Smoking Room

This movie has several interesting sides. Recorded in digital video, it was produced under a low budget with good performers and was the first work of these directors with no prior experience, even in short movies (none that I have found, at least). The story presents the relationships amongst a group of workers in the Spanish headquarters of an American company. The non-smoking policy forces smokers to put up with smoking outside the facilities. This makes one of them take the initiative of lobbying for a smoking room. The campaign triggers a crisis among staff, revealing the frustrations and pathologies of working life, the envy, the relations of power and mainly the hipocresy and cinicism surrounding working life in corporate environments.

By focusing on the personalities of the different characters the film captures the essence of insolidarity belonging in competitive enivironments, the tragic lives of the underachievers and the extent to which ambition is able to run over moral values. The aparently simple subject of collecting signatures for a smoking room, becomes in this movie an epic adventure with unpredictable results. The story puts in question the working lives we lead and the ambitions that drive our western societies.

This movie was created with independent producers and has won with relevant awards. It is not only a superb film but one with a superb script and an imaginative artistical direction.

A drama well played by prestigious actors who would continue to develop prolific careers, concerning an office man tries to get a smoking room approved at the company he works at. The branch of an American company is forced by a change in statutes to put into effect the prohibition of smoking inside its offices, so those who want to smoke during work hours will have to do so on the street. Ramirez, one of the employees attempts to pick up some signatures to prevent office workers from having to smoke in the streets or in the attic on the roof of the building. This small office, made up mainly of men, decides to start collecting signatures to ask management to open an office as a smoking room. While there is initial support from other employees, many end up backing out and then change their opinions fearing how the company should act. Apparently everyone agrees and in principle they are going to support him. However, when push comes to shove, colleagues will make all kinds of excuses to avoid signing, since almost everyone has something to hide and does not want any discomfort to the office chiefs. This world of petty intrigues will just explode and produce potential victims.

The film follows the Scandinavian "dogma" style that when this 'Smoking Room' was made was at its zenith. And being loosely based on the British, BBC series: The Smoking Room (2004-2005). A minimum budget film to build an acceptable story that results to be extremely talky. But nothing really happens for the hour and a half of the film, which will greatly bore the general public. Furthermore, the camera movements can be some dizzying which may cause some a bit of a headache. Dealing with a simple topic like the request for a smoking room takes you to see the inside of people is worthy of a certain praise. And this work is that cigar that feels good when you smoke it but does not have the neccesary intensity and nuances of an essential quality. Critics unanimously supported the successes of this risky production about the world of work, this is the realization of two young and independent directors who brought rise and freshness to Spanish cinema at the beginning of 2000.

The Argentinian Julio D. Wallovits and the Spanish Roger Gual joined forces in their first feature film, shot in digital video format and later transferred to 35 mm. After its presentation at the Málaga film festival, where it won awards for best script and best male performance, for the group of actors and it ended up winning the Goya award for best novel direction. Here a number of competent actors stood out, most of them already had prolific and notorious careers and would continue to develop other notable roles. The ensemble of leading actors is one of the most complete in recent years and the performances are at the limit that critics and audiences consider masterful. Led by Eduard Fernandez (¨Fausto 5.0¨, ¨El Embrujo de Shanghai¨, ¨El Niño¨, ¨Mediterraneo¨), it also has veteran Juan Diego (Padre Courage¨, ¨Los hombres de Paco¨), Frances Orella (¨Durante la tormenta¨, ¨A contratiempo¨), Antonio Dechent (¨Intacto¨, ¨Fugitivas¨), the Argentine Ulises Dumont (¨Morir en San Hilario¨, ¨La Herencia¨) , Manuel Morón (El Bola, Salvajes), Frances Garrido (¨Clara and Elena¨, ¨Mar Adentro¨, ¨4 latas¨), Chele Lara (¨Abre los ojos¨, ¨Alchemist impatient¨), Vicky Peña (¨Libertad¨¨ , ¨Secretos del Corazón¨), Pep Molina (El silencio del pantano¨, ¨Los misterios de Laura¨) , and uncredited Jordi Dauer, Alberto Jiménez, among others. Rating: 5.5/10. Passable and acceptable film but neither notable, nor extraodinary ,but just decent.

A combative office-worker is recollecting signatures. People are not allowed to smoke in the building, so he wants to ask the bosses to habilitate a smoking room. It seems logical and his colleagues praise the initiative. But actually what comes next reveals the fierce individualism, selfishness and cowardice that each one hide under their white collar.

"Smoking Room" is probably the best Spanish movie of the year: thought-provoking and filmed with coherence and style. The story is brought to images in a way that reminds me neorealism: the austerity of every shot, the claustrophobic atmosphere and the scrutiny of every actor face in extremely close-up is amazingly related with the content the films deals with and makes the whole picture ring so true to the viewer.

This has to be remarked while "Smoking Room" is a directorial film debut and both Gual and Wallovits come from the Advertisement business. One would have expect something more stylish, even superficial as a consequence of that, and instead Gual and Wallovits surprise us with a proof of talent that shows more coherence, bravery and sense of the "mise en scene" than any experimented director with a big budget to work with.

The screenplay, also written by Gual and Wallovits, begins with a simple action of an idealist worker. That's a simple but brilliant idea that permits the writers to focus on every character in a magistral way, with dialogues that may seem trivial but are rich in psychological meaning. As the minimum plot unfolds, the situation grows dark and tense. The characters show the worst of themselves and confront each other, but strangely enough, they don't appear as monsters: only like human beings, with all they misery and highness, too, as the end sequence of the film intends to remark.

As you may have guessed, in a film like this the cast performances are very important and in fact is impossible to review "Smoking Room" without referring to the enormous talent of every actor in the cast. They are simply superb, extraordinary believable. And not only that, they have proved to be great professionals as they starred in this film almost without receiving any money in return. And I can assure you they are not beginners.

Strongly recommended!

I give this movie 10 out of 10 and I will explain why. The actors'work is first rate , outstanding performances . Some great Spanish actors are in it like Juan Diego (Javier Bardem called him his idol so go figure ..), Eduard Fernandez (an excellent performer) , Antonio Dechent and others. This film received the Spanish Goya award for best new director , the Malaga Film Festival gave the award of best screenplay , best performance of a group of actors and the Jury prize to this film . The most important thing in this film is not the question if somebody can have a smoking room in a business ofice. The interesting thing about this film are the moral issues .The dialogue is so inspired that it is almost unbelievable. Maybe this is not a masterpiece but it will make you think after you watch it.

This is not bad "nearly dogma film" about the sad life of the workers of an enterprise where it's been prohibited to smoke. With this argument, we get into lot of penuries they live. The best of the film is the oppressive environment that it creates, but, as worst think, I would say that I'm actually surprised about not hearing a word about the (as my opinion) obvious plagiarism to the theatre work "Después de la lluvia" ("After de rain") by Sergi Berbel, not mentioned, of course, on the credits.