Angel Heart (1987) dir. Alan Parker
Love this movie, love love love. The book is even better, Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, and I love that Alan Parker moved it to New Orleans, because in the book it was only set in New York. This movie does New Orleans right, and the way they set it in 1955 is just stunning. This scene is at a church in Harlem, and what gets me is that the preacher running the church is a holy man asking for tithes, and then, right after his meeting with Louis Cyphre, he opens an armoire and it is a full shrine, a complete ritual altar. I later read that the set designer spent months sourcing every piece for that altar, and while he was away from set for a day or two, someone stole the whole damn thing! I am so glad they got the shot, because it is jarring. I saw this alone as a kid and did not understand it until I rewatched it in my early twenties, and every time you watch it you catch little Easter eggs you missed before. When that armoire opens I could smell the taxidermied animals, the glass eyes, the candles. An absolute gem.
Notes: Taxidermied animal. Incense smoke. Candle wax drippings. Old armoire wood. Spray at the 30:17 mark.
Ingredients: Alcohol Denat., Parfum (Fragrance), Aqua (Water), Coumarin, Eugenol, Citronellol, Geraniol, Linalool, Limonene, Benzyl Benzoate.
Caution: Flammable. Avoid contact with eyes. For external use only.
Scent Dialekt is an independent art and film-criticism project. Fragrances are original transformative works inspired by cinema; no affiliation with or endorsement by any rights holder is implied.
Angel Heart (1987) dir. Alan Parker
Love this movie, love love love. The book is even better, Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, and I love that Alan Parker moved it to New Orleans, because in the book it was only set in New York. This movie does New Orleans right, and the way they set it in 1955 is just stunning. This scene is at a church in Harlem, and what gets me is that the preacher running the church is a holy man asking for tithes, and then, right after his meeting with Louis Cyphre, he opens an armoire and it is a full shrine, a complete ritual altar. I later read that the set designer spent months sourcing every piece for that altar, and while he was away from set for a day or two, someone stole the whole damn thing! I am so glad they got the shot, because it is jarring. I saw this alone as a kid and did not understand it until I rewatched it in my early twenties, and every time you watch it you catch little Easter eggs you missed before. When that armoire opens I could smell the taxidermied animals, the glass eyes, the candles. An absolute gem.
Notes: Taxidermied animal. Incense smoke. Candle wax drippings. Old armoire wood. Spray at the 30:17 mark.
Ingredients: Alcohol Denat., Parfum (Fragrance), Aqua (Water), Coumarin, Eugenol, Citronellol, Geraniol, Linalool, Limonene, Benzyl Benzoate.
Caution: Flammable. Avoid contact with eyes. For external use only.
Scent Dialekt is an independent art and film-criticism project. Fragrances are original transformative works inspired by cinema; no affiliation with or endorsement by any rights holder is implied.