Fantomas Nasomatto 2020 Extrait de Parfum

Yes, I gave Fantomas the full score, although I will never wear it. For me, he smells aggressive, disharmonious and in parts even disgusting. But at the same time it is an uncompromising masterpiece in the field of Pop Art and could definitely be exhibited at the Filmmuseum Frankfurt (as an olfactory "soundtrack" 4-D).

As a child of the 70's I perceived the film character Fantomas as a bogeyman and super villain. After every TV broadcast wild speculations about the blue devil became a permanent topic among us primary school children:

"Did you see Fantomas yesterday?"

"Nope, my parents have forbidden it! Too violent! But I secretly went to the toilet again and looked at the TV for a short time. There was Fantomas Awful blue and he laughed really hard
"For real? Whoa, soooo scary! Quick, tell me more..."

But there was nothing more to tell and the myth of the terrible villian mutated further in our imagination. How could we have guessed back then that this was a harmless comedy with the outstanding Louis de Funes? It was a time when the crime theme alone justified a FSK 16.

With our action figures - all around the adventure world of "Big Jim" - we played our childish ideas about Fantomas. I didn't worry about smells and scents at that time, although I was able to store all the olfactory impressions of that time in my memory.

Now it's 2020 and one of the most provocative perfumers of the present day is once again taking on the theme of Fantomas.

Fantomas starts with a strong melon smell, maybe a little bit of blueberry. Clearly calone, a fragrance that reached its peak in the 80s (New West). But it was already discovered in 1966, exactly in the time window of the Fantomas film series. Is this pure coincidence with Gualtieri? Did he simply want to add watermelon - without any further reference - as a top note? To open the comedy? Or did he also want to set a time frame here? - "Hey, did you notice that both started in the mid 60's and still have an effect today?"

While the top note could still be dismissed as a funny provocation, stage 2 already ignites, and under glycerine vapour (which some people today use to draw into their lungs, but which was used as a "disco fog" in the late 60s) a vinyl-PVC-latex structure slowly emerges. This is how homes and children's rooms - especially toys (dolls and Big Jim) - smelled in the 1970s. This can no longer be a coincidence! br />
Everything seems totally "overtuned", absolutely shrill, and forms as fast as Fantomas oftentimes appears to the clumsy de Funes in the movie.

For hours, this intentionally synthetic scent image is retained and Roy Lichtenstein adds a loud "bang!" in a speech bubble.

Up to this point, the concept seems to be quite ingenious: Fantomas teleports himself olfactorically into the here and now, but the chosen fragrances teleport me directly into the late 60s or early 70s.

In the following fragrance development, the top note slowly retracts (on the cloth supplied with the sample, however, this takes 2 full days). The blueberry melon only swings softly in the background, the softener from Fantomas plastic mask evaporates and a biting smoke now leads into the depth/base of the fragrance. Beneath this is the typical Gualtieri accord, sweaty with the well-known faecal oud, which both conveys the human level of the phantom and reveals the master's signature.

Honestly: I don't want to wear this scent monster on my skin, as much as it fascinates me. However, the theme has been realized in such an authentic way, with a power, creativity, depth and scope for interpretation - in short: Alessandro Gualtieri has reached the zenith of his artistic expressiveness.

Pleasant, fragrant and flattering scents are a dime a dozen. On the level of art - which perfume can and should be - Gualtieri lifts his Fantomas with all his skill. I respect this and reward it with the best possible rating.