C A L I G U L A

On about 27 Oct 1980 Caligula got its first video release, courtesy of film pirates. A vendor in Albuquerque offered me a VHS for the modest price of $150 but, tempted though I was, I turned it down. I asked him who who his supplier was, but that, apparently, was the wrong question to ask. If you have this original bootleg, please let me know as I would LOVE to examine it. Thanks!

At about this time Caligula received what appears to have been its first official video release, on VHS and maybe on Beta, in Germany.

At about this time Caligula received what appears to have been its second official video release, on VHS and maybe on Beta, in the Netherlands.

It was at about this time in the US that the ‘R’ version was finally petering out, and the 155min52sec version was re-released in 100 new prints. There is some indication that the credits were altered (“A Penthouse Film” possibly replaced “A Franco Rossellini Production,” and there was probably a “Penthouse Clubs International Establishment” copyright claim), though this is not confirmed.

Huh? “A PENTHOUSE FILM”???? It was never advertised like that before. It was never “A Penthouse Film.” And “BOB GUCCIONE’S ‘CALIGULA’ ”? By reading between the lines in the business correspondence, I have concluded that this reissue of Caligula actually did have such altered credits on screen, though I can’t be certain of that.

   Look at the advertisements and posters elsewhere on this web site and you’ll see that Caligula was a Guccione/Penthouse Presentation of “A FRANCO ROSSELLINI PRODUCTION.” This new claim of being “A PENTHOUSE FILM” was made preparatory to a series of lawsuits that went on for years and years and years and years in the USA and in Italy and in France and in Belgium and in Germany and threatened to spill over into lots of other places too. It is commonly claimed that Franco Rossellini died of AIDS. Actually, the immediate cause was lung cancer (he was a life-long chain smoker). But I’m convinced that it was these lawsuits, more than anything else, that wrecked his health, caused his premature aging, and drastically shortened his life span. They certainly emptied his bank account, that’s for sure.

Around the end of November 1982 Caligula received what appears to have been its third official video release, on VHS and maybe on Beta, in French-speaking Switzerland, issued by International Video Publisher (54 avenue Marceau, 75008 Paris; executives: Alain Katz and Claude Gorsky), the distributor of Electric Blue in Spain. The only information I can find about International Video is in “Around the Homevideo Track,” Variety (weekly) 307 no 6, Wednesday, 9 June 1982, p 39.

At about this time, December 1982, Caligula received what appears to have been its fourth official video release, on Beta and VHS, in the UK. The video was of the re-edited UK version, and it was issued on the Electric Video label, the UK distributor of Electric Blue.

In circa February 1983 Caligula received what appears to have been its fifth official video release, on VHS and maybe on Beta, in Spain, issued by International Video Publisher (54 avenue Marceau, 75008 Paris), the Spanish distributor of Electric Blue. The only information I can find about International Video is in “Around the Homevideo Track,” Variety (weekly) 307 no 6, Wednesday, 9 June 1982, p 39.

In late August or early September 1983 Caligula, in both the 155min52sec and 105min47sec versions, was made available for nontheatrical distribution in 16mm. “Nontheatrical” generally means university film clubs and movie series, classroom use, as well as showings at libraries and churches and other similar venues.

Vestron licensed pan-American video rights to the 155min52sec (overpseeded to 148min14sec) and to the 105min47sec (overspeeded to 100min36sec) versions in autumn 1983 and presented its line-up of upcoming Penthouse videos to retailers and distributors at a January 1984 consumer-electronics show in Las Vegas NV. Beta, VHS, CED, and LD editions of Caligula were on sale beginning 28 March 1984.

VCL International BV licensed laserdisc and videocassette rights to Caligula in Spain on 30 October 1983. VCL was soon dissolved and the license was transferred to Virgin Video. I don’t know when the videos were placed onto the market, though I imagine that would have been late 1983 or early 1984.

International Video Publisher (54 avenue Marceau, 75008 Paris) licensed laserdisc and videocassette rights for Québec circa Nov/Dec 1984.

Metromedia Video SA licensed laserdisc and videocassette rights to Caligula in Spain on 18 February 1987. I don’t know when the videos were placed onto the market, though I imagine that would have been between March and June 1987.

The Twentieth-Anniversary US Re-Release was issued 19 ½ years after the original US première. The press release promised that this would be the “uncensored director’s cut” which, of course, did not exist. The poster promised this would be “DIGITALLY REMASTERED & FULLY RESORTED.” The prints were actually rather awful, with an emulsion gouge on the interpositive during one scene, and with a new 5.1 Dolby stereo track needlessly synthesized from the surviving mono. (It seems that the 4-track stereo masters had been lost.) Guccione had promised to reinsert 12 minutes of footage deleted prior to the original release, but didn’t realize that those scenes literally could not be reinserted, as the actors had never revoiced their lines, the music had never been composed, and the foley had never been assembled and mixed. Thus there was no resorting; the sorting was the same as it had always been. In some venues this did quite well, but then the distributor suddenly ceased business and the re-release was stopped dead in its tracks.

Note the line breaks, which force “AN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BY GORE VIDAL” to the beginning of a line, as well as “DIRECTED AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY GIANCARLO LUI AND BOB GUCCIONE.” See how one can mislead by telling the truth? Note that Franco Rossellini’s name is as buried as it had ever been previously. And what’s that about “CALIGULA SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE ON PENTHOUSE RECORDS”? It was? In 1999? Really? I don’t think so.

23 November 1999 saw the ‘Twentieth-Anniversary’ LD and DVD releases of the 156-minute edition as well as of a new 102-minute ‘R’ edition. Why a new edition? Because nobody could find the masters of the old “R” edition. If you have the ‘Twentieth-Anniversary’ (ID9060GM) laserdisc available at a reasonable price, please write to me and I’ll buy it from you.
(According to LaserDisc Database this laserdisc was never released. Huh.)