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Blue in the face

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

First there was Smoke. Now there's fire. Auggie and his friends are back with more out-of-this-world tales.

When Smoke finished shooting, Paul Auster and Wayne Wang were in no hurry to pack up and go home. And Auster wasn't even far from home since the Brooklyn Cigar Company, the store in which much of Smoke was set, is in the neighbourhood in which he lives. So they stayed in the store. They invited celebrities to drop by. They let the camera roll for long takes without interruption.

Showing the actors signs that read "Boring!" or "Get to the point" or "2 minute warning" was as close as Wang and Auster came to directing. Blue in the face got its title because the actors, said jokingly, were free to talk until they reached that point.

Starring Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael J Fox, Mel Gorham, Lou Reed, Madonna, Roseanne, Lily Tomlin, Malik Yoba.

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

A film on the edge.

Imagine a feature film shot using actors improvising anything they want, as long as their characters are in a cigar shop in Brooklyn. Yeehar! The traditional plot, dialogue, beginning + middle + end thing goes out the window, and instead we are treated to a series of characters having a life (or not having one, depending on who we're talking about). Everything is a little weird, sometimes it's a documentary, sometimes it's theatre, sometimes it's art, sometimes it's life, but whichever, it's always cool.

You imagine that people aren't like this, it all has to be faked, but it isn't. The characters are realistic Brooklynites, it's the borough that's unreal.

It almost made me want to take up smoking.

Security censorship classification

M (Medium level coarse language, sexual references)

Surveillance time

83 minutes (1:23 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: 13 January 1998