It may no longer be as welcome, but smoking has had a place on screen since the medium began. It’s synonymous with the black-and-white era of cinema with screen giants like Humphrey Bogart and James Dean stealing scenes with the simple puff of a cigarette. But, even if it’s to a lesser extent, modern cinema has retained the tradition of depicting smoking on screen. Here, we’ll take a look at some of the most iconic smoking scenes across movie history.
Humphrey Bogart’s Oscar-nominated turn in the all-time classic ‘Casablanca’ included plenty of scenes of him smoking at the bar. After uttering the immortal line “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine”, his character Rick Blaine stares into the distance forlornly, only pausing to take a smoke. Bogart was able to use smoking as a subtle expression of emotion, whether laid-back cool or heartbreak.
