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The Black Tower
In The Black Tower, we enter the world of a man haunted by a tower which, he believes, is following him around London. While the character of the central protagonist is indicated only by a narrative voice-over which takes us from unease to breakdown to mysterious death, the images, meticulously controlled and articulated, deliver a series of colour-coded puzzles, jokes, and puns which pull the viewer into a mind-teasing engagement.
John Smith’s assurance and skill as a filmmaker undercuts the notion of the avant-garde as dry, unprofessional, and dull, and in The Black Tower, we have an example of a film that plays with the emotions as well as the language of film.
Bio John Smith
John Smith (UK, 1952) studied film at the Royal College of Art. Inspired by conceptual art and structural film, but also fascinated by the immersive power of narrative and the spoken word, he has developed a body of work that deftly subverts the boundaries between documentary, fiction, representation, and abstraction. Often rooted in everyday life, his meticulously crafted films, such as The Girl Chewing Gum (1976), Blight (1996), and The Black Tower (1987), playfully explore and expose the language of cinema. Smith’s work has been widely shown in independent cinemas, film festivals, and art galleries around the world and has been awarded many major prizes. (Light Cone)
The Black Tower expands the core of Smith’s interests: chiefly, the image as a filmic fact which is constantly questioned and often undermined by language and soundtrack. Like his earlier films, The Black Tower is concerned with description, but this time framed by a story whose undertow of melancholy balances its wit and wry humour, and which is a remarkable fiction in its own right.
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- This film was #22 in the “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025