I saw the movie at the Venecia Film Festival. It is a terrible movie. I am even surprised it was selected for screening even as 'hors competition'. First let me say that even though Azema and Arditi are forcedly advertised as main characters, Arditi has probably a maximum of 10 minutes of screen time and Azema hardly says any word during the whole movie. Everything is terrible. Acting is bad, story and editing are awful, and even the filming of landscapes of south of France is totally un-inspired. The movie never builds any tension. We are not sure why Larsan is such a threat to begin with. Then it does a really bad job at setting the stage for the mystery: it never takes the time to clearly help the audience understand the lay-out of the house or where people are supposed to be so that when the murder happens, we really understands that there is clearly something unsolvable about the mystery which would help grad audience attention. Because the movie is so messy and fuzzy, it is tough to understand that there is something really challenging happening here. And then, there are the moments when you are supposed to laugh probably to ease the tension that was never there in the first place. These are the most pathetic. You feel embarrassed for the actors playing such bad lines. In summary, stay away from that movie. It is not worth spending a $ on it.
Review of The Perfume of the Lady in Black
