Dionysus (1970)
AKA: Dionysus in '69
Director Brian De Palma, Richard Schechner
Runtime: 85 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Sound Mix: Mono
Certification: USA:X
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065641/
reviews: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/ ... .html#film
This adaptation of "The Bacchae" by Euripides seems to be a collection of black and white home movies using hand held cameras. The filming and editing was done by Brian De Palma, but nothing distinguishes the film from being a filmed stage performance of writhing and groaning amateur actors and actresses. — Dan Pavlides
Produced, directed, shot, and edited by Brian De Palma, Robert Fiore, and Bruce Rubin, Dionysus in '69 documents a landmark late-'60s experimental-theater work. Adapted by theater director Richard Schechner and the Performance Group as an eroticized and politicized version of Euripides' The Bacchae, Dionysus in '69's "total theater" style aimed to redefine the relationship between the theater experience and "real life," with the audience invited to participate in as well as watch the play. Merging two live performances of the play at New York's Performing Garage, the black-and-white film's split-screen editing also became a precursor to De Palma's subsequent 1970s feature films. Made while he was finishing Hi Mom! (1970), the sequel to his theatrical breakthrough Greetings (1968), Dionysus in '69 was De Palma's last independent film during his late-'60s stint in the cutting edge, no-budget New York film scene, as well as a record of the period's avant-garde art. With this pedigree, Dionysus in '69 is clearly not for all tastes. — Lucia Bozzola
Extremely hard to find, though absolutely indispensable work.
Dionysus is not really a film as such, but a "from the hip" documentary "capture" of the Performance Group's legendary 1969 staging of Euripides' THE BACCHAE. Hugely inspired by the ground-breaking theatrical rituals of Polish director Jerzy Grotowski, DIONYSUS IN '69 (as the production was named) stirred up huge controversy amongst New York theatre audiences and critics alike.
Although the production was directed by Richard Schechner, Dionysus In '69 was created through a rehearsal process that was part democracy, part anarchy, part primal scream therapy. The final result was more a ritualized confrontation than conventional play, which culminated in a virtual orgy of audience participation. Nudity, profanity and huge amounts of stage blood were used to tremendous effect. Brian DePalma discovered the production and brought two NYU film maker friends of his into a special performance where multiple 16mm cameras were used to archive the iconoclastic proceedings in B&W. The final cut is an exercise in the "split screen" techniques which would eventually become DePalma's cinematic trademark.
The cast shows deep commitment to their material, and Bill Shepherd (later known as Will Shepherd) is particularly brilliant in the role of Pentheus. I will not go into the plot, which should be well-known to most college graduates, but will say that the original Euripides play (written about 500 B.C.) deals with the myth of Dionysus and his revenge upon the city responsible for his mortal mother's death.
I had the good fortune to direct Will Shepherd in my own film adaptation of THE BACCHAE, produced in October of 2000, where he played Cadmus, grandfather to the character he portrayed so brilliantly some thirty years before at the Performance Garage in New York.
I highly recommend the film DIONYSUS, if not for its filmic brilliance, then at least for its documentation of one of the true theatrical marvels of the late 1960's.
There are a number of 16mm prints of Dionysus floating around out there somewhere, but I'm not sure what company distributes the film, which is not available on video through
Dionysus-in-69-Brian.de.palma-french-st-dvx5-dvdrip_Agarci.avi 
