No Smoking/Smoking (1993) review

Two-part experimental effort from Resnais - based on Alan Ayckbourn's play Intimate Exchanges - that only uses two performers (Sabine Azéma as the females and Pierre Arditi as the males) and explores how decisions made by the characters, both miniscule and substantial, affect later outcomes: in No Smoking, unhappy Celia Teasdale - the spouse of drunken and surly headmaster Toby - decides to not smoke a Player's cigarette and receives a visit from Toby's best friend Miles Coombes whereas in Smoking she lights up and gardener/terrible baker Lionel Hepplewick appears and expresses an interest in her ... and then more choices are made, which alter the future.  For anyone who's ever read those Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid (like I did) the premise should be quite familiar and the approach is deliberately whimsical, and it acts as a testament to the mercurial nature of human interaction, offering numerous "what ifs" and "alternate possibilities" as life marches forward, be it in five days or even five years.  That said, with a combined running time just shy of five hours long, one has to ask whether or not the concept can be gleaned much quicker than that (thereby making what follows somewhat tedious), and while Arditi is exceptional portraying men of various ages, Azéma has a tendency to become overly emphatic.  Resnais completists might want to keep a carton of drags, a few bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and some slices of cake nearby for a more "immersive experience."