Dionysos is a 1984 French comedy film directed by Jean Rouch, starring Jean Monod and Hélène Puiseux. It tells the story of an American drama teacher who after writing a thesis on Dionysus tries to combine Dionysian rites with the work at a car factory, in an attempt to create the world's first car built in joyous frenzy. The film competed at the 41st Venice International Film Festival. It was released in France on 3 December 1986.
Cast
Jean Monod as Hugh Gray
Hélène Puiseux as Ariane
Cookie Chiapalone as one of three maenads
Fifi Niane Raliatou as one of three maenads
Kagumi Onodera as one of three maenads
Germaine Dieterlen as member of the teachers' choir
Roger Foucher as member of the teachers' choir
Enrico Fulchignoni as member of the teachers' choir
Reception
Harlan Kennedy of American Cinema Papers described the film as "entirely lunatic" in his report from Venice, and wrote: "It's like a 60s hippy charging round the icon-scape of 80s Capitalism with a Super-8 camera and hoping meaning will accrue from the whir of disconnected imagery."