‘Smoking Causes Coughing’: an absurd middle finger to Martin Scorsese’s least favourite genre
Martin Scorsese has received plenty of pushback for the derogatory comments he made in 2019 about superhero movies. The phrase “that isn’t real cinema” travelled far and wide, provoking anger from those involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and praise from those concerned that the rampant success of comic book movies and franchises is killing cinema as an art form.
There are many ways to combat Hollywood’s descent into franchise addiction. You could take the route of Rian Johnson, Taika Waiti, Chloé Zhao, Colin Trevorrow, and Josh Trank (among others). These young, critically acclaimed indie darlings were snapped up by studios and believed, usually inaccurately, that they could bring their personal artistic approach to major tentpole films. Instead, they were wrangled and broken down by bureaucrats.
Alternatively, you could take the route of Scorsese by opting out entirely and courting the deep pockets of streaming services to get big-budget dramas with endless running times financed.
If none of these options suits your fancy, you could do what French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux has done – make your own damn superhero movie without Hollywood and let the chips fall where they may.
The 2022 film Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer fait tousser in French) does just that. Following a group of superheroes known as the Tobacco Force who go on a group retreat to recover from a stressful battle with a malevolent turtle only to be called back to duty when the most evil villain on the planet threatens to annihilate the Earth, it’s a broad, tongue-in-cheek send-up of the superhero genre.
Dupieux is no stranger to absurdism. His first prominent film, 2010’s Rubber, follows a sentient car tyre with telekinetic powers and murderous intentions. 2019’s Deerskin follows a man who becomes obsessed with a jacket and makes it his life’s mission to eradicate every other jacket in existence.
Smoking Causes Coughing is similarly absurd, though it focuses more on flesh and blood absurdities than it does on imbuing inanimate objects with killer instincts. Full of dark, deadpan humour, the requisite superhero spandex, and plenty of callbacks to the endlessly recycled tropes of the genre, it was never going to give Marvel a run for its money, but it has found a passionate audience of cinema-goers desperate for some kind of originality that overtly mocks a genre that is holding the industry hostage.
Speaking to /Film about his inspiration for the project, the director referred to superhero movies as “torture” and questioned whether anyone enjoyed them.
“When I was still living in Los Angeles, I went to a movie theatre with my son to watch an Avengers movie,” Dupieux said. “I think it was the first Avengers. I don’t know. It was a nightmare for me. The sound, the noise, the explosions, the loud music, the editing, everything was a nightmare to me. So I think at this point I stopped. I was like, ‘No, this is not for me.’ And the movie we are talking about today is maybe … it’s like the reverse of this. It’s slow. The pace is okay. There’s no aggressive music. What can I say about superhero movies? Are you still watching these movies? It’s impossible.”
Among the passionate proponents of Smoking Causes Coughing is the “Pope of Trash” himself, John Waters. He named it one of the best films of 2022 in Artforum, referring to Dupieux as the “moronic auteur of ignoramuses” and proclaiming the film “a superhero movie for idiots that surpasses all the tedium of Hollywood blockbusters.” Glowing praise from a man who is sparing with his compliments.
