Smoking/No Smoking

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Smoking/No Smoking ★★ 1994

Two linked films director Resnais adapted from writer Alan Ayckbourn's eight-play cycle “Intimate Exchanges” (although the screenwriters have only used six stories). Azema and Arditti plays nine characters in various tableaus on marriage and affairs set at a Yorkshire school. The opening sequence of each episode provides the title tie-in, as faculty wife Celia goes onto the terrace, finds a pack of cigarettes, and decides whether or not to light up. A studio set provides all the frankly fake backdrops. Very slight and very long. French with subtitles. 285m/C VHS . FR Sabine Azema, Pierre Arditti; D: Alain Resnais; W: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Agnes Jaoui. Cesar '94: Actor (Arditti), Art Dir./ Set Dec., Director (Resnais), Film, Writing.

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