FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Smoke

 A friend just told me that she was fired from her cafe in Neukölln.  It's one of those places run by American hipsters that looks like a pharmacy. Reason for the dismissal: Building a "micro community" with the neighbors. The poor cafe hipsters pay 100.000 Dollars for their economic studies and learn for it: 1. rent a shop for 5000 Euros (first semester marketing "Place" = 25.000 Dollars). 2. to get the fat rent in, a Flat White costs 6.00 Euros - alternatively, each guest would otherwise have to drink 5 coffees. (second semester Marketing "Price" = 25.000 Dollars). 3. then you teach your employees not to build up a "micro community". Because that is not desired. (third semester; do not talk to customers = 25,000 dollars).  But if you break all these rules, you will create a shop like the one Auggie runs in Brooklyn. Pure micro community. Smoke is a film of words, of secrets and above all of tobacco! Basically it's about a group of lonely men and a few lonely women, who have built up a small parallel world in the middle of New York, in Brooklyn. A world full of melancholy, all geared towards killing time (and enjoying tobacco). In Smoke there is a lot of talk about big dreams and what you can take away with you. The center of Smoke is the Brooklyn Cigar & Co Store (we would call it a "late night"). It is located right at the intersection of Third Street / Eighth Avenue. The Brooklyn Cigar & Co is run by Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel) and for him this corner store is the center of the whole world. You have to take this literally, because Auggie even takes a picture of his corner every morning! Occasionally he shows his photo album to Paul (William Hurt), a writer and regular customer. "That's my Project"; Auggie tells; "What you'd call my life's work". Of course the pictures don't look very different. "They're all the same," says Auggie, "but each one is different from all the others." Suddenly, Paul discovers his wife, pregnant, shot one morning. "Look at her. Look at my sweet darling" - Paul begins to cry. Now not all photos are the same. Smoke is one of those films that know that it's the little things that make life. Auggie remembers the morning Paul's wife was shot. If he hadn't given her the change in the first place, if something happened that took time... she wouldn't have gotten in that shootout. And Paul's life depends on moments Once he is almost run over by a truck, but Rashid (Harold Perrineau Jr.) pulls him back. Paul would like to return the favor for life, because isn't that one of the universal rules? But for Rashid, a lemonade will do. Somehow Rashid even becomes Paul's roommate, which his aunt can't understand. Life goes on. Auggie's ex-girlfriend appears years later and tells us that Auggie's daughter (yes?/no?) Felicity (Ashley Judd) is pregnant. A child without parents is also Rashid, until the day he follows his father (Forest Whitaker) at a gas station somewhere in a small town... For a long time we know that life is not subject to any plan, but is only determined by luck. Luck, coincidence and irony, that's what everything is based on. At least in Smoke. Director Wayne Wang and his screenwriter Paul Auster both believe in this and have given their film those special little moments that make Smoke so wonderful! Smoke is also carried by Harvey Keitel, who dominates the indie cinema of the 90s like no other actor. Is there even a film of distinction from the time without Keitel? His face and body seem so unchangeable that it's hard to tell the roles of Keitel apart. Are they really different characters or simply himself? But that would be just as unfair as claiming that Auggie's photos all look the same. In Smoke, Keitel holds everything together. Everything revolves around his shop and his character. Apart from that, Smoke refrains from any dramaturgical exaggeration. The film corresponds to the lives of the regular customers of Brooklyn Cigar & Co. He follows these guys who stumble through their own lives so lost. I like them all! All the characters Paul Auster has created are extremely lovable! And isn't the worst thing that can happen to you in life the inability to express your feelings? But Auggie's clients can. It's what keeps them together. Their micro-community.

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