 that five or  six minutes consists of the lesbian tryst in the secret room, and  several inserts in the imperial bordello scene. Everything else was  shot by Brass. Vidal disowned the film because Brass and lead actor  Malcolm McDowell (qv) changed the point of view of his screenplay.  Brass disowned it because Guccione locked him out of the editing  room (some in the industry suspect it was because Brass didnt want  to use Gucciones hardcore inserts) after assembling the first 40  minutes (which was probably disassembled shortly afterward).  Guccione then proceeded to edit the film himself, but he often chose  shots that were never meant to be included (the many zooms,  out