Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

[David Brent]

With almost daily medical reports from experts detailing how harmful smoking (even passive smoking)can be for you i find it strange that a large majority of Brit films being released for TV & the cinema today depict most of their characters as being smokers.

I do not know what a scene showing people lighting up fags adds to a storyline but to my eyes it appears pointless.

Am i being cynical in suggesting that maybe the tobacco industry are helping to fund modern movies on the proviso that cigarettes are promoted?

How much are the younger viewers swayed towards cigarettes by seeing their attractive 'cool'movie star heroes lighting up on screen?

Also to a lesser degree i see that if movies are true to life then every family in Britain has an ample supply of bottled wine that they drink with each meal.Are the wine promoters also getting in on the act?The list goes on..,

Surely the film companies do not want us all to become heavy smokers &/or binge drinkers...but maybe the financial backers of the films may.

By the way,is Smoking still allowed in British cinema's? Strict 'No Smoking'rules have been in place in Australia for many years,but i always remember going to a cinema in England some years ago & the screen was continually shrouded in cigarette smoke from smoking cinema patrons.

If you have thoughts on this subject please "cough" it up!

Cheers!

Dave.

[Jim]

Morning Dave,

Good topic!

Yes, there is a smoking ban in cinemas and almost every workplace. You can see dozens of smokers outside factories and offices drawing on their cancer sticks. Some offices/factories provide smoking rooms so that the smokers can, presumably, get more of the nicotine into their lungs!

Smoking in public is now very antisocial, just as wearing fur used to be. Our 'government' are considering a no smoking ban in ALL public places; even in the boozers! I think if people want to destroy their health then they should be allocated an area in the pubs just like old the fashioned pubs used to be 'smoke room'; 'lounge', etc. Having 'lost' two family members with smoke related illnesses, I feel pretty strongly about ciggies, so there, I've had my say!

violent

[Ascoyne D'Ascoyne]

"I do not know what a scene showing people lighting up fags adds to a storyline but to my eyes it appears pointless."

Cor blimey, ain't you ever seen a Bette Davis film?!
I gave up smoking over 25 years ago but I still think many of those old Hollywood stars handled a fag very sensuously.

[Steve Crook]

</div><div class='quotemain'>AlBabson: "I do not know what a scene showing people lighting up fags adds to a storyline but to my eyes it appears pointless." Cor blimey, ain't you ever seen a Bette Davis film?! I gave up smoking over 25 years ago but I still think many of those old Hollywood stars handled a fag very sensuously. [/b]

And now, in American films certainly, it's almost a new form of pornography used to show that they are doing something very naughty.

I certainly haven't noticed an increase in the numbers of smokers - maybe you're just more sensitive to them? I would have said that there are a lot fewer smokers in films and certainly in anything shown on TV nowadays. Especially when compared to the older films where smoking was almost compulsory and it was very rare to see a film like Odette (1950) where there was a character (Odette herself) who regularly refused a proffered cigarette.

Steve

[MrDrakesDuck]

</div><div class='quotemain'> I gave up smoking over 25 years ago but I still think many of those old Hollywood stars handled a fag very sensuously. [/b]

Eugh! eek!

That always spoils it for me in classic era films, when a good looking actress lights up, it puts me right off. frown

[DB7]

In some cases the alcohol and fags help fund the film. There's a lot of product placement in the Bond franchise. He drives the Aston Martin for a brief moment then it's BMW's the rest of the way; thankfully in Die Another Day he's in a swish new Vanquish but the film still won the record for the most product placements.... 40!

The fags can also help in typecasting (see the BBC's Royle Family), if you want somebody to look working class or a Cockney gangster to look cool then a cigarette in the mouth will do the trick. And think of those femme fatales, Amanda Donohoe, Linda Fiorentino and Sharon Stone?

btw, if there was a smoking ban would Sherlock Holmes lose his clabash pipe?

[ollie]

"would sherlock homes lose his clabash pipe"
and i always thought it was a church warden,you learn something every day.lol
cheers Ollie.

[DB7]

</div><div class='quotemain'>ollie: and i always thought it was a church warden,[/b]

Maybe that was on a specialist ppv channel wink

[Hugo]

Actually it was a meerschaum pipe

[DB7]

Meerschaum is the manufacturer of the Calabash.style pipe..From what I recall the pipe was chosen by the film producers because it's swooping style wouldn't interfere with the actors profile during filming.

[Hugo]

I think the pipe came earlier than that. William Gillette, an American actor, adapted an unperformed play by Conan Doyle in 1899 and with Doyle's approval opened on Broadway that year, the first actor ever to play Holmes.
The pipe is not described in the books and Gillette found that a straight pipe, sticking out in front made it difficult to say his lines so he used a drop down type. The play was a great success and transferred to London 1n 1901 where a very young Charlie Chaplin played the page boy, Billy. Gillete went on to make a career of playing Holmes on stage for the next 35 years.
He also did a silent film version in 1916, now unfortunately lost.

[Marky B]

I am a lifelong non-smoker,but I've always pondered on if I ever decided the become a mivie actor and my role required I smoke,would I have the right to refuse? [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]
I believe American actor Edward Norton refuses to light up on screen.
Ta Ta
Marky B thumbs_u

[DB7]

Nice little non smoking anecdote here?.

"Darling," he said, "in 10 days' time, a Sunday, we start night shooting. So the day is free and I've decided to shoot this Benson and Hedges commercial I've told you about, and because I love you I want you to direct me and Spike in it."

Medak stared at him and said: "I can't even get this fucking picture finished because you won't speak to me directly and now you want me to do this commercial on the only day I can rest and sleep. Get some other fucking idiot to do it or do it yourself. It should be easy for you because you know everything better than anyone else." Pete just looked at him.

"Needless to say Sunday came round and there I was," Medak told me, "shooting this commercial with him and Spike in Kyrenia harbour with them wearing their pirate outfits."

The plot of the commercial was simple enough. Pete, Spike and a cohort, played by James Villiers, were supposed to be breaking into a customs shed. Pete had to jam a Benson and Hedges packet into the alarm bell so it would not ring. Medak went up to him and explained the shot, which had already been agreed and storyboarded. The lighting would reflect beautifully on the gold packet as he held it in his hand.

"Daddy," Pete said, "didn't anyone tell you I can't touch a cigarette packet? I simply can't touch it."

"You've got to be putting me on," Medak said. "Here we are, filming a cigarette commercial for which you are getting paid a fortune, and now you say you can't touch the packet."

"No, I can't," Pete said. "I'm chairman of the Anti-Smoking League and it's in my contract that I'm not allowed to touch cigarettes. Dennis [Sellinger, his agent] should have told you."

Medak was speechless. "You mean to tell me you are getting £50,000 and a Merc and you won't touch the packet?"

Pete nodded.

Medak went over to Spike, who was taking his shoes off. "This lunatic friend of yours won't touch the cigarette packet and flash it in the light so I can get a great shot of it. He won't touch it!"

Spike backed away from him, took a step too far, pitched over the edge of the harbour and fell into the boat that had been prepared for the last shot, in which the actors were supposed to make their getaway. Now Spike, from the boat he had broken, said: "I can't touch the packet either. I'm deputy chairman of the Anti-Smoking League.

[smudge]

Seems like typical Sellers - but still rather funny ! wink

I have to admit that I enjoy those old B&Ws where the villain is always found to be in some down-at-heel joint (usually a basement place) in a tired jazz club. You know the scene - it's the very small hours, most of the punters have disappeared, or are collapsing into their lemonade 'champagne'.

The man gets up, strolls to the bar, chats with the bar-keep and reaches round to the till. The femme fatale (often with the emphasis on 'fat'ale in these Britflicks) carefully places his heavy (usually camel) coat over his shoulder as he cuts a swathe through a thick blue fug and wanders off into the night counting a big sheaf of notes....

Yet woe betide anybody who gets near me in a real life with a lighted fag ! violent

All rather silly really, isn't it ?

SMUDGE

[Ascoyne D'Ascoyne]

</div><div class='quotemain'>DB7: Meerschaum is the manufacturer of the Calabash.style pipe..From what I recall the pipe was chosen by the film producers because it's swooping style wouldn't interfere with the actors profile during filming. [/b]

In "Strike me Pink" Eddie Cantor and Ethel Merman sing a very catchy song called "Calabash Pipe" and the general tenor of the lyrics seem to suggest that it might have been a "poor-man's" pipe in the way that Weights and Woodbine were at the cheap end of the fag market. Does anybody know if this so?