sniff

We watched the movie Pefume a couple of weeks ago and it made me long to reread the book, which I loved when I read it oh about fifteen years ago, and move to Grasse where much of the story occurs, although apparently they filmed the movie in Spain so maybe I should move there instead. How I long to live somewhere away from all the awfulness of urban strip malls and all the ubiquitous crap crammed therein. It would be wonderful to live somewhere where my vision of beauty can fill a whole landscape. In a city I feel like I’m always looking at stuff through a macro lens, focusing on singular beauty in an otherwise ho hum scene. I was reading the reviews of Perfume and a number of people panned the film because it failed to capture the novels essence of scent. But I thought the film was good. It’s not like you can have a scratch and sniff film, well maybe if it’s a John Waters film you could, but I thought the director did a great job of making things very visually beautiful (there’s a great opening montage that’s quite visceral) as a sort of substitution for scent. The actors were all great and the fellow playing Grenouille really had his work cut out for him since the character is essentially mute. My God and the girl who played Laura, she had the most beautiful red hair - I have such hair envy, being a person with dishwater blond chicken fluff on my head. Anyhow, I liked the film but it also made me think of one of the things I’ve told Toby I’d love to do if we ever become wealthy. Who knows, we’ve entered the Powerball for Wednesday’s drawing so are chances are probably 1 in 5 billion. I would love to visit Lyn Miller, of Miller Harris, and get a bespoke perfume made. I’ve never even smelled her perfumes but I’m such a sucker for her packaging, the drawings on the bottles are so lovely. Talk about a signature scent, right now my perfume is the Tom’s of Maine calendula deodorant I put on pretty much daily, on those crazy days I’m lucky if I brush my teeth let alone deodorize my pits. But the whole idea of a scent made just for you based on smells you like is enormously appealing to me. When I was pregnant with both my kids I was horribly sick and had a bionic nose for scents, especially unpleasant ones. I still seem to have a heightened sense of smell so it would be nice to splurge on something my nose would enjoy, other than foods that make me fat and the intoxicating scent of my children right before bed time.