Inspired by an essay by Barjavel, the 70-year-old documentary proposes the evolution of television in a portable, pocket-sized format, as well as a way for people to interact with objects. Today, parallels are drawn between objects, like smartphones described in a short documentary. Anne-Katrin Weber, television historian at the University of Lausanne, said: people using miniature television devices in public places; professional meetings held by telephones with pictures; cars equipped with television screens; shops advertising their products on television: These themes are taken from the 1947 short film Television: Oeil de Demain. Produced and directed by JK Raymond-Millet.
The film combines documentary and sci-fi sequences while offering television portrayal of post-war France, as well as creative speculation about future developments. While Raymond-Millett's work is largely forgotten today, his film received a standing ovation for “predicting our present,” and although the small handheld devices used in the film have long retractable antennas that resemble the first cell phones, it shows that 70 smartphones already existed. In fact, they mirror today's smartphones that are found in almost everyone's pockets.
At the end of the film, the audience is transported to the bedroom, where the man is having trouble sleeping. He seems to "summon" a hologram of a dancing woman who appears on the bed and stares at her while his wife sleeps. The film sketches of the upcoming TV shows do look like a pretty accurate prediction of modern digital media in terms of the flexibility and hybridity of media technologies and their various forms of consumption.
