DVD review: Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer Fait Tousser)

Poking fun at the superhero genre that has saturated cinemas in recent years, the latest effort from French auteur Quentin Dupieux centres around a very different assembly of avengers. Smoking Causes Coughing follows a group of five known as Tobacco Force, all individually named after harmful substances in cigarettes.

 When Benzène (Gilles Lellouche), Méthanol (Vincent Lacoste), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Mercure (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammoniaque (Oulaya Amamra) defeat an evil turtle enemy in a particularly gruelling battle, the vigilantes are sent into the woods on a relaxing retreat to boost morale.

 Split into a series of vignettes, the structure provides the writer-director with a neat platform to explore his surrealist ideas through compact cautionary tales. Aside from the main plot which takes its playful aesthetic influence from the Japanese tokusatsu-style used by the likes of Power Rangers, the other chapters come about by way of the team sharing stories around a campfire; one where a couples’ break goes awry thanks to the discovery of a 1930s ‘thinking helmet’ and another when a nasty accident at a factory has a surprising outcome. Every aspect of the tight narratives are effectively laced with Dupieux’s signature absurdist humour but there’s an existential dread throughout that injects terror into the veins of the satire.

 Having garnered a cult following in the independent scene with his unique brand of comedy, the filmmaker has pulled together an impressive ensemble cast for this piece. The main actors enjoy an amusing camaraderie, each bringing something slightly different to the table. Demoustier and Amamra have fun in a bizarre romantic subplot involving their boss Chief Didier, a grotesque rat puppet voiced by veteran comic Alain Chabat. Great performances also come out of the vignettes from Blanche Gardin and Adèle Exarchopoulos, whose small but memorable role sees her reunite with Dupieux after a hilarious turn in Mandibles from a few years ago.

 With equal parts darkness and daftness, Smoking Causes Coughing is a madcap anthology that successfully showcases Quentin Dupieux’s vivid imagination.