Let us read the film as a text.
Smoke (1995) is an American film. It was directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster (his pseudonym is Paul Benjamin). Among others, it features Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Victor Argo, Forest Whitaker, Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing and Harold Perrineau Jr. in the cast.
The film follows the lives of multiple characters, all of whom are connected by their patronage of a small Brooklyn tobacco shop owned by Auggie. Each of the characters has a story to tell: Paul Benjamin, a novelist, who has published 3 books, – depressed with his wife’s death, Auggie Wren, an owner of a cigar shop,– has a pregant daughter, problem teenager, Cyrus Cole, a mechanic, – has an arm - hook – reminder that he’s bad, selfish man.
It is said that Wayne Wang is a profiled director who always goes for a bit more than just telling a story (1). Paul Auster uses the detective form to address existential issues and questions of identity, creating his own distinctively postmodern form in the process. He reappearing subjects are:[obsessive writer as central character/narrator, depiction of daily and ordinary life, failure, absence of a father, intertextuality, that can be find also in Smoke.
The genre of the film is a dramatic comedy where there are elements of sitcoms. A situation comedy, usually referred to as a sitcom, is a genre of comedy. Sitcoms usually consist of recurring characters in a common environment such as a home or workplace. The situation is usually that of a family, workplace, or a group of friends, for example, scenes filmed in the cigar shop.
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