Dionysus in 69 is a film by Brian De Palma that captures a performance of Euripides' The Bacchae by a theatrical troupe called "The Performance Group."
This play is an interactive audience experience performed apparently in a garage or a warehouse. The performers at times enter a frenzied state with and without their clothes. There is a significant amount of nudity or near nudity at times. You can see the discomfort in the faces of the audience.
This is also a very imaginatively filmed performance of a theatrical production, De Palma uses his split screen technique to capture the play from different viewpoints. At times he focuses on a single performance from two different angles perfectly blending it into the split screen.
This film is an excellent record of the type of experimental theater that was going on in the late 1960's that was challenging the conventional staging, performance and even structure of a theatrical play. An exciting, uncomfortable and at times very difficult film to watch but extremely worthwhile.
85 minutes.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment