Herostratus

Herostratus (1967)

When a young poet hires a marketing company to turn his suicide into a mass-media spectacle, he finds that his subversive intentions are quickly diluted into a reactionary gesture.

Date of release
1967-07-10
TMDB
6.4 / 10 (18)
Runtime
2h 22m
Genres
Drama
Director
Don Levy

Casting

Interesting facts

Herostratus is a 1967 British experimental psychological drama film directed and produced by Don Levy, with the assistance of James Quinn. The film follows a young poet named Max, who out of ennui and a desire for fame arranges with the marketer Farson to commit suicide in public. Farson agrees to turn his suicide into a high-profile media spectacle. Clio, an attractive woman who is Farson's secretary, aids Max in his goals. The film also stars Antony Paul and Mona Hammond, as well as Helen Mirren in her first credited film role.

Production

Don Levy was inspired by the Greek historical figure Herostratus, and developed the idea for the film in 1962 from this legend and a story written by Alan Daiches whilst a post-graduate student at the Slade School of Fine Art under the supervision of Thorold Dickinson.

Levy received further funding from the then Controller of Television Programmes for the BBC, Huw Wheldon, who provided an additional contribution of £1500, and £1500 more from James Quinn who overshot Levy's budget forecast to ensure that the film could be made in colour.

Levy spent a considerable amount of time running potential actors through improvisational auditions, and eventually selected Michael Gothard, Gabriella Licudi and Peter Stephens for the lead roles. These improvisational auditions were an attempt by Levy to heighten the emotional reality presented by the film, and through the film he attempts to use this improvisational acting to distinctly induce specific feelings and emotions in the audience.

Throughout the filming Levy directed the characterisation and dialogue through what he described as "a very complicated process of improvisation and recall", with the goal of "enveloping the characters of the play". He used these techniques in an attempt to bring forwards the subconscious feelings of the actors and create a heightened emotional state in them that extended to the audience, in a process he described as a form of "experimental psych…

The film contains a number of montages and disjointed cuts as well two recurrent intercut sequences, one of a striptease and another of a cow being slaughtered, that are repeated five and eight times respectively through the film. These scenes provide the most prominent examples of Levy's editing style, which he utilised to convey thematic meaning and provide distinct emotional contexts to the audience.

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