Senzô Kawahara (Sô Yamamura) is a rich businessman who has been diagnosed with cancer. His wife rejects his sexual advances, so he starts an affair with his secretary, Yasuko Miyagawa (Keiko Kishi). She doesn’t like him, but he pays her (“10 brand-new 10,000-yen bills” on their first encounter), so she quickly gets used to it. The first purchase she wants to make is the most expensive perfume by Guerlain.

Later in the film, we get to see what she bought: the inimitable flacon rayonnant of Vol de Nuit! The director Masaki Koyabashi shows the perfume bottle with a perfect shot.

Senzô sniffs the perfume and declares it’s “not bad.” He could have shown more enthusiasm for the Jacques Guerlain creation, a homage to the second novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, but I guess the “not bad”, coming from a ruthless businessman, can be considered a compliment, after all.
At the end of the scene, the bottle is on the floor, next to a bottle of Courvoisier cognac.
Lisa Cramer (
There’s Boucheron Jaipur Saphir, created by Nathalie Lorson in 1999.
Then there’s a bottle of Cartier Eau de Cartier Concentrée, created by Christine Nagel in 2002.
Another perfume seen on Lisa’s counter is Lanvin L’Homme, another creation by Alberto Morillas, launched in 1997.
Half-hidden behind the Lanvin there’s a bottle of Cartier Pasha de Cartier, a 1992 creation by Jacques Cavallier.

Beatrice Morandini Valdirana is a patological liar who lives in a psychiatric facility in Tuscany. She wears Vivienne Westwood Boudoir, a perfume she says is not available in Italy – one of her many lies.




There are two versions of Guerlain Chant d’Arômes on the glass shelf in Melanie’s bathroom. The white floral perfume, created by Jean-Paul Guerlain in 1962, is here presented in the amphora-like bottle designed by Pochet et du Courval exclusively for it, but there’s the refillable spray canister, too.

Among the several perfume bottles, I’ve spotted Christian Dior Eau Sauvage, a 1966 creation by Edmond Roudnitska.
Next to it, there’s Acqua di Parma Colonia, the first fragrance of the Italian brand, created in 1916.
The blue tin unmistakably contains
Another quintessentially Italian product is Roberts
Last but not least, there’s a bottle of Vanderbilt by Gloria Vanderbilt, a huge commercial success created by Sophia Grojsman in 1982. It’s impossible not to have a memory of it, if you were born in the 1970s/1980s: this white floral fragrance was everywhere!
Linnet Ridgeway’s bedroom/boudoir is lavishly furnished in white and decorated with colorful glass, mirrors and marble. Several French perfumes are sitting on her vanity, a natural extension of her flawless style.
The first bottle that has caught my attention is the Lanvin boule on the left. It’s unclear what perfume it contained, because the French maison used the same bottle for two different perfumes, Arpege (created by Andre Fraysse in 1927) and My Sin (called Mon Péché in French, created by the mysterious Madame Zed in 1924). The film is set in the 1930s, so it’s plausible for both to sit on that vanity.
The same thing can be said for the black bottle on the right, containing Lanvin talcum powder. It could be Arpege or My Sin.
The Guerlain chauve souris bottle unmistakably contained Shalimar, created by Jacques Guerlain in 1925.
Guerlain Liu

Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) keeps a bottle of Old Spice on a shelf by the fridge.

I wonder if Monsieur Poirot (Peter Ustinov) noticed the massive Guerlain


