I still haven’t seen the short version of The New World, which comes out on DVD next month. I believe it’s showing at a theatre in town right now, but it looks like I’ll have to go to Japan for the truly fullest experience of this film. Reports the Associated Press:
A theater audience in Japan will be sniffing their noses — literally — at a new Hollywood adventure film when it opens here later this month.
A new service from a major telecommunications company, NTT Communications Corp., will synchronize seven different smells to parts of “The New World,” starring Colin Farrell.
A floral scent accompanies a love scene, while a mix of peppermint and rosemary is emitted during a tear-jerking scene. Joy is a citrus mix of orange and grapefruit, while anger is enhanced by a herb-like concoction with a hint of eucalyptus and tea tree.
The smells waft from special machines under the seats in the back rows of two movie theaters, which create different fragrances by controlling the mix of oils stored in the machines, company spokeswoman Akiko Suzaki said Wednesday. . . .
Theaters will be able to download from the Internet different scent sequences for other films, Suzaki said. . . .
It’s funny to see that this technology is premiering in conjunction with not a blockbuster or a horror movie or a kids’ flick but, rather, a sort of glorified art-house flick. (I mean that in the best possible sense.) And I can’t help wondering if the people programming these smells will take into account the fact that Pocahontas’s husband, John Rolfe, was a tobacco farmer.
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