Comments on Movietone News: The Smoke Thickens ...

I don't doubt that product placement works, or...

2009-08-20T10:49:20.543+01:00

I don't doubt that product placement works, or that films make smoking look glamorous. How could they not: smoking makes smoking look glamorous. Put one of those babies in the lips of Humphrey Bogart or Hedy Lamarr and you're just asking for imitative behaviour...
But no matter how many peers you get to review it, research is not rigorous without a control group, ie: a bunch of kids who see smoking in life but not in movies. Which is to say, kids who don't see movies. Know any?
Without them, you're just proving what you want to prove.
As for putting an 18 certificate on Now Voyager being "reasonable"... well, depends on how you see things, I guess. I'm from a generation that finds fascism inherently unreasonable, but I appreciate that puts me in the minority.

The tobacco industry has been doing deals with the...

2009-08-19T19:37:17.747+01:00

The tobacco industry has been doing deals with the film industry since 1927. It looks on films as just another form of advertising. The companies invested millions in cigarette product placement from the mid-1970s on, after the US banned tobacco commercials on television.

For an interesting look at the tobacco industry's commercial cross-promotion deals with the studios and the stars they held under contract during Hollywood's Golden Age, published in the journal Tobacco Control, see www.smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/pdf/SignedSealed.pdf.

And yes, there's a decade of rigorous, peer-reviewed research showing that kids' exposure to this imagery recruits them to smoke.

Up-rating the imagery, using the film industry's own familiar rating system, is a reasonable response to what the "suits" get up to behind the scenes.

panavia999 - Thanks for dropping by! Yeah, it'...

2009-08-11T18:26:25.391+01:00

panavia999 -
Thanks for dropping by!
Yeah, it's scary. There was another piece in the news today about Liverpool council trying to slap 18 certificates on films with smoking in them.
The fascist impulse rarely sleeps.

Excellent post. This political correctness over s...

2009-08-10T02:07:19.596+01:00

Excellent post. This political correctness over smoking is completely over the top.

Yes! That is a very good suggestion.

2009-08-08T08:17:17.921+01:00

Yes! That is a very good suggestion.

"But who the hell could play Ignatius?" ...

2009-08-07T23:43:18.178+01:00

"But who the hell could play Ignatius?"

Oliver Platt.

-- George

Ah, well I suppose I'm still a fan (definitely...

2009-08-07T19:18:47.527+01:00

Ah, well I suppose I'm still a fan (definitely of Grey Gardens), but I much preferred her in the mid-nineties, like in Mad Love and Wishful Thinking. Same with Reese Witherspoon...she used to take much gutsier roles, y'know? Anyway, Drew's new movie --which she directed-- is still to come, so hopefully that's good.

It's okay - I got there in the end. And I agre...

2009-08-07T17:36:13.995+01:00

It's okay - I got there in the end. And I agree.

matthew-that was a silly typo out of exhaustion.lo...

2009-08-07T17:15:17.011+01:00

matthew-that was a silly typo out of exhaustion.lol. i meant to say a cut every three seconds, give or take. ADD editing is my biggest pet peeve.

Oh God, that book has had such a complicated histo...

2009-08-07T07:29:09.431+01:00

Oh God, that book has had such a complicated history of nearly being made into a film: it's been optioned, announced and abandoned more times than I can remember. At one time it was announced as a John Waters project, which would have been interesting. For years he said it was the only thing he would ever want to make that he hadn't written himself.
But I think I'm glad on the whole - any movie woul be a disappointment, ultimately.
Not that I wouldn't risk it for a chance of seeing Drew in it! Kimberley, who writes the blog 'Something I Wanted To Tell You' has been telling me off lately for no longer being a Morrissey fan - I know how she feels when you say you're not a Drewbie anymore. The poor dear needs all the fans she can get. Have you any idea how long it's been since a film of hers made any money???
Actually, I wish she'd make more stuff like Confederacy or Grey Gardens.
But who the hell could play Ignatius? My own choice would have been Victor Buono, but back in the day, obviously. Nobody these days could do that man justice!

It's only one o'clock here, silly. Not at ...

2009-08-07T07:19:54.147+01:00

It's only one o'clock here, silly. Not at all late. And I have this on my phone. It jingles whenever I get an email alert.

I must confess-- my love for that novel started with a very stupid reason. They were (back in '01, I believe) set to make it into a movie, with Drew Barrymore as Darlene. I was obsessed with her (Drew, not Darlene, ha) at the time, so decided to read the book. Now, thank goodness, the movie's no longer a go and I still adore the book. :)

Holy crap, woman, do you never sleep? I left that ...

2009-08-07T07:12:15.187+01:00

Holy crap, woman, do you never sleep? I left that comment a few seconds ago. It must be the middle of the night in Indiana.
Yes, Confederacy is my favourite novel of all time, Ignatius is my total hero. (Except when he's being rude to his lovely mother.)

Oh, I see. A clip as in a cut as in frenetic editing, yes? In that case I agree wholeheartedly.

Haha, did I detect a Confederacy of Dunces referen...

2009-08-07T07:06:30.415+01:00

Haha, did I detect a Confederacy of Dunces reference? ;)

A clip-- you know, a cut.

Being what Ignatius J. Reilly would call 'Your...

2009-08-07T06:58:43.570+01:00

Being what Ignatius J. Reilly would call 'Your Working Boy' (and working to a British clock) I went to bed between Juliette's 'Glad you enjoyed it' and Lolita's 'What the fuck?'. It's now the next morning and it's so cool to wake to find the conversation has been carrying on in my absence.
But I'm not sure I understand the bit about "a clip every three seconds". What does this mean?

Ooh, very good point. Especially the thing about 3...

2009-08-07T04:02:08.061+01:00

Ooh, very good point. Especially the thing about 3 second clips. Stuff like that makes me ill.

yes, we should just entirely sanitize our history ...

2009-08-07T03:55:45.744+01:00

yes, we should just entirely sanitize our history and make it into what suits this generation best. let's focus on smoking and not mind numbing scripts and the fact that to many a film without a clip every three seconds is boring. clearly children would be "safer" watching dumb and dumber than they would now voyager.

oy vey.

Hey, thanks for the link, George! I do appreciate ...

2009-08-07T01:35:17.180+01:00

Hey, thanks for the link, George! I do appreciate it-- hopefully it'll clear some matters up. :)

Haven't seen Undertow, but that does sound impressive. The coolest thing I've seen is in Freaks, when the guy without hands or legs lights a match and then his cigar. It's awesome, but I probably (well, hopefully, as it requires me to lose some limbs) won't ever get the chance to try it.

Good stuff Mr Coniam. Smoking on theatre stages wa...

2009-08-07T01:25:32.994+01:00

Good stuff Mr Coniam. Smoking on theatre stages was actually specifically exempted from the ban, provided it was, quote, 'an artistic requirement', but scenes of smoking have frequently been expunged from plays due to pressure from lobby groups and local authorities' safety zealots, who have predictably set themselves up as the judges of what is and isn't artistically necessary.

E.g.:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/article-23401913-details/
Unholy+row+as+play+to+be+hit+by+smoking+ban/article.do

And of course, most infamously, Mel Smith being prevented from smoking a cigar when portraying Churchill.

Juliette, this long article on anti-smoking hysteria:

http://www.joejackson.com/smokingissue.htm

contains a good precis (about a third of the way down) of the poor science and jiggered statistics involved in studies that purport to show the dangers of passive smoking. He also argues from common sense observations. There are links to sites that go into more detail at the bottom.

(Jackson started researching this in his spare time, because he was struck by Lolita's point about the normal city air being worse: he flew into LA airport one day, looked at all the signs screaming 'DO NOT SMOKE WITHIN 200 YARDS OF THIS BUILDING', looked at the pall of smog hanging over the city, and thought, 'Hmm.')

Your wonderful cartoon reminds me of an Eddie Izzard gag, 'A matchstick in one corner of the mouth, cool, matchsticks in both corners of the mouth, not cool.'

I think most of my favourite cool cinema smoking scenes actually involve losers. The cig of consolation after everything else has failed you. Most notably the very end of The Third Man, where she walks right past him, and he has nothing left to do but philosophically light up.

Or the ending of the barmy-but-fun Peter Lorre-Brian Donlevy thriller 'Crack-Up' where (spoilers) they are all trapped in a crashed plane sinking at sea. Cigarettes are passed round, they all fire up happily, and rousing music plays as they drown like rats.

The only cinematic smoking I've really wanted to emulate is the dramatic and moody way John Wayne hurls away his cigs, usually after no more than a couple of puffs, in 'The Quiet Man'. But it would be quite expensive, not to mention irresponsible in a country less damp than Ireland.

However the single coolest business involving cigarettes in films, and the only one I did learn to emulate, is the trick Lou Diamond Phillips learns from Charles Dance in a film called 'Undertow'.
(Anyone who hasn't watched it must do, if only to see Dance successfully play a psychotic hillbilly, and, as a bonus, Mia Sara nude-ish.) You hold your hand out flat with the palm down, lay an unlit cigarette along the furrow between the ring and middle fingers, and slap your forearm, thereby projecting the cig neatly into your mouth. This is absurdly cool when it works, less so when it hits you in the eye or you catch it the wrong way round and find yourself lighting the cork end.

-- George

Haha, right! ;)

2009-08-07T01:13:28.032+01:00

Haha, right! ;)

Interesting conversation, people! I think secondar...

2009-08-07T01:01:04.563+01:00

Interesting conversation, people!
I think secondary smoke is harmless since all the tar (and the pure death) gets stuck in the lungs of the first hand smoker.
And IF secondary smoke should be dangerous, I think the air outside in a regular city has much more cancer, germs and plague than the smoke rings of the fellow beside you.
"Where do they go, smoke rings I blow each night?"
Yay for cancer lungs! I love the cigarette holder I bought in London, it's awesome. And yes, I started smoking because Bette Davis (and everyone else in the era) looked cool - but I get away with it because I started first when I had turned 20! Right...?

Can this be serious? What the fuck? Do people real...

2009-08-07T00:53:59.446+01:00

Can this be serious? What the fuck? Do people really care that much if people smoke? And in England? I was there a couple of days ago, and everyone smokes. Please. This must just be a think that will die soon. (Like they said about talking pictures.)

Glad you enjoyed it. :)

2009-08-06T23:05:12.615+01:00

Glad you enjoyed it. :)

Ha! That's excellent! (The seven cigarettes th...

2009-08-06T22:56:37.288+01:00

Ha! That's excellent! (The seven cigarettes thing, I mean.)

Because they're rotters.

2009-08-06T22:54:15.546+01:00

Because they're rotters.

And yes, that does make sense. Does make one wonde...

2009-08-06T22:52:41.397+01:00

And yes, that does make sense. Does make one wonder why these people are against public smoking so much then.