Perfume in literature and film

Laurie Lee of Loran Garman Wishart

"One breath of her perfume and your city is lost.

Another and you forfeit a kingdom"

Ancient Japanese poet

Here I have amassed the various perfume references I have come across over many many years in films and in books. Being a movie buff and a bookworm too, it has been a pleasure to combine the two with my love of perfume.

This is unique , regularly updated and comes from PERSONAL research and reading (books , Net , guides etc.). NO intent of copyright infringement or profit exists , whatsoever. It is purely for entertainment purposes . NOT to be reprinted.

© 2000 All Rights Reserved.

As usual , to avoid copyists , I have introduced the "drag your mouse over the icon " routine.

DIRECTIONS :So move your mouse over the bottle icon and wait a second to see, please. In case it's too quick for you , move it over it again. This feature works best with Internet Explorer.

For ease of use the perfume (and not the movie or book) is listed in an alphabetical index. You know what to do now, so enjoy!!

The definitive books on perfume that are not professional guides nor amateur generic stuff must surely be Das Parfum by Patrick Suskind and Le Miasme et la Jonquille by Alain Corbin.

Das parfum is a great novel set in the 18th century that hinges on the personality of an extraordinary individual , Grenouille , who is blessed with the ability to discern every nuance of scent but who has no scent himself. In the pursuit of smell he goes into the business of an old perfumer , later into self-exile and in the end in the royal french court where he is discovered by a "scientist " of the era , eager to use him as an axample of his theories. In the process anyone interested in perfume making has learned an astounding amount of info on ingredients ,extraction methods , scent synthesis and all those little details that any perfume afficionado craves. The book also has a deeper religious analogy that serves to make it even more memorable.

Le Miasme and La Jonquille ( The fragrant and the foul , in english) is a treatise by Corbin , who explores the perception of the odorous and the socio-economic conditions that shaped it in the 18th and 19th centuries in France and more generally in Europe. It goes on to elaborate on how perfume vogues started , what plumbing and hygiene advances offered to the desodorisation project and how people began to switch from the heavy animalic smells so loved hitherto to simpler , more vegetal smells. A fascinating read for every lover of perfume.

*Amarige:

*Aqua di Parma:

*Arpege:

*Baby Doll:

*Bay Rum:

*Bal A Versailles:

*Bulgari eau parfumee au the vert:

*Chamade:

*Chanel#5::

*Chanel#22:

*Coco:

*Detchema:

*Dior Dior:

*Eau d'Hadrien:

*Eau d'Issey:

*Envy Gucci:

*Evening in Paris (Soir de Paris):

*Eternity Moment:

*Fleurs de Rocaille:

*Floris:

*Givenchy eau de Cologne (unidentified):

*Initial by Boucheron:

*Jicky:

*Jungle Gardenia:

*Happy:

*Helmut Lang:

*L'air du temps:

*L'heure bleue:

*L'interdit:

*Memoirs of a Geisha:

*Mitsouko:

*Miss Dior:

*Misuki:

*My Sin:

*Narcisse Noir:

*Nuit de Noel:

*Norell:

*Ode by Guerlain:

*Opium:

*Poison: :

*Polo RL:

*Santa Maria Novella:

*Shalimar::::

*Shiseido scents:

*Spring Flower:

*Tabu:

*Tresor:

*Tweed:

*Vent Vert:

*Victorian Posy(Penhaligon's):

*Vol de Nuit:

*Wisteria Chantecaille:

*Smell in general:

*The ultimate scent:

*Love juice recipe:

*A novel capitalising on scent for character description:

*Imaginary perfumes: :

*General references to perfume:

Images and music courtesy of Clasically Audrey , Goutal , Silverscreensirens , Penhaligon's and Amazon sites. Borrowed fro entertainement purposes only , no copyright infringement or profit intended. The page is being updated regularly. Thanks to people contributing and allowing me to quote them.