cinemas and smoking

Updated: July 25, 2008

Recently, concerns have been voiced in some quarters about the depiction of smoking in films, with a fear that some scenes serve to glamorise it as an activity, in particular for young people. It has been suggested that, when shown in a cinema, such films should receive a more restrictive classification than would otherwise be the case.

The CEA believes such proposals are both misguided and unworkable.

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) guidelines already allow  the potential impact of scenes of smoking on audiences to be taken into account when deciding on a film certificate.

Any approach which sought to impose mandatory certificates for such scenes would result in wide inconsistencies both from film to film, requiring an ‘18’ certificate for popular recent releases such as Atonement and even perhaps for famous films such as Casablanca or Now, Voyager. 

Were such steps to be taken by individual local authorities, there would also be inconsistencies from area to area, with the same film showing with different restrictions in the same locality.

The CEA of course recognises the role of both central and local government in promoting healthy living and ensuring that those who wish to stop smoking are supported in doing so, and that others are dissuaded from taking it up.

The UK cinema sector has itself taken a lead in providing a smoke-free environment in which to enjoy film. In the vast majority of cases, cinemas were non-smoking environments (on health as well as customer comfort and safety grounds) for a significant number of years prior to the 2007 legislation covering smoking in public places.

But any steps to impose mandatory classification for scenes of smoking are both inappropriate and ill-judged.