Talk about controversial and subversive.

 

 

You take one young, brilliant, intellectual chemist / perfumer of exquisitely beautiful physicality [Pierre Guillaume, naturellement!]-

 

 

One novel of immense brutality and eroticism written by a dissolute legend

[Querelle de Brest-1947, Jean Genet] –

 

 

The last film made by troubled, dissipated Rainer Werner Fassbinder, based on that novel [Querelle– 1982] –

 

 

 

And the darkest, most intense, sultry materials possessing potent gender-bending sensuality…

 

 

There you have it.

Querelle.

 

 

This masterwork- and I really perceive it as such- is an approach/ avoidance fragrance for many.

It seethes with complexity; if it were a color, it would be the darkest green imaginable, tinged with black.

 

Citrus notes open this composition, rapidly pursued by a fiendish Iranian black cumin note- both sweaty and seductive.

Myrrh and cinnamon add spicy, resinous depth.

Powdered rose, reveals my “Collection Sur Invitation” envelope …

Where?

 

Tonka bean subtly cavorts with fine Haitian vetiver; it is this vetiver which one feels throughout the development of Querelle.

Incense, oakmoss, and ambergris complete the smoky, mossy depths of this splendidly perverse fragrance.

 

Querelle– needless to say-

Is not for everyone.

 

But for those who crave the mystery of forbidden desire and mutinous beauty-

This is your thing, my friends.

 

 

 

Photo credits:

 

Andy Warhol poster: iub.edu

Pierre Guillaume: Facebook photo

Angela Davis and Jean Genet: boyfriendrobotique.blogspot.com

Fassbinder photo: glasgowfilmtheatre.blogspot.com

Sailor from film “Querelle”: cinecritic.biz

Querelle fim poster: digitallyobsessed.com

PthaloGreenYSA : encausticpaints.com

Scene from the film “Perfume”: the-nextlevel.com

Fassbinder and woman in jail: brunovalle.tumblr.com

 

–Ida Meister, Senior Editor