The Nose - An "excellent, charming" film on our sense of smell

LE Nez - The Nose by Kim Nguyen 

Screening today at the Thèâtre de Grand-Champ, Gland Tuesday 20 April at  15:00 Info and tickets here

Film Review from Visions du Réel by Trish Thalman.

The Nose Knows!

A chef comments that when you have a meal in a restaurant, the waiter asks "how does the meal taste? " The chef believes the waiter should ask "how does it smell ?" We smell before we taste and a good taste is related to a good smell. Don't worry if you like to have a good smell of your food before you eat it. You'll enjoy what is on the plate more if you have had a good nose down and inhale deeply.

The sense of smell is a major part of our being, from the moment we are born and have the first smell of mother's milk.Smell is an overwhelming part of our memory (grandma's cookies when you smell vanilla essence), emotions and desires.

Women have a more strongly developed sense of smell, but it is primarily men who are famous for creating the finest perfumes for women.

'The Nose' is a lively, colourful, well constructed film that has us meeting a full spectrum of people speaking in the most captivating manner about smell and how they use their noses.  See trailer below

We begin with a woman who, through an accident, lost her sense of smell for some years (it returned), and continue through truffle hunters and truffle merchants, perfume makers, wine and food experts, speech therapists, a saffron collector in Morocco and children being asked to describe the scent of a truffle ("smells like my dog ").

All have their story to tell as to how they use their nose with scents for work and pleasure in everyday and professional lives. We learn that 'outer space' smells "like the smell in the air after a gun has been fired". A scientist takes us through a diagram of how scent/smell makes it's way up through our nose to the olefactory nerve and embeds into our brain. Fast work for the nose, and the memories remain forever, the good and the bad.

Another scientist explains to us what ambergris is, an essential product used in the making of fine perfumes. A highly valuable commodity that comes from whales. I learn something new every day.

A German perfume maker has created a special 'scent of a woman'.Men seem to like it.

One woman broke up with her boyfriend because they were  "scent-ually incompatible".

An excellent, charming film, with the right amount of scientific facts to enjoy, even if there isn't'smell-o-vision' when the elegant bottle of 'Channel No. 5' is shown, and a 'mythical' story about Marilyn Monroe is told.