Herostratus (1967)

Director:

Don Levy

Writers:

Don Levy (original idea)
Don Levy (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

June 1967 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

When Max, a young poet hires a marketing company to turn his suicide-by-jumping into a mass-media spectacle...

Cast

Mona Chin	...	Sandy
Allen Ginsberg	...	Poet (voice)
Michael Gothard	...	Max
Richard Huggett
Max Latimer
Gabriella Licudi	...	Clio
Hilda Marvin
Helen Mirren	...	Advert Woman
Malcolm Muggeridge	...	Radio Presenter (voice)
Vivienne Myles
Antony Paul	...	Pointer
Brigitte St. John	...	Dancer
Peter Stephens	...	Farson

Directed by
Don Levy

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Alan Daiches		idea
Don Levy		original idea
Don Levy		screenplay

Produced by
Don Levy	....	producer
James Quinn	....	producer

Original Music by
Halim El-Dabh
John Mayer

Cinematography by
Keith Allams

Film Editing by
Don Levy

Art Direction by
Gus Coral
James Mellor

Sound Department
Alan Daiches	....	sound recordist
Peter O'Connor	....	sound recordist
Doug E. Turner	....	dubbing mixer (as Doug Turner)

Visual Effects by
Gus Coral	....	still photography

Production Companies

• BFI Experimental Film Fund
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Distributors

• British Film Institute (BFI) (1968) (UK) (theatrical)
• Warner-Sergel Film (1970) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• BFI Video (2009) (UK) (DVD) (Blu-ray)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

142 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:15 | UK:X

Company:

BFI Experimental Film Fund

Movie Connections:

Features Wholly Communion (1965)

An extraordinary film, in a category of its own.

Herostratus screened at the Orson Welles theatre in Cambridge (Mass.) for two weeks in (I think) 1968. At a party in New York a few years later, I met the owner of a theatre (I can't recall any names, alas) where it played for three days; he said he detested it and withdrew it.

I have never been more moved by a film. I can compare it only to such transforming experiences as seeing L'Avventura in the early 'sixties, although the art of Herostratus is far more mysterious. The mystery is compounded by the great gulf of years that separates me from that screening, by the fact that almost nobody I meet has seen it or even heard of it, and by the apparent lack of any body of explication and commentary.

Without seeing it again I wouldn't attempt a precis of the plot, but what remains in memory is the cool classicism of the narrative(innocence vs. worldliness and levels of manipulativeness that Henry James might have appreciated) as mediated through an unobtrusive but arresting surrealism of technique.

It's been 35 years--I'd really like to revisit Herostratus.