Coming to a nose near you

BOSTON - Megan Dickerson always loved the rich colors and melodic scores of the film "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory." But she also longed to experience the sweet scents of chocolate and schnozberries. A self-proclaimed multisensory artist, Dickerson is now trying to revive "Smellovision."

"There's been a crazy response to the movement," Dickerson said. "I guess there just aren't enough opportunities for wonder out there, but there's something nostalgic about this art action that makes you feel like a kid again."

OK, may I just say, this woman is my new heroine. Follow your dream, Megan!

But Megan, if you wouldn't mind some advice ... the labels you've saddled yourself with sound hokey, and will hinder anyone in the film industry serious enough to invest (except maybe Kevin Smith). I mean, Smell-o-vision? Odorama? Girl, please.

Comments

[Dan]

There's a documentary filmmaker named Les Blank who in the "Sensurround" era played around with something he called "SuperSmellaround." A couple of his movies focused on New Orleans and Cajun life and cooking, and one year they were shown on Thanksgiving evening at the University Art Museum's Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (this was before I had anything else to do on Thanksgiving). Part of the ticket was for a dinner afterward. During one of the scenes inside a New Orleans kitchen, where you're watching big pots of red beans and rice and crawfish getting cooked, suddenly the same smell (blown in from the museum's restaurant, I guess) starts wafting through the theater. I guess it was a pretty low-tech approach to creating the effect ...

[Dan]

Re: the above: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18754-2005Mar8.html?nav=hcmodule

[Lori]

I love this idea. But, I also loved that damned movie--I always wanted to turn purple and look like a grape. One of my favorite movies ever.