GoreVidal Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I am Myra Breckinridge whom no man will ever possess. Clad only in garter belt and one dress shield, I held off the entire elite of the Trobriand Islanders, a race who possess no words for "why" or "because." Wielding a stone axe, I broke the arms, the limbs, the balls of their finest warriors, my beauty blinding them, as it does all men, unmanning them in the way that King Kong was reduced to mere simian whimper by beauteous Fay Wray whom I resemble left three-quarter profile if the key light is no more than five feet high during the close shot.

The above is the opening to Myra Breckinridge, which instantly sucked me into the world of Gore Vidal. I was a teen bored with the literature at school, as well as the fluff young-adult horror I was reading in my spare time, when I somehow stumbled on his book. Vidal's words were a beacon of light. Sure, there is more to Myra than rabid, powerful, and Amazonian femininity, but that was irrelevant because Vidal's novel was a gateway into the world beyond rural suburban life -- women with power, intelligence mixed with pulp, a crumbling gender barrier, Hollywood, and the vast world beyond cows and K-Mart.

First came the movie that garnered no stars from Roger Ebert. It was a classic case of too many hands in the pot. There was the Penthouse head who wanted hardcore sex, the writer struggling to keep his interpretation, the director and star who wanted to re-vamp the script, and the set designer whose grand ideas fell apart and created more chaos in the production. By the end, not even great actors could save the film.

Last year, Karina Longworth shared news of the revival of Caligula by Francesco Vezzoli, an Italian artist who once staged a performance of Veruschka knitting on a bench for days on end, or more specifically, four. The Cosmic Galerie in Paris claims that he was born in 19671 -- typo or existential birth date crisis? Perhaps being caught between '67 and '71 fuels his quirky art. In a world where fans re-think old films, Vezzoli brought one hell of a cast of stars together to make a faux trailer, specifically named – Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula.

An exercise in the deliciously inappropriate, the short film/trailer is so over-the-top that it seems real. It brings back Vidal for a brief introduction, and adds a cast that ranges from the wonderfully campy Karen Black to the Oscar-nominated Helen Mirren, who starred in the original. The clip is now on YouTube, so use our "Read" link to see it in all its glory. Remember -- this is, after all, the story of the man who might be the most sexually deviant person in history, so you must be over 18 and it's definitely NSFW. Log in to the site to confirm your age and enjoy.