The Bacchantes

Even though this film by Giorgio FERRONI is loosely based on the ancient Greek tragedy "The Bacchae" by Euripides, that didn't do the rather unsuccessful film any good.

A year before his worldwide success with the West German Karl May film adaptation "Treasure in the Silver Lake", the French actor Pierre BRICE played Dionysus here, who has to fight his way through a rather lame plot. Certainly not a masterpiece of the Italian sword and sandal film!

It is tragic that the young Italian actor Raf MATTIOLI (1936-1960), who plays Lakdamos, died unexpectedly of a heart attack on the eve of a preview in Rome.

The god Dionysus comes to Thebes, home of his late mortal mother, Semele. To ward off a terrible drought, young king Pentheus is willing to sacrifice the virgin Manto to Demeter. Dionysus demands to be worshiped instead. Pentheus spurns him, but Dionysus wins over the populace with gifts of magical wine and ecstatic celebration. He also wins the devotion of the beautiful Dirce. Will Pentheus get his comeuppance? Will Dionysus remain in Thebes with Dirce? As the playwright Euripides concluded, "The end anticipated has not been consummated. But god has found a way for what no man expected. So ends the play."

Michel Eloy at his peplums.info site calls it (I translate from the French) "certainly the most astonishing of the mythological peplums of the Sixties, including whole recitations from the sacred tragedy of Euripides along with other myths of the Theban Cycle (the death of Actaeon, Manto the daughter of Tiresias, Athamas and the drought), all integrated into the requisite motifs of the genre: palace intrigue, thwarted young lovers, a popular uprising..."

There is a gorgeous widescreen DVD of this movie (in Spanish only) from the Cine Epico series in Spain. For curiosity value alone, it rates a 7 on my scale; it's both startlingly intellectual and outrageously campy (especially the choreography by Herbert Ross, who went on to direct THE TURNING POINT, FOOTLOOSE, etc.); that this movie was ever made is such a miracle that I'll overlook its obvious limitations. This is, after all, the sword and sandal version of one of the most challenging Greek tragedies, and as such it subverts its original source material even as it celebrates it. (Instead of Euripides' hair-raising finale, we get a sword fight, alas.)

I recently got the chance to sit down and watch this for the first time, and am very impressed with how professional this film is. Giorgio Ferroni has fully tapped his cinematic talents, creating a movie which is visually every bit as stunning as Francisci's "Hercules." The tale itself is based on an ancient Greek play, but that is incidental. This one contains some very nicely decorated sets, an excellent score, budget costumes, and good acting. Pierre Brice is at his best as Dionysus, who comes to Thebes only to be short-shrifted by King Penteus (Alberto Lupo), who forbids his worship in that city. I've seen several other of Ferroni's films, but this one stands in my mind as one of the best. Nerio Bernardi is also in place as the high priest, while Alessandra Panaro and Taina Elg head the female cast. All in all, this is a wonderful film, and one that should be seen by every fan of the genre.

Director Giorgio Ferroni had a long career in Italian cinema, back to the 1930s. He was at the peak of his art by 1961, having a previous commercial success with "Mill of the Stone Women". He took great care and there were no financial limitations for his adaptation of Euripides' classic tragedy "The Bacchantes", including location shooting in Greece for the opening dance sequence in panoramic exteriors, and the hiring of popular foreign talents, as Finnish actress-dancer Taina Elg as Dirce (though admittedly her Hollywood career was starting to decline by 1961, even after winning a Golden Globe for "Les Girls"), French actor Pierre Brice for the role of Dionisos/Dionysus, Russian actor Akim Tamiroff as Tiresias, and the American choreographer Herbert Ross, long before becoming a film director. The prestige of the artistic personnel was rounded with Italian artists, including composer Mario Nascimbene and actors Alberto Lupo and Miranda Campa as the son and mother rulers of Thebes. Welcome liberties were taken in adapting the tragedy, considered by many scholars as Euripides' greatest stage work, whose open call to hedonism was more than relevant for the decade of "free love", as it is still pertinent today. But its stage origin is strong: the film remains a verbose product, with dialogs delivered in a too theatrical manner (especially by Dionisos), and the film ends being perceived as longer than its actual running time. Inexplicably Brice wears an ugly platinum wig, his Dionisos is tamed and stiff, compared to the exuberant descriptions of the god in art; and the only bacchanal depicted is too restrained and chaste even by 1961 film conventions. All this said I find it a work of enough merit to deserve better appreciation. To call this "sword and sandal" (a simplistic renaming of the more accurate -and appealing- "peplum" term, for a sub-genre that quite often includes little clothing, sexy women, sadist rulers and masochist demigods), or re-issuing it as "Bondage Gladiator Sexy", illustrates the tendency to mix expressions with artistic intentions (if partly failed as this) with fast-buck productions, exploiting the success of the most recent strong-man release. Curiously, after "Le baccanti", the term would be more justified for the several peplums Ferroni made.

The Italian TV RAI 3 transmitted this movie yesterday (June 07, 2008), even if at impossible hour as usual for interesting movies of the past. Being very interested in Greek Religion I had to see it and I have been a little bit surprised by its good qualities; in fact the movie has many qualities. Actors were all fine especially Alberto Lupo in the Pentheus role: he is still today a very lamented actor in Italy. He was the kind of actor that you can't replace easily for his personality. He managed to make of Pentheus a credible King, who never seem stupid nor ridiculous as somewhere else may appear. Being a musician I have to say that I appreciated the soundtrack, it is really very good. After a brief research I discovered that The music was composed by Mario Nascimbene (who also worked for Hollywood and won a David Donatello for the career) and directed by Franco Ferrara. Nascimbene did an excellent job both with themes and making all sound not too romantic or modern especially considering the bad tendencies during the fifties and the sixties. Another incredible point of quality in this movie are dialogues: there are many sentences and aphorisms that watching the movie you would like to write down on paper and remember. The story is of course somewhat naive, especially the easiness with which Dionysos earn the popular trust and consent is a bit exaggerated and the deep reasons could be better explained. Sexuality is cited but just passed over and so on. All the same this is a well equilibrated and pleasing movie to see even more than one time. And most of all one of the few movies about ancient Greek Gods in which the ancient believes are a bit respected and not insulted. Of course it is only cinema. There is enough adventure, suspense and educational material (music, some dance, aphorisms) in this movie that you can watch it both with your partner, your children, just for yourself.