio had described in his book and, for that, he contracted models of his publication and, without saying a word to anybody, filmed and added a whole hour of sex scenes, in none of which appeared Mirren nor McDowell.

Up to recently, the DVD 'Caligula' one could buy in England was a cleaned-up version that lasted an hour less than the full version. But now the British Board of Film Classification had permitted the launching of the previously censored scenes, because of their 'historic interests'. Strange isn't it that they didn't find that interests before?

Mirren, who won an well deserved Oscar for her roll as Elizabeth the second in the film 'The Queen', says she is very happy the censorship was lifted. With a mischievous smile, she described the new version on sale in the United Kingdom as : 'An irresistible mixture of art and genitals.'

I haven't seen 'The Queen' yet, nor this arty 'New Oldy'. Can't wait to get hold of them both.

Tags:film,Art,Caligula,DVD

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