This seemingly-pointless trailer for what appears to be a pornographic film is actually much more than that.
Gore Vidal requested that his name be removed from the original "Caligula". He did so because he felt it had been produced as a low-grade soft-core pornographic picture, rather than as the more serious and lofty one he had intended. Thus, there is no such thing as "Gore Vidal's Caligula".
What you have here is a trailer for a remake of a movie that never existed. That remake can never be made, of course! It's quite an elaborate and outrageous production for such a sly, clever joke. Even the super-raunchy nature of the trailer is a nod to the reasons the movie it suggests could never happen.
I'll admit that, when I was shown this at an art historian's lecture, I didn't understand why the fellow in front of me began cackling madly the moment he saw the trailer's title. Once our lecturer (John Paul Ricco) explained the history behind the trailer, though, the laughs came from all over.
Gore Vidal requested that his name be removed from the original "Caligula". He did so because he felt it had been produced as a low-grade soft-core pornographic picture, rather than as the more serious and lofty one he had intended. Thus, there is no such thing as "Gore Vidal's Caligula".
What you have here is a trailer for a remake of a movie that never existed. That remake can never be made, of course! It's quite an elaborate and outrageous production for such a sly, clever joke. Even the super-raunchy nature of the trailer is a nod to the reasons the movie it suggests could never happen.
I'll admit that, when I was shown this at an art historian's lecture, I didn't understand why the fellow in front of me began cackling madly the moment he saw the trailer's title. Once our lecturer (John Paul Ricco) explained the history behind the trailer, though, the laughs came from all over.