The extracts below are from a review of 'Herostratus' by Stuart Heaney, published in 'Sight and Sound' magazine, volume 19, issue 9, in September 2009."… This is the 1960s as you’ve never seen them before - the myths demystified before they were even crystallised. Its themes mirror in disturbing fashion the subsequent troubled lives of its ( Read more... )

Interviewed by Clare Spark, in February 1973, Don Levy stated: “It’s not necessary for the actors to know what they’re doing. What they’ve gotta know, is - what they are. In fact, that’s all I require of them ( Read more... )

Extracts from an interview by Bruce Beresford with Don Levy in “Cinema”, March 1969 ( Read more... )

This review has been given a separate entry, because it raises several points of particular interest.

From a review on Britmovie: 20 January 2010 by Drewe Shimon: As a shrieking, bellowing Beethoven movement plays on reel-to-reel cassette, a fair-haired, handsome young man lies on a bed cackling insanely, ignoring his neighbour’s entreaties to “ ( Read more... )

Mosk - Variety, 17 January 1968Don Levy, for his first feature pic, which took about three years to make, does not lack ambition. His theme is the revolt of a young poet failure against the so-called system and general world corruption. But he does not keep it simple, blending stock footage, subliminal cutting and a mixture of melodrama, ( Read more... )

On the last day of the Berlin International Film Festival, 2 July 1968, "Herostratus" was shown three times, at 15:00, 18:00 and 20:30. This is the press book produced for the film.


( Read more... )

In June 1967, after a long editing process by Don Levy, "Herostratus" was finally completed. It had its first public screening at the Cinémathèque Française in January 1968.

BFI synopsis.The film was the opening exhibition at London’s ICA cinema in May 1968 ( Read more... )

Excerpts from "On location" report on "Herostratus."... Levy spent a good deal of his time testing artists: having decided that this was to be a film developed entirely by improvisation around a firm narrative, he wanted a particularly malleable and intense type of player. After the extensive improvised auditions, he settled on Michael Gothard, ( Read more... )

In 1964, Michael landed the lead role in an underground film, ‘Herostratus.’ In it, he plays a young man, Max, who decides to commit suicide, and arranges with an advertising firm that they may capitalise on his death in any way they wish, provided it generates a lot of publicity.

Per the cover notes from the 2009 British Film Institute DVD ( Read more... )