UK: Herostratus DVD & Blu-ray from BFI's Flipside in August

[MarcMorris]

On 24 Aug 2009 the BFI's Flipside series unleashed HEROSTRATUS (1967), a film by Don Levy.

When Max, a young poet (played by the iconic Michael Gothard - The Devils, The Valley (Obscured by Clouds)), 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:

• Newly transferred to High Definition from the original negative under the supervision of Levy associate, Amnon Buchbinder
• Alternative 1.33:1 full frame presentation **Blu-ray exclusive**
• 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
• Five Films (1967, 9 mins): Levy's hypnotic experiments in film editing techniques
• Extensive illustrated booklet with newly commissioned contributions and original documentation
• 1-disc DVD: DVD-9 | Aspect ratio 1.77:1 | PAL | Dolby Digital mono audio (320 kbps)
• 2-disc Blu-ray: BD50 + BD25 | Aspect ratios 1.77:1 + 1.33:1 | 1080 | 24fps | PCM mono audio (48k/24-bit)

UK | 1967 | colour | English, optional subtitles for the hearing-impaired | 137 minutes

Blu-ray: amazon.co.uk | play.com

DVD: amazon.co.uk | play.com

More titles from the BFI's Flipside label

[Mark Y]

Has anyone else picked this up? It's been on my Wants list for some time and as I've just made the switch to Blu Ray I tried to get it on that format but it's quite expensive and seems to have limited availability. So I opted for a used standard DVD off Amazon which was half the price - it turned up today. I've only skimmed through it so far but visually it looks amazing for a low budget independent British movie of the mid 60s.

I think it will be a fascinating watch. It's great that films like this that were virtually impossible to see just a few years ago are now turning up in stellar transfers. Well done to the BFI!