I stumbled by chance unto the book, "Smoke" &" blue in the face," at the counter of the bookstore Ludens,in the Venezuelan plaza. I think that what drew my attention inmediately about this book was the horrible pink bookcover (marketing strategy?) Smoke is not even a novel, it is a
movie script. I have seen more than once the movie displayed on the shelfs of my video club, and although it has a stellar cast (Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker) I never dared to rent it due to the fear that leads us to allways decide on safer options, more suitable to our taste(the fee's on renting have gone up and you can't go around throwing money away). Smoke is about the human nature. In it the
story's of varios characters intertwine, among which stands out: a novelist who has suffered a great loss,a cigar salesman who every day takes the same picture of a street corner in his nieghborhood, and an african american teenager who is in search his mother's killer. And who turns out to be none other than his father. I can say with all certainty, after I had
read the book awhile, that I will
look for the movie. I am convinced that it is worth watching, even if it is just for the story(and since that is what people look for, to have a
good time and beside's it won the special Jury award and the Silver at the Berlin Festival, what more could you ask). The films origen is a Christmas story written by Auster for a special edition of the New York times. This was read by Wayne Wang (director of The good star club) which, being pretty impressed with the text, got in touch inmediately with Auster to propose a movie based on the same. After four years, and many setbacks, both economical and emotional, the movie was ready, and not just that, but almost at the same time and completely by chance, as it is in most cases, the film Blue in the face was
filmed, with a cast that included Lou Reed, Harvey Keitel, Micheal J.Fox, and Madonna to name a few. This original comedy was filmed without a script or rehearsal in only six days. It was composed of pre-recorded scenes while the actor's made short improvisations. Of which turned out to be so entertaining that they decided to make another movie with it. The best of all was that the actor's worked for minimum wage, which did not stop them from giving their all in the project. Interesting information which seems to exonerate the acting profession.
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