This film is part of Free

Guinness - Film

High concept: a pint of the black stuff, downed in truly cinematic style.

Advert 1979 1 mins Not rated

Overview

Long before Jonathan Glazer’s Surfer, Guinness was noted for advertising that felt cinematic, even if shown mainly on TV. High concept reaches a logical conclusion, here, as an expert spoof of Hollywood blockbusters’ visual conventions lavishly adorns the quaffing of a pint of the black stuff. Every glass, we take it, contains its very own narrative arc - and always leads to a satisfying finish.

Director John Krish was himself no mean filmmaker. Having excelled as a director of documentary shorts in the 1950s and early 1960s, his own feature film career had proved disappointing; by the 1970s he was specialising in striking public information films and stylish commercials, latterly under exclusive contract to top ads firm Sierra Productions. A master of expressive visual economy, he here offsets the expense of a bravura helicopter shot by meticulously staged studio close-ups. Incidentally there is no such place as ‘Acclesford’: the aerial footage was taken above Gravesend, Kent, whose pub The Three Daws convincingly acts the part of the ‘Dog and Duck’.