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* RIaA#8%# MIim - vivvu j VUII?J An Artisti By DOUG BELL Urn Critic One of the most bizarre figures in history, the Roman emperor Caligula seems a likely subject for screen dramatization. ? Especially now, it would seem, when ? debauchery, nudity, bloody murder and similar themes have a wider audience than a r ever uexure. Hie film that was finally made about Caligula, financed by Penthouse magazine and produced by Bob Guccione, contained all these elements and more ? so much more that the X-rated film's first run in theaters was disastrous. (I didn't see it.) Caligula is back now in a modified R-rated version that I did see this week. And, artistically speaking, it's still pretty much a jpjisaster. THE SCREENPLAY, by none other than Gore Vidal, is stale. It isn't as much an interpretation of history as a graphic, i i i_ _# ? ? vuigorizeu renasn 01 me Diooay Caligula legend. This account follows Caligula's (Malcolm McDowell) career from Emperor Tiberius' last lecherous days to his murder (A.D. 41). McDowell is weak in the title role. His Caligula proceeds from innocence to madness with no transition. His performance offers no insight into the nature of 4he emperor's dementia. IP Comparison with the BBC-TV production of Robert Graves' I, Claudius points up 1 many weaknesses in the Guccione Him. In I it, John Hurt as Caligula, gave a disturbing, ffuriflll Fflrtfiir I VMB VI ^ A faculty recital featuring cello by 6 Robert Jesselson on cello GasparCassi and Charles Fugo on piano Jesselson i will be held at 8 p.m. tonight member i in USC's Gambrell Hall Department Auditorium. has performt ' The program will include States, Euro !$bie Boccherini Sonata in A and has ^jtiajor, the Chipin Cello educational aBonata, the Stravinsky Suite television pr Italienne, and a work for solo the country r? *' I THE GUARD BELON SCARNG -1 i Proud USC Stu TRPDI/IOI a ; ARE AMERICA i 15 Units in the Columbia Are $1,500.00 Bonus or $4,000.00 Educational Assi I AAA AA A 1 i W I Pu Additional tauci Provided by iarn a minimum of $7! South Care National Contact: Di 748-4 iula# Remains I ic Disaster I enlacing Derformanrp that precarious essence of the emperor's in- I sanity: at once bold, then frightened, then gleeful, then cruel. It was an intriguing a performance that illuminated Caligula's fl peculiar personality, and made it credible. I Compared to Hurt, McDowell seems fl befuddled and uncertain, lacking in all fl intention and conviction. I The other characters fare better. Peter fl O'Toole's lewd, unwholesome Tiberius is fl played to the hilt. Perhaps the strongest fl performance is by John Gielgud in a brief E j role. Gielgud commands deep respect (from fl this reviewer anyway) as Nerva, one of H Tiberius' advisers who, sick of Rome's j excesses, takes his own life. But Giancarlo ] Badessi's Claudius is pudgy and foolish, fl never suggesting the intellectual he actually fl was. fl EVEN WITH the R rating, there's plenty jv] of nudity. No one really disrobes, however; | ] il'c nart ? ? k' ..? |w> v ui uiv v.uoiuiiuii^. oume excruciatingly bloody scenes made it into this version as well. Sets and costumes are vulgarly grandiose. I don't mind when history is altered in works by artists with imagination and vision. For instance, Robert Graves' novels about the first Roman emperors are perhaps not accurate to the letter, but are indeed witty and personal interpretations of historical events. But the imaginations of Messrs. Vidal and Guccione never caught j ] fire (or perhaps were consumed in the I blaze) and their vision is myopic. As a J j result, Caligula is a meandering, muddled | film. j ] es Cello, Piano I Spanish cellist participated in the Aspen ado. Music Festival, Grand Teton s a new faculty Music Festival and in I it the USC several European festivals.' J| of Music. He Charles Fugo is an g id in the United associate professor of music * pe, and Africa at USC. He has studied with | appeared on Joseph Schwartz, Abbey radio and Simon and Jorge Bolet and ograms across the Akadamie des MozarJesselson has teums in Salzburg, Austria. IGS because... 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