Memories are made of this: Adèle Exarchopoulos as Joanne.
WHAT IF YOU could dive into people’s memories by recreating their scent? That’s the question explored in Léa Mysius’ offbeat drama — named after the five mountain peaks in the French Alps that give the film’s village setting its name — which follows Vicky (Sally Dramé), a little girl whose hyper-keen sense of smell leads to her accessing her mother Joanne’s (Adèle Exarchopoulos) inner life. The filmmaker tells Empire about creating a fragrant fairy tale.
THE IDEA
Vicky’s gift was born from a conversation between Mysius and her co-writer, Paul Guilhaume. “He grew up in Paris, I grew up in the countryside,” she explains. “He said that Paris smells really bad, so he was used to not smelling; he blocked off that sense.” Mysius thought about how her countryside upbringing had done just the opposite, and her appreciation of smell and its ability to trigger memories became the basis for the movie.