Mission Creek Music/Film Festival
Friday, May 11, 2007, 8:00 pm, $6
Bacchanale is a “lost” adult arthouse film from 1970, released towards the end of the grindhouse era and at the dawn of XXX.
The (surprisingly enlightened) sex in this film is overwhelmed by a script chock full of low-budget surrealistic pretensions. This creative tact was originally designed to provide enough of a veneer of artistic merit to keep the censorship boards at bay. With the passage of time, it now can be seen as a piece in full dialog with the cinematic trends of the day, maybe a grimy Seventh Seal, a gutter-dwelling Satiricon or outsider artist Rosemary’s Baby. Too kind? You be the judge. Shot in several (but not all) colors, and concerning fashion, dreams, death, discos, calliopes, spiral staircases, water, war, hell, and, of course, sex. Directed by John and Lem Amero, starring Uta Erickson, inserts by Harry Reems and Tina Russell. New audio curated by Sam Zimmerman, Nick Hallett and Montgomery Knott. Additional film edits by Sam Zimmerman.
For this screening, Monkey Town has taken the liberty of inviting 50 audio artists to reinterpret the film (which is currently out of commercial release). The result experience is an era-bending megamix of illicit thrills.