August 2 - 8, 2000 |
American
Cinematheque presents... Theatrical Premiere Engagement -- One Week Only! Alain Resnais' Smoking & No Smoking |
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| Wednesday,
August 2 8:00 PM SMOKING
Thursday, August 3 8:00 PM NO SMOKING
Friday, August 4 8:00 PM SMOKING
Saturday, August 5 6:00 PM NO SMOKING
Saturday, August 5 9:00 PM SMOKING
Sunday, August 6 5:00 PM NO SMOKING
Monday, August 7 8:00 PM SMOKING
Tuesday, August 8 8:00 PM NO SMOKING
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"One of the ten best films of the Nineties" – Michel Ciment "SMOKING and NO SMOKING light up the screen and rev up the intellect … Joy aplenty." – Variety.
SMOKING/NO SMOKING, 1993, USA Films. (Pt. I: 135 min. Pt. II: 142 min.) Hot off our recent Alain Resnais retrospective in May, SMOKING/NO SMOKING returns for a special one-week run at the Egyptian. Resnais’ high-concept duo has an amazing history: winner of five César Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, winner of the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc, and of wall-to-wall rave reviews – Variety called it "just about perfect" – the audacious two-part film slid into mythic obscurity when its North American release was indefinitely postponed (until now). This might be your only chance to see "the first self-regulating interactive movie," in which Resnais plays with the notions of destiny, parallel universes, and the pleasures and perils of smoking. Resnais daringly combined eight plays by British dramatist Alan Ayckbourn, and has two of his favorite actors, Sabine Azéma and Pierre Arditi, play multiple characters who live in a Yorkshire village – most memorably the Teasdales, an alcoholic school director and his insecure wife. Depending on whether a character lights up a cigarette or not, their fates develop in different directions; the film explores these divergent destinies, always asking "What if?" about its characters’ lives, turning the film into a kind of philosophical Rubik’s Cube. Wise, witty and ingenious, SMOKING/NO SMOKING appears to be Resnais’ culminating statement on his central theme of choice and contingency. Notes courtesy James Quandt/Cinematheque Ontario. Separate Admission to each screening time. While the films are companion pieces, they do not need to be seen in a particular order.
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