Smoking / No Smoking

Movie
German title	Smoking / No Smoking
Original title	Smoking / No Smoking
Country of production	France
original language	French
Publishing year	1993
length	298 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Alain Resnais
script	Jean-Pierre Bacri , ; Agnès Jaoui
production	Michel Seydoux
music	John Pattison
camera	Renato Berta
cut	Albert Jurgenson
occupation
	Sabine Azéma : Celia Teasdale / Sylvie Bell / Irene Pridworthy / Rowena Coombes / Josephine Hamilton; Pierre Arditi : Toby Teasdale / Miles Coombes / Lionel Hepplewick / Joe Hepplewick; Peter Hudson : Narrator;

Smoking / No Smoking is a two-part French drama directed by Alain Resnais from 1993. The literary model was the play Intimate Exchanges by Alan Ayckbourn . Sabine Azéma and Pierre Arditi , with whom Resnais has worked several times, play all the roles.

action

In both parts, six possible stories are told by nine people who live in Hutton Buscel in the English county of Yorkshire and are presented in comic drawings. The focus is always on the pursuit of happiness, dealing with conventions as well as random and spontaneous decisions that greatly change people's lives. The starting point for both parts is the question that Celia Teasdale asks: Should she take a cigarette break while gardening or not?

Tuxedo

Version 1 : Celia is married to Toby Teasdale, the headmaster of the local school. During spring cleaning, she reaches for a cigarette and lights it. The school caretaker, Lionel Hepplewick, stops by to check on her garden. He also flirts with the young Sylvie Bell, who works as a housemaid for the Teasdales. A few days later, the Teasdales realize that their marriage is over. Toby, who has a drinking problem and is about to lose his job as director, decides to leave town for a while. Five weeks later, Celia and Lionel try to set up a catering service . But Lionel turns out to be useless. Toby eventually returns to Celia. Five years later, the funeral of Lionel's father Joe, who had spent the last few years in a wheelchair and tried his hand at poetry. Toby has since sworn off alcohol, and Celia is depressed that her catering service was unsuccessful. Lionel has meanwhile married a businesswoman and successfully runs a cafeteria.

Version 2 : Celia and Toby hardly recognize each other at Joe Hepplewick's funeral. Toby has become a hopeless alcoholic. Celia continues to run the catering service with Lionel.

3rd version : While doing spring cleaning in the garden, Toby Celia suggests going on vacation together. Lionel is disappointed when Celia says goodbye to him and tells him that the catering service was a crazy idea. Lionel follows Toby and Celia to a beach hotel and accepts a job as a waiter. He tries to talk to Celia alone. Toby finds out about him and makes sure that Lionel is released. Five years later, Toby is buried. Celia is accompanied by Toby's friend Miles Coombes. Lionel now works as a grave digger.

Version 4 : Toby maintains control when it turns out that Lionel has followed him and Celia to the beach hotel. Celia admits she instigated Lionel to do this. This in turn wants to leave Celia alone from now on. Five years later there is a celebration on the occasion of a school anniversary. Celias and Toby's marriage is still going badly. Lionel is now also married and runs a taxi office.

5. Version : Lionel doesn't want to go out with Celia in the garden of the Teasdales, but with the maid Sylvie. After their rendezvous, Lionel wants Sylvie to make more of herself. Toby helps Sylvie and gives her appropriate literature to read. Lionel is pleased that Sylvie is determined to develop further. Meanwhile, Celia hopes that Toby will finally stop drinking. Five weeks later, Lionel's father Joe Hepplewick was talking to Celia and Sylvie at the town festival. The latter is now irritated by Lionel, who has lost his job. Toby, on the other hand, has blossomed as Sylvie's mentor. Sylvie, however, does not want any more lessons. After five years, Lionel and Sylvie have two sons and a daughter. Toby has since given up his position as director.

6. Version : At the city festival, Sylvie Lionel says that she does not want to marry him. Five years later, Lionel married someone else. Toby's alcohol addiction can be clearly seen at the school anniversary. Sylvie, who has since become a reporter, wants to interview Toby. She thanks for the lessons she once received from him, which Toby is very happy about.

No smoking

Version 1 : Celia doesn't light a cigarette on her terrace and then misses Lionel. Instead, she meets Toby's friend Miles, who informs her that Toby should be fired because of his alcohol addiction. Miles wanted to try to prevent Toby's resignation. Celia is indifferent, she wants to leave Toby anyway. Not only they, Miles have a bad marriage too. His life-hungry wife Rowena cheats on him. However, he is hoping for a dinner for four. However, only he and Celia appear for this meal at the Teasdales. Miles, who was able to prevent Toby from being released, is to speak to Celia alone and get her to stay with Toby. But Miles is also in love with Celia. Later, Celia's mother, Josephine, shows up and asks Miles numerous private questions in Celia's absence. Miles hides in the teasdales shed. Five weeks later Miles and his wife Rowena go golfing. Rowena taunts Miles, but can get him to read her a poem afterwards. Five years later, Miles, who has moved with Rowena, and Celia meet again. Toby has passed away in the meantime.

Version 2 : While playing golf, Rowena tells Miles that their relationship is not working. At the school anniversary it turns out that both couples have finally separated. Miles and Toby now live together, Celia works at the school.

Version 3 : Miles agrees to defend Toby before the school board and the deputy headmistress Irene Pridworthy, but does not propose a dinner with the Teasdales. When he gets into an argument with Rowena in the Teasdales garden, Rowena locks him in the shed. Sylvie frees Miles, who then invites her to go for a walk on the beach, which he always wanted to do with Rowena. Celia later tells Miles that Sylvie doesn't like long walks and that Rowena is meeting another man. Miles then retires to the shed. Five weeks later, Miles is still in the shed. Meanwhile, Rowena jokes with Lionel, who shows off his pants and then demonstrates his fitness. Rowena then manages to lure Miles out of the shed. Meanwhile, he has decided to leave her. Five years later Sylvie is married to Lionel and Miles is back together with Rowena.

Version 4 : Rowena shows empathy and returns home with Miles after Miles has left the shed.

Version 5 : Celia tells Miles that Sylvie likes to take long walks. But Sylvie had lied in the message she left for Celia. During her hike with Miles, Sylvie complains that her shoes are pinching and that she has cramps in her legs. Despite getting on each other's nerves, Sylvie and Miles are very drawn to each other. After Sylvie goes home, Rowena finds her husband again. Five years later, Sylvie is led to the altar by Miles, where she says yes to Lionel.

Version 6 : When Rowena meets Miles on his hike, the latter refuses to go home with her. He falls unhappy in the fog and is killed in the process. Five years later, a memorial service is held for Miles. A shed in the churchyard is consecrated in his name.

background

With Mélo (1986), director Alain Resnais had already adapted a tabloid piece for the screen. For Smoking / No Smoking he took the stage play Intimate Exchanges by the British Alan Ayckbourn as a template, which Resnais shortened from eight to six stories for his film. Resnais staged the two-part film around the question “What if?” Consciously in front of artificial backdrops and with artificial light. The comedy that emerges from the adaptation of an English play in French was also intended by Resnais.

Smoking / No Smoking premiered in France on October 27, 1993 and subsequently received five Césars , including in the Best Picture category . In Germany, the tragicomedy was shown in cinemas for the first time on October 27, 1994 and broadcast on television on May 26 and May 27, 1996 by West 3 . In the German dubbed version , Sabine Azéma was voiced by Evelyn Maron in her respective roles , while Joachim Kerzel gave his voice to Pierre Arditi.

Reviews

According to Der Spiegel , in both parts of the film you can "watch in amazement how the great old tinkerer of French film found a playful ease in his later years instead of falling into arthritic rigidity of meaning". It is about “a work of old age without a shock, wise, bright and as simple as only a master of the difficult can direct a film”. For the Lexicon of International Films , Smoking / No Smoking by Arditi and Azéma was "[h] excellently played" in a total of nine roles. Cinema described the film as a "[com] omic, sophisticated game with chance".