page_title: Caligula (film)
section_title: Filming
hierarchical_section_title: Caligula (film) / Production / Filming
caption_attribution_description: Malcolm McDowell at "The Genius of Stanley Kubrick" at the 2006 Traverse City Film Festival.
context_page_description: Caligula is a 1979 erotic historical drama film focusing on the rise and fall of the eponymous Roman Emperor Caligula. It stars Malcolm McDowell in the title role, alongside Teresa Ann Savoy, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, John Steiner and John Gielgud. It is the only feature film produced by the men's magazine Penthouse. Producer Bob Guccione, the magazine's founder, intended to produce an explicit pornographic film with a feature film narrative and high production values. He cast Penthouse Pets as extras in unsimulated sex scenes filmed during post-production by himself and Giancarlo Lui.
  Guccione hired screenwriter Gore Vidal to draft the film's script and Tinto Brass to direct the film. Brass extensively altered Vidal's original screenplay, leading Vidal to disavow the film. The final screenplay focuses on the idea that "absolute power corrupts absolutely". However, both Brass and Vidal disagreed with Guccione's use of unsimulated sexual content, which Brass refused to film.
context_section_description: Principal photography began in 1976 in Rome. McDowell got along well with Tinto Brass, while Peter O'Toole immediately disliked the director. John Gielgud and Helen Mirren were indifferent to Brass; they focused on their own performances. O'Toole had stopped drinking alcohol before filming, but Guccione described O'Toole as being "strung out on something" and said the actor was not sober during the entire filming schedule.
  During the film's production, McDowell took members of the production to dinner at an expensive restaurant to celebrate England's win in a football match against the Italian team. He left the choreographer to pay for the meal, saying he had forgotten to bring enough money. At the end of the production, McDowell gave his dresser a pendant bearing her name, but it was misspelled and she gave it back to him. McDowell offered her a signet ring, a prop from the film. She refused because it belonged to the production company.
  Brass decided not to focus much on Danilo Donati's elaborate sets, and intentionally kept the Penthouse Pets in the background during sex scenes. He focused instead on women whom Guccione considered to be unattractive. Brass and Guccione disagreed about the film's approach to sexual content; Guccione preferred unsimulated sexual content that Brass did not want to film.
caption: Malcolm McDowell was cast  as Caligula, a "born monster"[20] who serves as the film's antihero.[25]
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