As I wandered to the corner where the bridesmaids, and nuns, and various eccentric wedding guests were gathered, I encountered a wondrous, heart-hancing smell: a disarming swirl of lip balms and coconut scented, pomading hair products coming together as participants put last touches to their makeup before parading in front of the cameraman’s green screen; a very romantic, girlie rosey modern floral, daringly sweet-pitched and penetrating – but momentarily quite discombobulating : …………………yielding, YES, I WILL MARRY YOU : the only obvious reply.
(preparing for the wedding scene ‘Burning Bouquet’ with prosthetics…… SPOILER ALERT!)
Tracing the scent to the source, I found very quickly that it was the pink lady top left – whose name I didn’t catch – but who was wearing her very well-suited perfume layered with the oil of Lush Goddess, and then brought out the perfume from her bag to tell me what it was ….…………..’It’s Marry Me, By Lanvin.’ Complimenting her on her perfume (a giddy, rose-peach-jasmine-musky heart fluttering pink scent of the kind that is consistently popular here among young women), I realized once again that context with perfumery is everything: I would have undoubtedly sniffed this one at a fragrance counter and dismissed it with cynical, adult derision; meh! Another floral! Synthetic! Green tea and ‘freesias’! ‘Magnolia‘. Ha! On a person, though, especially at a wedding (we were filming one of the key, culminative scenes in Duncan’s hilarious art-trash comedy Spoiled Identity: had she brought along this perfume deliberately for its name, or was it just an opportune coincidence?) ……it was lovely, at least for a while, before going a little bit Lancôme Miracle ( one of my personal top 5 bȇte noires, I just can’t abide it) ;’ although for all I know, what I was smelling could have been coming from any number of sources as various people of all kinds and persuasions were coming and going from the municipal building in Tokyo we were filming in to take part as drunks, soothsayers, paparazzi, eye candy, priests (where does he get all these people from, this international smorgasbord? ).
All in all, it was all a colour-saturated gorgeous relief from all the virus-ridden doom and gloom we have been over immersed in these last few weeks (and it’s only just begun!) : probably, we should have been quarantined in our abode, knitting in gas masks, weeping, but cancelling this was simply not an option. Instead, we were out in one of the most heavily populated urban areas in the world, maskless, and I loved every last minute of it; perfume gladdening the circumstances – – – pleasingly beyond.
The Black Narcissus 
Discombobulating???? I get all kinds of everything associations!!!!
As weird and promising as the pictures!
I get the image of pretty in pervert pink (new shade!) and astonished white wedding victims.
And a meticulous pre-ceremony face- and bodypaint extravaganza!
All my blessings for this hullabaloo dance on the volcano!!
The perfume is spot on: BRAVO
Is the film to be seen beyond Japan?
It will be once it is ready : pure nonsense with philosophy underneath; lo budget trash with a lot of subversive humour, surreal and silly.
Marry Me ! is a mere trifle, but at that moment on that bridesmaid it smelled lovely.
It looks like such fun! We are being bombarded with the virus news here in Sydney as well and I have been so anxious lately. We are in the inner city and it was Mardi Gras on Saturday night so simply packed with people from all over the world having a great time….as it should be. I am avoiding reading the news before breakfast as that puts me in a funk all day and just trying not to think about it!!!
Yes, well I go through similar cycles : some days I don’t even tune to any news at all now my official sequestration has begun. It just makes the next installment more dramatic ( this morning’s Japan Times headline : ‘Abe eyes law to declare state of emergency ‘ – blimey.
Having the shoot go ahead is possibly irresponsible, I don’t know, but like the Mardi Gras, it’s just what our spirits needed. SUCH fun.
I want to see this film!!!! It looks to be an amazing production, how fab.
I remember when Marry Me! was being launched and I was very excited, only because I love vintage Lanvin so much. I don’t think it ever lived up to my expectations though.
I am glad you all got to let off a little steam, before things become really dire with the virus. Be safe and stay in as much as you need to.
Post more stills from the movie please.
So glad you like all of this. I mean, I imagine the majority of the people who read this blog would just think it was (deliberately) badly acted junk, and way prefer Quality Hollywood productions that get nominated for Golden Globes: this is nothing like that at all. But it is an amazing mix of people living in Tokyo, and the story – of two opposing ideological factions – is actually meant, albeit in an uber camp way – to be a critique of actual society in a way. It’s an absolute scream to make – we are loving it.
As for Lanvin, I am the same as you. Just the name has almost a holiness for me, so whenever I see the name on a bottle, no matter how pink, I pray that somehow it will be interesting. Obviously, this kind of noxious pinkness isn’t for us, but on THAT day at THAT time and on that particular person, it smelled great! And a good antidote to the tedious virus.
I totally love Indie film projects. I’m not an elitist, so I will love it.
Lanvin is like a magical spell and the newest offerings are meh, but I know what you mean about the right place and time
If you had been in Tokyo, I would have roped you in by the way and made you part of it. We do that all the time; ‘would you like to be in our movie?’, and people almost always say yes.
I would have loved that!!!