06/29/2020
Harielle
12 Reviews
Translated
Show original
Harielle
Top Review
11
After the rendezvous with Lord X
Billy Wilder, one of my favourite directors, would have turned 114 these days. His films have accompanied me since my earliest youth. It all started with "1,2,3" and "Some Like Hot" at my parents' house. With "Irma la douce" I associate above all the meetings with my cousin of the same age at our grandmother's in North Rhine-Westphalia. Although my cousin and I could not or could not be different, we got along very well with each other and watched Wilders "Irma la douce" at least once at each of these meetings while our grandmother was taking her nap.
The plot of the film is quickly summarized (those who know the film can skip this part):
Paris in the early 1960s. The suspended patrolman Nestor Patou falls in love with the streetwalker Irma, called Irma la Douce ("Irma the Sweet"). After beating Irma's pimp in a spectacular brawl, he takes over with his place. But Nestor cannot have a purely business relationship with Irma, jealousy of her suitors drives him crazy. Together with the help of café owner Moustache, Nestor disguises himself as "Lord X" and visits Irma from now on. For a few harmless card games she is royally rewarded each time and doesn't have to accept any more suitors. Since Nestor has to earn the money secretly at night at the Parisian wholesale market, the halles centrales, he is tired during the day and increasingly inattentive. Irma suspects an affair, seduces Lord X and decides to elope with him.
Nestor for his part is now jealous of the (non-existent) Lord X and sinks the costume into the Seine. He is watched by Irma's former pimp, who reports the alleged murder to the police. In prison Nestor finds out that Irma is pregnant by him. He manages to escape and marries Irma at the last second before the birth. Since Lord X has appeared on the sidelines against all logic, Nestor is acquitted of the accusations of murder. As usual with Wilder, the event is garnished with numerous lovingly polished supporting roles like Irma's colleagues with the speaking names "Amazons Annie" or "Kiki the Cossack", a champagne drinking dog with kidney ailments and of course the dazzling "Macs", the pimps who meet regularly at Café Chez Moustache.
What does Lehmann's fig have to do with all this?
This is also quickly explained: This fig is green like Irma's stockings (and underwear, of course), for me it conveys more of an aesthetic corresponding to the artificial flowers of clay, rather than Mediterranean lightness or even holiday feeling. This fig is ripe, it was brought to the halles by Nestor after his work and now, lying in a bowl in Irma's shabby-charming attic apartment, exudes a strong fruity and sour aroma. After the extended appointments with Lord X, Irma always has a touch of his intense aftershave when she comes home, although these meetings are platonic to the last.
This aftershave mixes in the heart note with a turbulent fruity fig note and some creamy floral nuances reminiscent of the wallpaper in front of Irma's "business address" (that's the hour hotel on Rue Casanova). The whole thing also has a slightly soapy character at times, which goes well with the charm of the comparatively innocent-romantic love of Irma and Nestor. The base heralds the most beautiful chapter of this fig for me: Woody notes underpin the still strongly resounding fruity figs and dim them increasingly, although I cannot identify which woods were used here.
Conclusion:
A grossly motoric fig with penetrating power for the brave, who can also take on a Lord X and like (head) cinema!
The plot of the film is quickly summarized (those who know the film can skip this part):
Paris in the early 1960s. The suspended patrolman Nestor Patou falls in love with the streetwalker Irma, called Irma la Douce ("Irma the Sweet"). After beating Irma's pimp in a spectacular brawl, he takes over with his place. But Nestor cannot have a purely business relationship with Irma, jealousy of her suitors drives him crazy. Together with the help of café owner Moustache, Nestor disguises himself as "Lord X" and visits Irma from now on. For a few harmless card games she is royally rewarded each time and doesn't have to accept any more suitors. Since Nestor has to earn the money secretly at night at the Parisian wholesale market, the halles centrales, he is tired during the day and increasingly inattentive. Irma suspects an affair, seduces Lord X and decides to elope with him.
Nestor for his part is now jealous of the (non-existent) Lord X and sinks the costume into the Seine. He is watched by Irma's former pimp, who reports the alleged murder to the police. In prison Nestor finds out that Irma is pregnant by him. He manages to escape and marries Irma at the last second before the birth. Since Lord X has appeared on the sidelines against all logic, Nestor is acquitted of the accusations of murder. As usual with Wilder, the event is garnished with numerous lovingly polished supporting roles like Irma's colleagues with the speaking names "Amazons Annie" or "Kiki the Cossack", a champagne drinking dog with kidney ailments and of course the dazzling "Macs", the pimps who meet regularly at Café Chez Moustache.
What does Lehmann's fig have to do with all this?
This is also quickly explained: This fig is green like Irma's stockings (and underwear, of course), for me it conveys more of an aesthetic corresponding to the artificial flowers of clay, rather than Mediterranean lightness or even holiday feeling. This fig is ripe, it was brought to the halles by Nestor after his work and now, lying in a bowl in Irma's shabby-charming attic apartment, exudes a strong fruity and sour aroma. After the extended appointments with Lord X, Irma always has a touch of his intense aftershave when she comes home, although these meetings are platonic to the last.
This aftershave mixes in the heart note with a turbulent fruity fig note and some creamy floral nuances reminiscent of the wallpaper in front of Irma's "business address" (that's the hour hotel on Rue Casanova). The whole thing also has a slightly soapy character at times, which goes well with the charm of the comparatively innocent-romantic love of Irma and Nestor. The base heralds the most beautiful chapter of this fig for me: Woody notes underpin the still strongly resounding fruity figs and dim them increasingly, although I cannot identify which woods were used here.
Conclusion:
A grossly motoric fig with penetrating power for the brave, who can also take on a Lord X and like (head) cinema!
11 Comments
Ohdeberlin
