>
France may end up banning smoking in films if the parliament looks further into a point made by one of its members.
Socialist senator Nadine Grelet-Certenaise, during a discussion over tobacco prices in the Senate, accused film-makers of promoting the tobacco industry, sparking a debate over the act of smoking should be banned in French cinema.
She said: “Seventy per cent of new French films have at least one person in the process of smoking”.
“It participates in more or less trivialising it, if not in promoting it, with children and adolescents who are now the main consumers of series and film especially on the internet”.
The country’s health minister, Agnes Buzyn, agreed with Ms Grelet-Certenais. She added she would speak to France`s Minister of Culture Françoise Nyssen about “denormalising the image of tobacco in society”.
Local media quoted her as saying: “I do not understand the importance of smoking in French cinema”.
Smoking has played a significant part in French cinema.
The debate comes as the French government cracks down on smoking with a promise to increase the price of a packet of cigarettes to 10 euros by 2020.