In 1980 “Caligula” easily reigned as the most notorious big budget movie of its time, an ancient Roman romp with classical English actors, a script by a literary behemoth Gore Vidal.
And, never to be forgotten, nonsensical, explicit X-rated porn, inserted willy nilly by its Penthouse publishing mogul producer Bob Guccione.
That “Caligula” will never be confused with the new, restored and reconfigured “Caligula: The Ultimate Cut,” which plays in 4K Ultra High Definition at the Somerville theater Friday.
Thomas Negovan, the film historian and producer who directed this reconstruction, began with “96 hours of camera negative that had never, ever been previously seen. The negatives were all pristine and that was just an unbelievable gift,” he said in a Zoom interview.
Filming in 1976 was ridiculously troubled. A horrified Vidal demanded to have his name removed. So did Tinto Brass, the director. Once Roman production was completed, Guccione took the film to London and four years later released his much ridiculed, nonsensical, hard-core version which, however terrible, was profitable.
“What’s really important for people to know,” Negovan said, “is that the 1980 release did not use a script.
“The reason the 1980 movie makes no sense is that, when we were going through these, there are entire reels of film that came out of the camera, got wrapped, put into the can — and were never touched again! I would scan those reels and there’s take after take of Helen Mirren in a scene that was incredibly important to the narrative of the film.
“No one ever thought to consider putting these moments into the movie! Because at that point, the agenda was pornography.”
That “Caligula” was three hours. “Guccione only used Mirren for under nine minutes in a very two-dimensional way,” Negovan said. “In this new version, she’s there for almost an hour. She provides the entire backbone for the film. As a fan of cinema, this is like a ‘lost’ Helen Mirren film.”
“The Ultimate Cut,” if it were to be rated, would be NC-17 for its frequent, full-out nudity and sexual fluidity.
“Boston is an interesting part of the Caligula story,” Negovan explained. “Prints were seized by the police and ‘Banned in Boston’ was a national headline. Bob litigated in Boston and the judge ruled the film wasn’t pornography because it had historical clarity.
“Bob flew in a Benedictine monk and had professors from universities arguing about its historical validity. There’s certainly some circus-like absurdity there.
“But the most important part is that regardless of what kind of spectacle was taking place in 1980, in 2024 people can finally see what the movie was always intended to be.”