Synopsis
When Max, a young poet (played by the iconic
Michael Gothard) hires a marketing company to turn his suicide-by-jumping into a mass-media spectacle, he finds that his subversive intentions are quickly diluted into a reactionary gesture, and his motivations are revealed as a desperate attempt to seek attention through celebrity.
Unseen since its limited release in 1967, this audacious and prescient – yet criminally overlooked – work by experimental filmmaker
Don Levy left a profound mark on the landscape of late-1960s British cinema, with echoes of its visual style evident in the most celebrated work of such notable directors as
Stanley Kubrick,
Nicolas Roeg and
Michael Winner.
Special Features
- Interview with
Don Levy (1973), the only known recording of Levy discussing
Herostratus -
Ten Thousand Talents (1960, 24 mins): Levy’s student film, set in Cambridge, featuring the voice of
Peter Cook -
Time Is (1964, 29 mins): Levy’s remarkable experimental documentary
- Booklet with commissioned contributors and original documentation