Popcorn, coke and a scratch-and-sniff card? The return of scented cinema
After the first Smell-O-Vision film was dissed by critics in 1960, the idea of adding aromas to the cinematic experience seemed a bit silly - but at an upcoming screening of Nosferatu, Wellingtonians will give it a go.
At a special screening of the 1922 silent film Nosferatu later this month, Wellington cinema-goers will experience the spookiness not just with their eyes but also their noses.
Although the idea of scented cinema might seem laughable, punctuating the onscreen action with a 'smell track' can really draw people into a story, says Tammy Burnstock of Scented Storytelling.
"You're in the moment when you smell something, you are transported, and that is an incredibly powerful thing."
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Experimentation with scent in movie theatres began in the 1920s, Burnstock says, but it wasn't till 1960 that the first film with its own 'smell track' premiered - Scentof Mystery.
The contraption behind the movie's olfactory element - a series of fragrance blasts propelled directly at theatre seats at critical moments in the narrative - was invented by Swiss osmologist Hans Laube.
Before American movie producer Mike Todd Jr enlisted Laube to work on Scent of Mystery , he'd previously called his piece of technology the Smell Brain, but it became known thereafter as Smell-O-Vision.
Hans Laube's Smell Brain - a machine which released perfume - was later renamed Smell-O-Vision.
Illustration by Nadia Roden
Scent of Mystery, which stars Elizabeth Taylor as a mystery woman mostly present only via her signature scent, was popular with audiences but expensive for theatres to run, Burnstock says.
After a couple of critics "hammered" the film, Smell-O-Vision was never used again.
Although Laube's cinema-scenting invention was named one of the top 100 worst ideas of all time by Time magazine, it was the work of a true creative pioneer, Burnstock says.
To help bring Laube's ground-breaking story aid back into the conversation, in 2016 she produced a "re-odourised" reboot of Scent of Mystery in collaboration with LA's Institute for Art and Olfaction.
Peter Lorre and Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960 mystery film Scent of Mystery - the first film to use the Smell-O-Vision system to release odours at critical plot points
Courtesy of Cinerama Inc.
There are many ways to pump fragrance into a movie screening, don't have to be expensive or complicated, Burnstock says, like scented bubbles and essential oil diffusers.
The most portable and affordable method of delivering a series of smells to an audience is individual scratch-and-sniff cards, which also allow people to control how much scent they get.
At the Wellington screening of Nosferatu , ten different scents, ranging from fresh lilacs to decay, will be embedded into the cards, which the audience will be cued to scratch and sniff.
American olfactory artist Jas Brooks - a member of Burnstock's international network of "smelly people" - designed and crafted the cards.
Although scented storytelling isn't right for every movie, but when it works, it's "just remarkable", she says.
"I'm going to dedicate the rest of my life to doing this silly stuff."
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror - Scent & Sound is screening at Wellington's Roxy Theatre on Sunday 27 April. Pianist Peter Dasent will accompany the film with an original solo piano score.
Hans Laube and producer Mike Todd Jr. working with Smell-O-Vision at the Scent of Mystery premiere.
Art Shay
