Perfumes

A few scenes are surprisingly suddenly cut, leaving spectators hungry and a bit angry, wanting to know what could have happened and often could have been very funny. Maybe the director, and script writer himself, suffered from a few minutes of lack of inspiration. Too bad. The movie is saved by the actors, especially Emmanuelle Devos, perfect, very realistic and true-to-life in the role of the « nose ».

This is what I love about so many French films. They take a very simple premise and tell you a story. Most often with a touch of heart, spirit, humanity.

A divorced father adores his 10 year old and faces losing his bit of custody if he doesn't get a bigger apartment so she can have her own proper room and he must also have a good job to prove that he can care properly for her.

Close to losing his license for speeding fines, his job being a chauffeur, he is precariously close to becoming someone about to fall between the cracks.

But in driving for a new client, an entire world-shift is about to happen.

Enjoyable and easy, heartwarming and paced, great for a feelgood watch.

A very interesting film because it treats in a unique way the creation of a soul connection between the 2 main characters, the perfumer and the driver. I found out totally new and unusual things for a movie about the world of smells. A human film, full of emotions, feelings, a film in which nothing false, nothing exaggerated intervenes. The actors play excellently and the action is very well developed throughout the film so that you don't get bored for a moment

No violence, no sex, tenderness, humour, grace, sensitivity The 2 main actors are great as well as some some minor ones The landscapes are nice too I laughed, I almost cried, it's simpl delicious Rush to watch it

This is a good little independent French film that has humor and heart. It's a story for adults, but without sex, thought provoking, and has both humor and sadness. The two main actors are wonderfully understated here and believable as we watch their friendship emerge. I was reminded a little bit of the early seasons of BONES.

Perhaps it's me as an American viewer who doesn't get some of the choices made in structuring the film. Some scenes are cut seemingly short, we never know how she solved the "handbag smell" or stinky factory problem. Likewise, we don't see how she begins to create perfumes again. There is often some wonderful tension in scenes, tension that doesn't fully play out to dramatic effect. It made me wonder what else we missed from these capable actors? But perhaps this is the French way and I'm just used to American dramatics, overacting, and having many more details given for "the swelling of a scene?"

I also subtracted a couple of stars because while this is an enjoyable quiet type of film, the ending did seem highly unlikely considering he was a chauffeur and didn't have her chemistry background (at least she appeared to have a chemistry education). Perhaps had we seen more of them beginning to work together as a team to solve a customer problem together, this wouldn't have seemed such fairy tale type ending. Also, the scene with her doctor was just very odd - it played more like he was going to be a potential romantic interest or something, which felt off and didn't quite mesh with where the story was at at that moment. Nice film, but could've been edited better.