![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michael_gothard_archiveOn 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.
The English text reads:
Herostratus is the first feature film by Don Levy whose short films have been distinguished by their original technique and penetrating approach to their subject.
Herostratus is in the same tradition. The story, on the surface, seems simple. A young man wants to commit suicide publicly and in the presence of as many people as possible. He persuades a public relations firm to exploit the event … then he changes his mind … but by this time other forces are active and he is no longer in control of the situation.
Levy exposes his characters and their motives layer by layer. He does so in the context of a society whose aims and aspirations are centred on private gain and personal success, virtually at any price; in this society the idealism and humanism which can unify a country after a war are rapidly displaced by destructive self-interest. It is not enough, in Levy’s view, to say that war is hell. One must go deeper, find the causes, and attack them.
Herostratus, essentially a films d’auteur, is technically dazzling, but never in a gratuitous or bravura sense. Levy alternates “one-take” scenes (designed to gain the greatest response from the actors, who improvised their dialogue) with short scenes and “threshold” sequences making, in Levy’s words, an intricate network of emotional references.
Herostratus takes its title from the legendary figure who burnt down the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the world, in a bid to achieve immortality by some great feat of destruction in the manner of the conquerors. On the same night Alexander the Great was born.
Archive comment:
It seems that the producers of the press book were struggling to make this film seem relevant. It is stated that, "It is not enough, in Levy’s view, to say that war is hell. One must go deeper, find the causes, and attack them", but it would be hard to pinpoint anywhere in the film where this message is obvious. The story, non-linear as it is, mostly seems to show that advertising executives are ruthless, cruel, and twisted individuals who can't be trusted.
The grandiosity of the last paragraph, which ends, "On the same night Alexander the Great was born", is totally out of keeping with bathos of the story's end, in which the struggling poet not only reneges on the deal he made, but accidentally kills the camera operator, while saving his own life, then flees the scene.
Disappointingly, they fail to give the excellent and visceral performances of the three principal actors the credit they deserve.
The English text reads:
Herostratus is the first feature film by Don Levy whose short films have been distinguished by their original technique and penetrating approach to their subject.
Herostratus is in the same tradition. The story, on the surface, seems simple. A young man wants to commit suicide publicly and in the presence of as many people as possible. He persuades a public relations firm to exploit the event … then he changes his mind … but by this time other forces are active and he is no longer in control of the situation.
Levy exposes his characters and their motives layer by layer. He does so in the context of a society whose aims and aspirations are centred on private gain and personal success, virtually at any price; in this society the idealism and humanism which can unify a country after a war are rapidly displaced by destructive self-interest. It is not enough, in Levy’s view, to say that war is hell. One must go deeper, find the causes, and attack them.
Herostratus, essentially a films d’auteur, is technically dazzling, but never in a gratuitous or bravura sense. Levy alternates “one-take” scenes (designed to gain the greatest response from the actors, who improvised their dialogue) with short scenes and “threshold” sequences making, in Levy’s words, an intricate network of emotional references.
Herostratus takes its title from the legendary figure who burnt down the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the world, in a bid to achieve immortality by some great feat of destruction in the manner of the conquerors. On the same night Alexander the Great was born.
Archive comment:
It seems that the producers of the press book were struggling to make this film seem relevant. It is stated that, "It is not enough, in Levy’s view, to say that war is hell. One must go deeper, find the causes, and attack them", but it would be hard to pinpoint anywhere in the film where this message is obvious. The story, non-linear as it is, mostly seems to show that advertising executives are ruthless, cruel, and twisted individuals who can't be trusted.
The grandiosity of the last paragraph, which ends, "On the same night Alexander the Great was born", is totally out of keeping with bathos of the story's end, in which the struggling poet not only reneges on the deal he made, but accidentally kills the camera operator, while saving his own life, then flees the scene.
Disappointingly, they fail to give the excellent and visceral performances of the three principal actors the credit they deserve.
