LE PARFUM D'YVONNE
A film review by Gareth Rees
Copyright 1994 Gareth Rees
Director: Patrice Leconte Starring: Jean-Pierre Marielle, Hippolyte Girardot, Richard Bohringer Camera: Edouard Serra Editor: Joelle Hache Music: Pascal Esteve Duration: 89 minutes France 1993
This film sets out to create a sense of isolation, of two people becoming lovers in a cocooned summer of walks by Lake Geneva, parties full of beautiful people, and languid love-making in hotels; two people whose relationship is built more on their separation from reality than anything they share between them.
Patrice Leconte's film creates this feeling of isolation by suggesting hidden subtleties in the background of the characters but never revealing the truth behind them. There is the mystery about Victor's real name and background: he's lying about being a Russian Count, but where does his money come from? He can't really be living off the proceeds of selling a collection of butterflies, can he? Victor never, ever says anything about himself, and rarely about anything. What about the relationship between Yvonne and the old man Rene? Are they two loners drawn together by some spirit they have in common? Are they connected in some way by family? They aren't saying. Yvonne's uncle is the only person who talks about Yvonne's past, but it's not clear whether what he says is to be trusted. What is it exactly that Rene does? He's a doctor, right, but what are the "favours" he does for people in Geneva? Why does an injured man suddenly turn up at his house one day and why doesn't he want Victor and Yvonne to see? Who are the people he seems to be having feuds with and why? Who is the young man he is saying goodbye to at a railway station? Perhaps his son, going off to die in the war in Algeria?
There are more mysteries, and none of them are resolved. These hints emerge suddenly from the depths of the film and then sink back into the calm waters, never to be seen again. The two lovers are unaffected by this; they're incurious about each other; they just exist, together, living from day to day. Only when Victor starts to plan, to think of the longer term, do things go wrong.
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