Perfume

Some great location- and Catalan actor-spotting fun at Méliès last night, where we saw Tom Tykwer’s version of Patrick Süskind’s Perfume. Easy enough: the torture-turned-orgy scene in El Pueblo Español; the various use of Girona’s Pujada Sant Domènec, with the palace arch and the view up the steps to Sant Martí Sacosta, and the little streets of the Jewish quarter; the Horta Labryinth for the killing of the twins. More difficult: the first murder, in the Plaza Felipe Neri; stinking Paris streets, on Ferran; Tortosa and Figueres, I believe, although I can’t remember when. I didn’t get: the seaside castle. Ironic–and perhaps indicative of Barcelona’s provincial status: many of the locations used were built long after the film action for which they serve as backdrops. The use of Plaça Felip Neri connects Perfume with that other great, recent novel about obsessive collecting, The shadow of the wind (buy USA/UK), of which I assume a film is brewing. All most Charles Nodier-ish, my dears, and do let me take you round.

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