The movie “Caligula” was so bad that famous film critic Roger Ebert walked out of the theater, labeling it as “shameful trash” and “garbage on an artistic level.”

The movie was a big-budget Ancient Rome porn extravaganza featuring Helen Mirren, Malcolm McDowell, and Peter O’Toole.

The film was produced by Bob Guccione, a porn magnate who wanted to leverage the Penthouse brand beyond his monthly magazine.

The budget for the film reached $17 million, and Guccione managed to get Gore Vidal to pen the screenplay for $200,000.

Vidal wrote the screenplay as a debauched and homoerotic allegory about how absolute power corrupts absolutely, but the film was not initially intended to be a porno.

Guccione recruited directors John Huston and Lina Wertmuller to helm the movie, but they declined.

He eventually hired Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass to direct the film, and he assembled a cast of respected actors, including Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, Sir John Gielgud, and Helen Mirren.

However, as the budget on Caligula started ballooning, Guccione decided to add graphic triple-X inserts to the film without the knowledge of Vidal, the director, or the stars.

The result was a weird, bloated Frankenstein monster of theatrical overacting and close-up copulating that all but rubbed the audience’s nose in gore and genitalia.

The film was so controversial that it was banned in several countries, including Italy.

In contrast, the movie “Nymphomaniac” managed to stir up controversy even before its release.

The film was directed by Lars von Trier and caused a stir due to its orgasmic posters, an unusual discount for infants, and its use of digitally added porn doubles for the sex scenes.

The concept was a way to avoid filming the A-list cast, including Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shia LaBeouf, and Uma Thurman, actually having sex while keeping the hardcore images that von Trier wanted for his deep dive into sexuality.

Stacy Martin, the 23-year-old actress who played the younger version of the main character Joe, walked through what filming a sex scene was like before it was altered.

She revealed that while most of the composite footage wouldn’t make it into US theaters, the uncut version of the sex scenes only featured the midsection of the actors’ porn double.

Everything above or below actually belonged to Martin or LaBeouf.

Martin explained that everything had to be predetermined because of the CGI.

“What happens is that we have to agree on a position because of the CGI. Everything has to be set, so we would do the scene with Shia or whoever it was, and we would get little black dots on our bodies,” Martin said.

“It was very unerotic, very technical and it gets quite boring because then they have to do exactly the same with the porn doubles. But they’re having real sex, and they put the two together.”

Despite the technical nature of the filming process, Martin expressed her gratitude for the experience of working with von Trier without having to become a porn star.

“It’s incredible, and I can be in a Lars Von Trier movie and not have sex,” she said. “It’s fantastic.”

“Nymphomaniac Volume 1” is available in theaters, while both installments are currently available on digital platforms.