In this charmingly fragrant French comedy/drama, a talented and temperamental creator of world-class perfumes is forced to team up with her new driver to keep her career smelling pretty when she falls on hard times.

Guillaume (Grégory Montel, Thirst for Life), a professional chauffeur trying to gain custody of his daughter after a recent divorce, lands a new job driving for the haughty diva Anne Walberg (Emmanuelle Devos, Coco Before Chanel), a master perfumer having trouble with her sense of smell. Walberg is a fallen star who once ruled the world of high class fragrances, but whose olfactory talents are now expended on recreating the odor of a prehistoric cave for a replica construction, masking a factory’s foul-smelling emissions, and creating deodorants. She’s withdrawn, impossibly demanding, obsessed with her work, and in denial about her loneliness. After initially antagonistic skirmishes between the odd-couple, a budding friendship teaches both how to mend their lives. An enchanting comedy with reflective commentary on social class and vocation, Perfumes also provides fascinating insight into the mysterious world of a “professional nose.”

Banner image courtesy of Distrib Films