Film Analysis: The Emperor Caligula

To begin with, this movie was so historically inaccurate with costumes that one could easily make a drinking game out of the movie. to see who can be the first to find the few accurate costumes in the movie. Not being able to write a complete review of every single inaccurate detail of the costumes in this film is almost a sin. Before getting into the details of costume in the movie set, one should look at the usage of hair. Surprisingly, most of the hairstyles placed on the men and women in the movie were decently accurate. Keep in mind that by saying decently, it is also said loosely, when one can tell that some of the hairstyles were Roman influenced but just exaggerated for artistic design. The character for Caesonia (actress Helen Mirren)

Brighter colors were abundant in the movie, more than what one is normally used to seeing in a Roman era movie. The emperor Caligula (actor Malcolm Mcdowell) is seen wearing an abundance of various colors, but one hardly ever sees him wearing the most important one of all, the color purple. Being the color of royalty, is was weird to not see him at least wearing a few clothing pieces showing off the color. “The color of purple and its association with the Roman Emperors is due to vast expense of producing clothing made of such a color.” But beside that small film mistake, most of the colors in the film were accurate since the Romans actually had a wide variety of dyes to make several different hues. The main part that was inaccurate of the film was the usage of fabric, such as: tulle, satin, gold ribbon, and suede. None of the material would have existed during the time period, and material like wool, silk, or linen was hardly even used in the film. Clothing was definitely not accurate with the era. When the actors and actresses were actually fully dressed in the film (which hardly ever happened), one can easily spot “mistakes”. The women, for example, were always dressed in exposing costume that showed more than what would have been acceptable. Roman women were taught to dress to retain their modesty. However, if one does put into consideration of the film and what it’s exactly supposed to present (which is pretty much porn), it would have had sense that the director placed everyone in exposing outerwear. A lot of the design choices that were made, considering that these women are in a court setting wearing exposing clothing, is quite laughable. Drusilla for example (actress Teresa Ann Savoy) is dressed in many scenes that appear that she’s supposed to be wearing a palla, but if one looks at her side, naked skin is constantly displaying. Naturally with her being a woman,