Fumes in the News: Juliette Binoche's Perfume of Death



French actress Juliette Binoche wears specific perfumes to get into character for her roles, she tells Hermione Eyre in ES Magazine (14 Sept 2012). The thinking man's croissant and star of Chocolat and The English Patient will be playing Mademoiselle Julie in an updated version of the Strindberg classic at the Barbican next week -- and she has Miss J's fragrance all picked out: the essence of myrrh. Here's more on myrrh from Juliette:

"I once went traveling to Palestine, Israel -- I want to call it both names -- and I found this perfume. It's mysterious, it's deep and it's actually mentioned in the play because it's related to Midsummer's Eve. It's also the perfume of death.


"It's either the perfume of death, Miss Julie - or your Odor Eaters."

"Sometimes I put it on before I go on stage, but not every night. Rituals can help you to enter a realm of being, an emotional state, because a ritual helps you descend a certain path, but at the same time, I want each night to belong to itself only, so I don't do the same thing every night."


Mlle. Julie photo: Patrick Roux

16 comments:

  1. I'm dying. I'm dead. You've killed me.

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    1. Sometimes you take your life in your hands when you take a smell in your nose.

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  2. Something like that was going on in the Old Testament:

    Exodus 30:22-38

    22 Then the Lord said to Moses, 23 “Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels[d] of liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, 250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels[e] of fragrant calamus, 24 500 shekels of cassia—all according to the sanctuary shekel—and a hin[f] of olive oil. 25 Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil. 26 Then use it to anoint the tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant law, 27 the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense, 28 the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand. 29 You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and whatever touches them will be holy.

    30 “Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve me as priests. 31 Say to the Israelites, ‘This is to be my sacred anointing oil for the generations to come. 32 Do not pour it on anyone else’s body and do not make any other oil using the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred. 33 Whoever makes perfume like it and puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from their people.’”
    Incense

    34 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha and galbanum—and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, 35 and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. 36 Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. 37 Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the Lord. 38 Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from their people.”

    The idea of using fragrance as a way to control or influence future self is interesting.

    --Nora

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    1. SO fascinating! According to this account, God has a nice sideline as a perfumer, right down to knowing the shekel's-worth of each ingredient.

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    2. And good taste, too, in my opinion. Notice the absence of fruity-florals.

      --NB

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    3. That's because fruity-florals are the devil's work.

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  3. That is really fantastic! Definitely makes me think about how smells can be a part of getting into a role as much as costumes or dress. I also like her reasoning for not wearing the perfume every night on stage. Super interesting.

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  4. We, each of us, create our own character every morning and part of the creation is the scent we wear. I loved the post.

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    1. Hah - I was about to jot down something along these lines in response to Daisy and Nora. Just as you say: we create our own character every morning. My creation today was built from a spritz of Aromatics Elixir, a blast of Prince's "Raspberry Beret" and a swipe of magenta lipstick.

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    2. I think we have a creative genius in Miss Puckrik. What a lovely picture you paint.

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    3. Well, I don't know about creative genius, but I'll own up to magpie pop-culturista.

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  5. Fascinating. Your table was anointed the other week Katie with orange blossom, beeswax and incense. Clearly a Divine Sign which I will leave you to interpret. Myrrh for Men anyone?

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  6. Myrrh for men: Diptyque L'Eau Trois, Prada Pour Homme Intense, Dior Bois d'Argent, Prada #10 Myrrhe.

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  7. O O there goes the week. Thank you for the leads. Blessings.

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  8. Myrrh smells so medicinal to me, yet so compelling, I always have a little around to sniff now and then. My favorites are SL's La Myrrhe, and L'Erbolario's Myrrhae, which is hard to find outside of Italy and Germany, but worth seeking out. I wore it a lot in winter when I was feeling particularly pensive.

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