Hannibal is the last person you want close enough to smell you, yet ironically he would be an excellent perfume shopping buddy. In the films, TV series and novels, there are multiple scenes where Lecter identifies someone’s fragrance in seconds. In the 1986 film Manhunter (adapted from the first novel, Red Dragon), he whiffs Old […]
Scent of seduction in The Phantom Thread: sandalwood, rose water, sherry and lemon juice
An early scene in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Phantom Thread uses scent to communicate the motivations of a weird trio of characters. Daniel Day Lewis is Reynolds Woodcock, an uptight, obsessive, upper class dressmaker. He has brought young waitress, Alma (Vicky Krieps) back to his country cottage after a romantic dinner, and is getting busy […]
A sister at the perfume counter
If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins, 2018 This is a beautiful, subtle scene from If Beale Street Could Talk. Kiki Layne’s acting as Tish, her voiceover, the costume and the set design of a high-end New York department store in the mid 1970s communicate volumes about race, class, gender and the power dynamics of […]
The smell of fear in No Country for Old Men
He took two steps back and stood, his hands at shoulder level. Moss came around the end of the bed. The man was no more than ten feet away. The whole room was pulsing slowly. There was an odd smell in the air. Like some foreign cologne. A medicinal edge to it. Everything humming. Moss […]
