Blu-Ray Review: Kino Lorber’s Yvonne’s Perfume (Special Edition) 

Director Patrice Leconte’s Yvonne’s Perfume is a mixture of melancholy and sexuality during an overlong summer in 1950s Switzerland for three characters.  New to Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. 

The Film 

Director Patrice Leconte’s elliptical melancholy romantic drama Yvonne’s Perfume is the kind of mystery that doesn’t involve any criminality but rather the faces and airs we put on for those around us and how those small lies can damage us.  A triptych of wonderful performances by Hippolyte Girardot, Sandra Majani and the legendary Jean-Pierre Marielle keep one guessing how this will all end until the final frames.  

The film is less about the a-b-c of conventional plotting as it is set both in the future and the past of a single summer in 1958 in Switzerland.  Each character Victor (Girardot), Rene (Marielle), and Yvonne (Majani) are all not what they appear.  But those appearances are what attracts them to each other.  Victor hides from what appears to be responsibilities as a Count and from possible service in the French military.  Rene is possibly hiding his sexuality which would have him condemned in society.  Yvonne is an actress and free spirit who bewitches Victor with her charms and beauty.  The way that these three interact and eventually find each other’s true nature is the crux of the film.  

There are no answers nor questions put forth though the film feels like both a summer romance and crime mystery.  The way that director Leconte manages to infuse our interest in the characters and their motivations to be around one another is what prompts our own questions.  As Victor and Yvonne begin a sexual relationship, we wonder why neither discusses their histories/pasts other than very lightly though each appears to want a future with one another.  Why does Rene continue to push and pull these two young people and where does he go for stretches at a time?  These are all mysteries that are never outright resolved but are hinted at by the film.  Exchanges between the characters and discussions with other characters are as elliptical as the nature of time within the film itself.  

The film feels like the work of Nicolas Roeg.  A film both unhinged in time and stuck in the primordial sludge of it.  Open enough to allow you to come to your own conclusions.  Like Roeg, there is something beautifully cinematic about the details the film fixates on.  Leconte’s collaboration with cinematographer Eduardo Serra is the sort of dreamy haze of summer memories that invokes things lost but not forgotten.  

Ultimately, accept or reject Yvonne’s Perfume based on their love of the sort of art-house film that leisurely plays with a time, a setting, and a romance of a specific era with the heartbreak and heartache that youth is often associated with.  

The Transfer

The transfer that was provided to Kino Lorber is a beautiful presentation of the filmic origins of the early 1990s European shooting style and European film stock.  The film stock looks to have a similar color density as Kamikaze. What I said about Kamikaze applies here “Dense like a chocolate cake that makes the color spectrum be a bit darker and luminous.”  There is nary a scratch or any sort of defect on the transfer, just a beautifully clean widescreen image. 

The Extras

They include the following;

• Audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan 
• Interview with director Patrice Leconte 
• Trailers

The new Audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan begins with opens with how the film is more than a sexual drama and how this lines up to the European Art House film and the nostalgia of the film.  Some of the details include a great deep dive to the Algerian War – which the film takes place during and was a major event in France; the theme of escape and desertion – and how they relate to the film; a discussion of the films and personal/professional history of director Patrice Leconte – including the themes, styles, and history of this film and other films throughout his career; a discussion of novelist Patrick Modiano – including his win for the Pulitzer Prize, the source material itself; and much more.  Deighan provides a fascinating deeply researched commentary track. 

Interview with director Patrice Leconte (12:26) –  the director opens with an honest assessment of the lack of success for Yvonne’s Perfume – and his thoughts on the various types of success of films. Leconte discusses what he likes about the film – working with actor Jean-Pierre Marielle for the first time, actor Sandra Majani who had since disappeared, and the novel by Patrick Modiano which it was based upon; his regrets over the film including the title change; how he found the book and began to develop it; the style in which he directed the film – with a strong sense of ambiguity; and much more.  In French with English Subtitles.

Rounding out the special features are trailers for Yvonne’s Perfume (145); The Hairdresser’s Husband (1:22); Girl on the Bridge (1:51) 

The Final Thought 

Yvonne’s Perfume is greater than the sum of its parts.  Kino has given the film a wonderful transfer and extras. Recommended.  

Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray edition of Yvonne’s Perfume is out now.