Audrey Tautou and Chanel No. 5: The Night Train

As a romantic, I am beyond the hopeless.   I admit it.

Which is why I could watch this advertisement (er, short film) a hundred times and never tire of it. 

Audrey Tautou is exquisite!   Who else could have followed Nicole Kidman as the face of No. 5?

A video about the making of Train de Nuit:

It is directed -- not unsurprisingly -- by Jean Pierre Jeunet, who also directed Audrey in the deeply magical Amelie (Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain), "perhaps the most charming movie of all time" (Bret Fetzer).

I agree, Bret Fetzer.

For all of that, I'm not a Chanel No. 5 fan.  It doesn't smell at all like anything in nature, which apparently was a selling point when it debuted as the first totally synthetic mass market fragrance.

Well, it IS a creation.  I admire it for what it is, and the image (as with everything Chanel) immaculately groomed, unvarnished by time.  That's why they call it a classic, I suppose.  It just lacks any element of earthliness or sensuality, for me.

Still -- it is the world's best selling fragrance -- for less than the price of a quilted handbag or nubbly jacket, a woman can own a piece of the House of Chanel.  I'm just more of a Coco type myself!





Keira Knightly is a great, young face for the new century version of Coco, Coco Mademoiselle.  Haven't been able to bring myself to sniff the juice yet ... the original is fairly sacred to me ;-).





I don't know if they'll ever outdo the brilliant Nicole Kidman advert;  I'd love to see them try!