Perfumes 2019

A divorced father, Guillaume Favre, is desperate to win shared custody of his daughter Léa. He works hard as a chauffeur to keep a steady home and a stable paycheck, hoping it will be enough to provide a better life for them both.

His path takes an unexpected turn when he becomes the driver for a new client, the brilliant yet difficult perfumer Anne Walberg. She is legendary for her ability to craft and pinpoint scents, but her ego, harsh treatment of drivers, and blunt manner create tension on every trip. Yet Guillaume refuses to back down, and his steady reliability earns him a unique position: she asks him to be her sole driver as she travels across France for a string of high-stakes projects. Their assignments range from capturing and recreating scents in a Paleolithic cave-like site in southern France to developing blends that mask a troublesome odor delaying the launch of a luxury handbag line.**

During a stop in a restaurant, Anne reads the room with astonishing accuracy, identifying the five major components of a waitress’s perfume, J’Adore, as she passes by. Guillaume watches in awe as her nose seems to work like a precision instrument, and she hints that this extraordinary skill comes from a personal claim that she invented that scent. The moment marks a turning point in their relationship, as Guillaume begins to see beyond her famous vanity to the depth of her talent. He notes how solitary she is—an artist who craves social contact but keeps people at a distance.**

Back at the hotel, Anne’s private life unraveling becomes part of the story. She attends her agent’s party but leaves on sour terms, later firing that agent. A night of drinking follows, and she wakes up the next morning with a shocking loss: she can’t smell. She reveals to Guillaume that this has happened before. Four years earlier, after delivering a high-pressure assignment designing three perfumes for a major U.S. company, she struggled to bluff through with no sense of smell, and the failure of the third scent damaged her reputation in the industry.

Guillaume’s forward motion is tested when Anne is summoned to Alsace to help factory owners whose plant emits noxious odors that spark local protests. Yet with her senses dulled, she leans on Guillaume’s steadiness to guide them. On the return journey, she drifts into sleep after taking sleeping pills in Guillaume’s car. He races her to the hospital at 180 km/h, saving her life but earning points that temporarily bar him from driving. In the hospital, she is treated with help from Professor Patrick Ballester, a specialist in olfactory problems whom Guillaume had already contacted. The scare rekindles their collaboration, and Anne begins to see a path back to the perfume world she loves.

Upon returning home, Guillaume learns that his chauffeur agency has dwindled to a dead-end job, with him mowing lawns at an airfield to make ends meet. Undeterred, Anne seeks him out and confronts the reality of his financial struggles and the cramped apartment he’s fighting to keep. In a moment of mutual commitment, he agrees to become her agent again as she regains her olfactory sense and sets her sights on re-entering the perfume industry that once rejected her. Guillaume also finds a practical solution to the factory problem—rising from a memory of childhood—the scent of freshly mown grass. Anne, inspired by this idea, agrees to move forward and work on a new fragrance that harnesses that grassy note.**

With renewed purpose, Guillaume leverages his work as her agent to push through a crucial legal hurdle—returning to the custody tribunal with stability and a plan. His perseverance pays off as he secures joint custody of [Léa], allowing him to create a more secure home for them both. The film closes with a hopeful note as the two main characters—driven by scent, memory, and a renewed sense of possibility—step into Dior headquarters to pitch their new perfumes, signaling a fresh start for their professional partnership and personal lives.