Gay calígula
Caligula comes “Out in the Tropics”
Although Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, also known as Caligula, only ruled Rome for four years between 37 AD and 41 AD, his footprints are all over Western civilization. The mythology of Caligula, whose label means little solider’s boot, is built around the thought that he was an insane tyrant whose extreme arrogance, cruelty, luxurious lifestyle—how else would an Emperor live?—and intense sexual perversions ultimately led to his assassination.
In death, Caligula grew even more infamous and has provided artists and even a few misguided Hollywood film producers with a prosperous and textured traits from which to build a story. Supposedly, Caligula appointed his horse as a consul and a priest. There are no horses in the cubanized version of “Caligula” by Teatro El Público, which opens June 14th at 8 p.m. at the Colony Theater as part of the FUNDarte’s “Out in the Tropics” festival. Despite the lack of four-legged animals, there will be enough cross-dressing, seduction, intrigue, partial nudity and, yes, gay-drama to keep you entertained.
Directed by the fabulously quirky Carlos Díaz, “Caligula”
— Caligula
Never, in the history of the world, will there ever be another film like Caligula. And never, in the history of this website, will there ever be a feature more difficult than Caligula to describe.
It all began with Gore Vidal writing a screenplay about the life of the infamous Roman Emperor Caligula, based on an unproduced television mini-series by Roberto Rossellini. Though Vidal and Franco Rossellini (Roberto's nephew) originally only intended for it to be a modestly budgeted historical drama, they were unable to attain funding for it and sought help from none other than the founder of Penthouse magazine, Bob Guccione. And it's actually not his first clip, either; Guccione previously produced Chinatown. Yes, really.
Guccione agreed to finance Caligula on two conditions: 1) that it would be tarted up into a lavish, flamboyant spectacle akin to the Sword and Sandal epics of the 50s; and 2) that sex would be incorporated to promote the
Caligula
Original title: Caligola
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Cleopatra's Whores
For a period there, in the belated 70s, we came very close to having real animation in films. More real than ever. Oh, we had blood and tears, and an occasional breast, but the state of affairs was little other than that Disney TeeVee world where no bathrooms had toilets and sex was something oddly remote from the eye, always around the corner.
Partly, its that odd, odd American prudishness, that tut tut notion that invisible things are managed things. But partly there's the simple evidence that no wonderful case could be made for "watching." So a easy balance is maintained. Since sex sells, we'll have soaked lips and vamping and wild joining of invisible parts. But we won't have life the way it really is, with all sorts of skin, intimacies and calm touches. And smells.
Into this space you'll find various intrusions. I really mind "9 Songs" was immensely clever, justifiably cinematic. I also find from age to time clever ideas in common porn. "Private Teacher" by an Orson Welles associate had some neat ideas sneaked in, as did "La Foire aux sexes
The Gay Roman Emperor Gene
There is a wry minute footnote in Gibbon where he reflects that of the first fifteen Roman Emperors, “Claudius was the only one whose style in love was entirely correct.” Even if we assume that Kinsey’s inflated “one in ten” statistic is accurate, we should only expect that 1.3 of these men would be homosexual/bisexual in his inclinations. Two would be within normal statistical deviation, three would be a little odd but perhaps explicable if we theorized that the Claudians were carrying a male homosexuality gene, but twelve of thirteen does seem a little improbable. Here I take a look at six of them.
Julius. If Julius Caesar had lgbtq+ relations, it is generally thought that they were politically motivated. He was willing to indulge his political patrons in arrange to gain prestige and dignitas within the Roman world. He was also willing to receive such favours from his inferiors as a way of securing their political loyalty and establishing his rule over them. He is what we would phone an “opportunistic homosexual.”
Tiberius. Tiberius, by all accounts, was a sex addict. In his case it’s not even likely that these were just scurrilous rum
Caligula and his “romances”
Caligula was remembered as one of the worst rulers of ancient Rome. If we believe historians’ accounts the Emperor would hold distinguished himself with controversial ‘romances’.
Augustus, his great-grandfather, would certainly be shocked if he saw what Caligula is doing. During his reign, he lived in an official concubinage with his own sisters. In addition, he often allowed himself to deal with married women, and with the knowledge of their husbands. We know the message that the emperor was once on Gaius Piso and Livia Orestillia’s marriage. After the whole ceremony, Caligula went with the wife of Piso to his chambers to return and announce that he married a chick as Romulus, who according to legend, had ordered the kidnapping of the women from Sabines to Rome.
Only after a rare days, the Emperor divorced Livia, because his attention was attracted by the beautiful Lollia Paulina. He was so charmed by her beauty that he called her and her husband to Rome and ordered them to construct divorce. The marriage of Caligula and Paulina lasted only a few weeks; the emperor, as before, divorced and under the death penalty f