The Green Perfume

Q&A with Nicolas Pariser on March 8

When an actor dies onstage during a performance at the Comédie-Française, his final words to fellow actor Martin (Vincent Lacoste) are to say he’s been murdered, followed by the mysterious phrase “green perfume.” So begins this knowingly Hitchcockian thriller (with a touch of Tintin creator Hergé thrown into the stylistic mix). The enigmatic events spur Martin to set off on a pan-European journey to discover the forces behind this mysterious killing. He makes his way to Brussels and eventually to Budapest alongside comic book writer Claire (Sandrine Kiberlain). Arriving at unexpected thematic resonance by way of searching dialogues about the nature of European identity and the Jewish diaspora, writer-director Nicolas Pariser (Alice and the Mayor, Rendez-Vous 2020) crafts a humorous, finely tuned, thoroughly French evocation of the master of suspense’s lighter work.