christian dior amphora | World Wide Aura

I was looking forward to watching the latest Pablo Larraín film documenting the last days in the life of Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie) because I *knew* (hoped) some interesting beauty products were in it and I was not disappointed.

The first product I spotted in the scene where Maria is sitting at her vanity is a white jar by Guerlain containing skincare. The exact product is unclear (it could be the Crème Stabilisante, shown in the 1975 advert above, the Collagena or the Crème Magistrale), but the choice is historically accurate, because this packaging was marketed in the mid/late 1970s.

Next, there’s a Dior amphora bottle, originally designed by Fernand Guéry-Colas. This bottle housed different Dior fragrances (Miss Dior, Diorissimo and Diorama), so once again it’s unclear which fragrance sits on la Divina’s vanity.

I was surprised to see a massive flacon chauve souris containing the Guerlain classic Shalimar, a fragrance created in 1925 by Jacques Guerlain. According to online reports, Maria Callas used to wear Chanel No. 5 and Revillon Detchema, but there’s nothing that can beat the impressive presence of this bottle on a film set, so I totally approve of this choice.

Another surprising presence is a box of Madame Rochas, a white floral fragrance created by Guy Robert and launched in 1960. It may not be accurate, if we assume that Callas never wore it, but it surely looks good on her vanity.

Later in the film, Maria sits at another vanity. There’s another flacon chauve souris on it but there’s also a Guerlain zigzag box, first introduced in 1967. Reading the front label is impossible, so its content is unknown.

There are several perfumes and toiletries on Anna’s dressing table.

First, two bottles of Revlon nail polish in the signature bottle with super-long cap handle.

Now let’s focus on the perfume bottles. At the centre of the table there’s Jean Patou Joy, “the world’s most expensive perfume” created in 1930 by Henri Alméras.

Next to it, a beautiful amphora bottle by Christian Dior. Hard to tell what perfume it contained here: designed in 1947 by Fernand Guéry-Colas and produced by Baccarat, it was first used for Miss Dior, but later used for all the other perfumes of the French house – Diorissimo, Diorling, Diorella and Diorama. If we consider the film was released in 1958, the amphora could contain Miss Dior, Diorama (launched in 1948) or Diorissimo (launched in 1956).

Last but not least, there’s a Guerlain flacon montre. Again, it’s impossible to say what eau de cologne it contained, but we can make some assumptions. It could be Shalimar or Cachet Jaune (blood orange and yellow stickers, respectively; both launched in 1937), L’Heure Bleue (pale blue sticker; launched in 1945), Ode (purple sticker; the eau de cologne was launched in 1950s, but I don’t know the exact date), Fleur de Feu (hot pink sticker; the perfume was released in 1948, so probably the eau de cologne was on the market by the time Indiscreet was shot), Mitsouko (teal sticker; launched in 1937), Jicky (deep purple sticker; launched in 1945), Chypre 53 (light green sticker; the perfume was released in 1953, so it’s possible the cologne already existed in 1958) or Liu (black sticker; launched in 1956).

A growing archive of beauty products and perfumes in movies and tv shows