Yes, this is definitely a (much) abridged version; I can remember viewing the entire short at university as part of my film degree back at the start of the 1990s, and the film was actually about 20 minutes long - hard to believe, watching this 'digest' version. I concur with @teadrinkor, the narrator did indeed reach the tower at the end, and there was indeed a final 'scene' with a female narrator picking up the obsession. There were also sequences with pure colour filling the screen & more.
I remember watching this as a kid on TV. My old TV went blank all the time, but the audio still worked. A healthy whack would kick it back into action. After the first still of the tower I watched the rest of the film completely black thinking that it was part of the style. I remember this really well; it affected me a lot, probably the first surreal experience of my life. Just watched Kiellers London film, which led me here.
Just saw this at the NFT - awesome, awesome little film, surprisingly moving given the subversion of narrative (Smith is a disarmingly gifted visual and verbal storyteller). May have directly inspired Chris Morris' excellent monologues from Blue Jam too...
This is great! Is there more to it? I know it's a short but is it only 3:43 long? There is a poster on the Internet Archive that is looking for John Smith works and he mentioned "the one with the tower" so I did a small bit of searching & found this. I sent your upload info to this person in answer to his forum query. The Poster is: MairiX - and her subj line reads: Looking for films by John Smith - Forum is: More_animation.
anyone seen John Smith's Blight online anywhere? Love that film
emmajane 4 weeks ago
Yes, this is definitely a (much) abridged version; I can remember viewing the entire short at university as part of my film degree back at the start of the 1990s, and the film was actually about 20 minutes long - hard to believe, watching this 'digest' version. I concur with @teadrinkor, the narrator did indeed reach the tower at the end, and there was indeed a final 'scene' with a female narrator picking up the obsession. There were also sequences with pure colour filling the screen & more.
Tymek41 5 months ago
I remember watching this as a kid on TV. My old TV went blank all the time, but the audio still worked. A healthy whack would kick it back into action. After the first still of the tower I watched the rest of the film completely black thinking that it was part of the style. I remember this really well; it affected me a lot, probably the first surreal experience of my life. Just watched Kiellers London film, which led me here.
undertherainbow100 6 months ago
Just saw this at the NFT - awesome, awesome little film, surprisingly moving given the subversion of narrative (Smith is a disarmingly gifted visual and verbal storyteller). May have directly inspired Chris Morris' excellent monologues from Blue Jam too...
Haberdager 8 months ago
This is great! Is there more to it? I know it's a short but is it only 3:43 long? There is a poster on the Internet Archive that is looking for John Smith works and he mentioned "the one with the tower" so I did a small bit of searching & found this. I sent your upload info to this person in answer to his forum query. The Poster is: MairiX - and her subj line reads: Looking for films by John Smith - Forum is: More_animation.
Thanks again.
ToniHunterOne 9 months ago
@ToniHunterOne There is definitely more. We watched it in class earlier this year. Can't point you towards a longer version though
teadrinkor 8 months ago
@teadrinkor Yeah, I definitely recall him reaching the tower and a coda with a woman's voice.
HappyCatters 7 months ago