Film No. 26 (2021) April 7th. 11:00 AM. Cinema 2 LUNA SX Fremantle.
"I'm going to make perfume again. Would you help me?" (Anne ratifies her trust in Guillaume as she decides on the path she needs to take to re-establish her life).
My mum is ninety and she loves going to the cinema. She goes less these days because films are more violent, sexually explicit and more nasty in general. They are less to her liking. So along comes Le Parfums and some of that faith of my cinema loving mother is restored. Two likeable enough characters, Guillaume (Gregory Montel) and Anne (Emmanuelle Devos), both unsure about life in their middle age, find each other and find a bond. Comradeship between man and woman doesn't always need the bedroom to consummate good cinema. Les Purfums is testament to that.
Writer/Director Magne never tries to make this film something it is not. He sets out to make a light but pertinent fairy-tale. Everyone on screen is likeable. A key conflict, so important to modern-day story-telling, never rears its head in Les Purfums. The real drama comes via the abundance of scents that are triggered through descriptive language then reinforced with the setting they occupy.
Is there ever a miscast French film? Surely there must be plenty, but as an Australian critic, relying on Australian distribution, casting always rings true. Because Anne is so gifted when it comes to smell, her nose is filmed with such care. Guillaume is is given free reign as being slightly dishevelled but ruggedly handsome and completely likeable. The balance is perfect for the tale being told.
Minari might be the best film of 2021 and the story it tells hardly lifts a finger in anger via the drama that unfolds. Les Parfums similarly has hardly a bad bone in its tale. Maybe this is the new genre of film-making. The "Rarely a Nasty Moment" genre. My mother will certainly be back to the movies more often. 9GUMS.
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