Le Parfum d'Yvonne

Jean-Pierre Marielle and Sandra Majani

Patrice Leconte's Le Parfume d'Yvonne, from 1994, is one of the more underrated of the French director's films. A box office bomb, it was Leconte's lowest grossing film of his eleven picture career at that time. Critical reaction was indifferent upon its release with many French critics comparing it unfavorably to its source novel, Patrick Modiano's Villa Triste. I haven't read the book, but am certainly willing to venture that Leconte thought it necessary to jettison much of the political background of the novel in order to make an hour and a half long film. The film's characters are ambiguous and that has led some to accuse the film of one dimensionality, but I feel this is due to Leconte foregrounding the eroticism and ambiguity in the film rather than championing reason and certainty.

The film primarily focuses on a doomed love affair between Victor Chmara (i.e. chimera), a would-be writer played by Hippolyte Giradot  and the mysterious Yvonne (Sandra Majani in her last role). The affair occurs during the summer of 1958 amidst the chichi settings of lakeside resorts that straddles the French-Swiss border. The events of this sun kissed summer are juxtaposed with Victor visiting the same area off season two years later, searching for signs of his lost love. The 1958 footage is bathed in light while the 1960 sequences, with La Dolce Vita playing at a theater, are mired in inky dark. In 1960, Victor seeks out Dr. Rene Meinthe who may have a clue to Yvonne's whereabouts. Meinthe is the most fascinating character in the film, enlivened by a fierce performance by Jean-Pierre Marielle. In '58, Meinthe mentored Yvonne, a local and "aspiring actress". When Victor becomes Yvonne's lover, they cohabit in Meinthe's swanky villa. Meinthe is queer and drifting into a lonely old age. He seems to be house doctor for the FLN, then in revolt against French rule in Algeria.

The struggle for Algerian independence lurks in the background of this romantic drama. Snippets of newsreels, radio reports, and loose talk allude to the struggle, but the sexual drama in luxe bourgeoise splendor predominates. Victor claims he is Russian, but shares memories of the Arab world with an Egyptian club owner. The troubled outside world is far away from the smart set bubble portrayed in Le Parfume.... Leconte's satiric jabs at the haut bourgeoisie reaches its apogee in a vintage auto show featuring tableaux avec chiens. Cinematographer Eduardo Serra's colors really pop here. The cocoon of the privileged and its attendant female beauties are filmed with a disconcerting glamor. The past cannot be regained in Le Parfum d'Yvonne, but it is alive in the present. It haunts Victor who is caught up in a erotic obsession.

The one dimensional nature of Victor and Yvonne is appropriate, they are both callow youths emotionally. Victor is a stand in for Patrick Modiano, the budding writer receiving a sentimental education. What Victor doesn't understand, despite repeated warnings, is that he and Yvonne are chalk and cheese, a farmer and a pirate. Yvonne lives for the day while the writer has his eye on eternity. Leconte gives Meinthe, the wisest and saddest of his main characters, a fittingly spectacular send-off, calling to mind Anna Galiena's adieu in The Hairdresser's Husband with its cinematic marshalling of the elements. Le Parfum d'Yvonne rivals Leconte's best work (The Hairdresser's Husband, Monsieur Hire, and Ridicule) in its sensuous reveries and unsentimental educations. There is even more to explore in a career that is still ongoing. Maybe one day I'll sample Leconte's biggest French hits: Les Bronzés 1, 2, and 3, also known as the French fried vacation trilogy.