Herostratus (film)
Encyclopedia
Herostratus is a 1967
1967 in film
The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....
film made in London by the Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n director Don Levy
Don Levy
Don Levy was an artist and film-maker.Levy was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. After studying theoretical chemistry at the University of Sydney, he was awarded a Research Scholarship to Cambridge University. There he obtained a PhD in Theoretical Chemical Physics in 1960...
, about a young man who wants to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in public by jumping off a tall building. The title comes from the name of the Ancient Greek man Herostratus
Herostratus
Herostratus was a young man and arsonist; seeking notoriety, he burned down the Temple of Artemis in ancient Greece.-Occurrence:On July 21, 356 BC, Herostratus set fire to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in what is now Turkey...
, who sought to immortalize his name by setting fire to the Temple of Artemis
Temple of Artemis
The Temple of Artemis , also known less precisely as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to a goddess Greeks identified as Artemis and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was situated at Ephesus , and was completely rebuilt three times before its eventual destruction...
in Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
. Both the director and the lead actor would, later, commit suicide.
The film stars Mona Chin (Sandy), Michael Gothard
Michael Gothard
Michael Alan Gothard was an English actor, best remembered for his role as Kai in the television series Arthur of the Britons and for his role as the mysterious villain Emile Leopold Locque in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.-Early life:Michael Gothard was born in London in 1939...
(Max), Gabriella Licudi
Gabriella Licudi
Gabriella Licudi is a Moroccan-born British former actress.Born in Casablanca while her father, a Greek naval engineer, was stationed there, Gabriella Licudi was educated in England, France and Spain before settling permanently in England at the age of fifteen...
(Clio), Antony Paul (Pointer), and Peter Stephens
Peter Stephens
Peter Stephens was an English stage, film and television supporting actor, notable for his portrayal of the Bunteresque character, Cyril, in the BBC TV series Doctor Who series entitled The Celestial Toymaker...
(Farson); other parts are played by Hilda Marvin, Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
in her first film role, Malcolm Muggeridge
Malcolm Muggeridge
Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist. During World War II, he was a soldier and a spy...
, Vivienne Myles, and Brigitte St. John. It was co-produced by James Quinn
James Quinn (BFI Director)
James Quinn was a film administrator, producer and exhibitor.He was best known as one of the longest-serving Directors of the British Film Institute...
, the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
The film features music by Halim El-Dabh
Halim El-Dabh
Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh is an Egyptian-born American composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who has had a career spanning six decades...
.
DVD and Blu-ray Disc release
The BFIBritish Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
has released Herostratus on DVD and Blu-ray Disc through its Flipside
BFI Flipside
BFI Flipside is a series of DVD releases from the British Film Institute launched in May 2009. The sleeve notes to the DVD Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema state that the series is "rescuing weird and wonderful British films from obscurity and presenting them in new high-quality...
strand.