Caligula: The Ultimate Cut [1980/2023]

1. Raping first the wife and then the husband.
2. An army of naked men attacking papyrus.
3: Password: scrotum.

A genuine oddity and eye-filling spectacle that at times brought to mind (heaven help me) a much more honest, less pretentious Peter Greenaway production. Nudity and sex everywhere, but just when you think some eroticism is on offer, the film twists it abruptly away. Which I’d like to think is by design?

Malcom McDowell’s performance is fearless and captures the emperor’s harrowing cruelty and insanity. Helen Mirren doesn’t quite have enough to do but in her finest moments, she’s no shrinking violet either. The final third is a bit of a slog but the finale’s no nonsense carnage gets it right. I imagine that this plays best on a big screen; at home, it could feel tedious.