Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula (2005)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Francesco Vezzoli

Writer:

Gore Vidal (writer)

Genre:

Short | Comedy | Drama | History

Tagline:

Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.

Plot:

This is a short film based on the 1979 film of the same name. The film is stylized with the actors wearing modernized robes and Roman jewelry and females playing male characters and vice-versa. |

Plot Keywords:

Spoof | Caligula | Cameo | Movie Trailer | Roman Empire

Cast

Adriana Asti	...	Ennia
Justine Bateman	...	Attia, Imperial Courtesan
Karen Black	...	Agrippina
Barbara Bouchet	...	Caesonia
Gerard Butler	...	Prefect Cassius Chaerea
Benicio Del Toro	...	Macro
Milla Jovovich	...	Druscilla
Courtney Love	...	Caligula
Helen Mirren	...	Tiberia
Mia Moretti	...	Priestes of Isis
Michael Okarma	...	Greek Slave
Michelle Phillips	...	Messalina
Glenn Shadix	...	Claudius
Tasha Tilberg		(as Tasha Tilberg)
Francesco Vezzoli	...	Caligula
Gore Vidal	...	Himself

Runtime:

5 min

Country:

Italy | USA

Language:

Italian | English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Crossroads

Trivia:

This film was made especially for the Venice Biennale.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Caligola (1979)

Egomania is Timeless

A conceptual film from Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli, first shown at the 2005 Venice Biennale and later traveling to the Whitney Museum of American Art. The work is conceived as a trailer for an imaginary remake of the infamous Tinto Brass/Bob Guccioni sexploitation fiasco that was 'Caligola'. Instead of shooting in the ruins of Rome, however, his location is a tacky Roman-lite villa in Hollywood. Instead of striving for historically accurate costumes, he has Donatella Versace design him some glamorous togas. And like Matthew Barney, he's able to talk a whole host of known (and unknown) actors to star in a an artwork that will rarely, if ever, be seen outside of a gallery (or online). The casual viewer can choose to read it all as a comment on the timeless nature of gluttony and excess or simply laugh out loud at Courtney Love's full-bodied reading of Gore Vidal's overwrought language - "I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night" - egomania as fitting for a Hollywood star as it for a Wall Street executive or an insane Emperor. Which, or course, is the point.