Lara Feigel

The sensation of smell at its most powerful is more about a peculiarly immediate kind of intellectual association than about pure sensory delight or horror. The most evocative odours resonate with other fragrances in our individual smell vocabulary, and film as a medium is equal to literature in capturing the more peculiar or unconscious workings of the mind. Indeed, this seems to be what cinema does most naturally; it is better placed than literature to make effortless subliminal connections.

The sensation of smell at its most powerful is more about a peculiarly immediate kind of intellectual association than about pure sensory delight or horror. The most evocative odours resonate with other fragrances in our individual smell vocabulary, and film as a medium is equal to literature in capturing the more peculiar or unconscious workings of the mind. Indeed, this seems to be what cinema does most naturally; it is better placed than literature to make effortless subliminal connections.