Scent of a Woman
Short description
Scent of a Woman follows Charlie Simms, a scholarship student at an exclusive preparatory school, who needs money for a Christmas trip home to Oregon. He takes a Thanksgiving job minding Frank Slade, a blind, retired Army lieutenant colonel who lives with relatives. Charlie has also witnessed a prank being prepared against the school's headmaster, Mr. Trask, who pressures him to name those involved. What Charlie expects to be a quiet weekend of supervision turns into a trip to New York, as the colonel has his own plans and insists on being accompanied.
The film was directed by Martin Brest, who also produced it, from a screenplay by Bo Goldman, and it is based on an Italian film from 1974. It is the third of the five features Brest directed, arriving between Midnight Run and Meet Joe Black. Al Pacino plays Frank Slade, with Chris O'Donnell as Charlie, and the cast includes James Rebhorn, Gabrielle Anwar, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Richard Venture. It runs 156 minutes.
Released in December 1992, the film cost about 31 million dollars and took roughly 134 million dollars worldwide, a strong return. On IMDb it holds 8 out of 10 from around 368,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.8 from about 4,000 votes. A critics' rating of 6.9 from fifty reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on Giovanni Arpino's novel "Darkness and Honey" (Il buio e il miele, 1969).
- Al Pacino prepared for his role at a school for the blind. He said that, striving to appear blind, he did not allow himself to focus his gaze on anything.
- The film's director, Martin Brest, disowned the version of the film shown on airplanes and television.
- Scenes showing the Baird School and depicting it as a boarding school for men were filmed at Emma Willard School, one of the oldest boarding schools for girls in the United States.
- Al Pacino and Gabriel Anwar rehearsed the tango for 2 weeks. Filming the dance took 3 days.
- During the disciplinary hearing scene, the school principal addresses Slade with the famous phrase "You are incorrigible!", which Al Pacino's character had to hear previously in the 1979 film "...And Justice for All".
- The episode where Slade trips over a trash can in the street was not planned.
- When Frank first gets behind the wheel of the Ferrari, the camera shows us a shot of a bridge, which is an exact copy of a similar shot from the 1983 film "Once Upon a Time in America".
- During the tango performance with Donna, Colonel Frank's partner's earrings disappear and reappear.
- Filming took place from December 3, 1991, to April 6, 1992.
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