‘Perfumes’
Direction: Gregory Magne
Year: 2020
Premiere: December 30, 2020
★★
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In this last year we have been more aware than ever of our noses. We had to cover them so that the virus did not enter and the loss of smell became a disastrous symptom. Perhaps that is why we have valued that sense more than ever, sometimes anesthetized and It is still curious that now a film like ‘Perfumes’ is being released that invites you to smell and breathe.
Its protagonist is a prestigious perfumer (the always brilliant Emmanuelle Devos) who has been reviled in the profession for suffering an episode of anosmia and now has to use her talent to make supermarket deodorants or imitate the smell of a Paleolithic cave. She is angry, frustrated and trapped in a world of fragrances that separates her from people, until Guillaume (Grégory Montel) appears, a disastrous chauffeur who needs to keep his job to get joint custody of his daughter.
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‘Perfumes’ is not a love story, however, it has a romantic touch. Perhaps because while it is seen it seems that a synesthesia is created with the aromas that are insinuated, from the freshly cut grass, to the J’adore of Dior through car air freshener. It is in these sensitive details where the film is most successful. For the rest, it adopts the covert road movie scheme in which two antagonistic characters learn to understand and respect each other, losing the opportunity to delve into sharper issues, such as social relations and the classism that characterizes the protagonist.
We are not facing a Parfum, rather an Eau de Toilette. Lightweight, without many notes of depth and, yes, with an exquisite bouquet, Emmanuelle Devos, who without much effort manages to give the film a certain elegance.
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